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There is no shortage of options for news/talk radio stations to choose from when it comes to a network news partnership. Between outlets like ABC News Radio, CBS News Radio, Fox News Radio, SRN News, Townhall News, and a plethora of others, the options are seemingly limitless.
And yet, every news/talk radio programmer, station, company, and market each have their own individual preferences on which option is the best one.
After covering one of the tightest presidential races in recent memory, Barrett Media asked three current and former news/talk radio program directors for their insight into what are the most important aspects and features a network news partnership can provide a local station. Each leader was granted anonymity to speak more freely on the topic.
Program Director #1 currently leads a news/talk brand in the Eastern Time Zone. Their brand currently utilizes CBS News Radio for hourly news updates.
When asked what things mattered most to them and their station, they had a simple expectation.
“You want it to be fair,” they replied. “You want it to be down the middle. Whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, you want it to be fair.”
In addition to that fairness, this particular program director valued flexibility in programming as a key differentiator from other networks.
“You want to have as much access to all the live events that are going on, so that you can make that decision whether or not you want to carry something live or not,” they added. “(CBS News Radio) will be doing round-the-clock coverage for election night. It gives us the opportunity to mix local and national stories into our format.”
When asked if there was anything that could improve the relationship between a station and a news partnership, Program Director #1 said their relationship is as good as could be.
“They look for us to feed them information and stories. I think they do a pretty good job of servicing our local community. Their submissions for two-ways for us are extensive. We’re very happy the partnership. We’re quite comfortable with what they provide for us.”
The two-way situation — when a network offers a correspondent or reporter for live hits and interviews with local stations — was a somewhat hot-button topic for Program Director #2, who operates a brand in the Western portion of the country.
“I couldn’t care less about the two-ways that are offered,” they said when asked how important the offering was. “We just don’t ever use them because our listeners aren’t overly interested in some of the stories that we could go to a deeper level on. Networks like to tout how many two-ways they have as a pot sweetener, but it just — honestly — doesn’t do anything for me or my staff.”
This news/talk radio leader said flexibility and urgency are some of the qualities they expect from their news partnership — their station utilizes ABC News Radio — and view them as non-negotiable.
“We’ve gotta have the latest information as soon as it is available, number one,” they said. “Number two, we put stock in having different lengths of our news reports. We like being able to have longer updates in morning drive and also like taking shorter reports later in the day that hits on the headlines and top topics that might have happened while you were at work. During mornings, we can go a little deeper on things that are important. Is that backward? Maybe. But we like information before opinion. We don’t want any opinions or slanting coverage with our news partnership.”
Lastly, Program Director #2 said what they look for in that partnership ultimately boils down to one thing.
“We need access,” they said. “We need the things from ABC that we can’t do ourselves. And that mostly means breaking news.” They pointed to the July assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump as an example of when that partnership can matter most. “We need to be able to go live when those big stories break. We don’t have the staff we’d like to be able to get on the air in a breaking news situation that isn’t something going on locally. So that’s where we need those things from ABC, and coverage of things like the debates, to play a big role in our content.”
Program Director #3 is a former programmer with decades of experience in various market sizes and locations. They said the network news needs to be like looking in a mirror for listeners.
“Do they reflect the audience?” they said of the network news partners. “First and foremost, is this going to be a benefit that your audience will appreciate?”
This former program director spoke highly of Fox News Radio, arguing that it was more apt to feature voices and reports that didn’t lean into the conservative spin than vice versa for ABC News Radio or CBS News Radio.
“They’ve spent so much time living in that New York City, Washington D.C. Beltway that they don’t even know people that disagree with them,” Program Director #3 said of the viewpoints from outlets like ABC and CBS. “They think everybody agrees with them. That’s a problem.”
Like the previous program director, immediacy, urgency, and latest-breaking news matter most, in the eyes of Program Director #3.
“(I need) the biggest news at the moment,” they said. “I can’t be waiting 45 minutes. If something pops and there’s a big news story that happens at 10 before the top-of-the-hour, it better damn well better be in the top-of-the-hour news. They’ve gotta be on the set. One of the secrets — and I don’t know how often it happens, but I bet it happens a lot — a lot of the top-of-the-hour news we get from the networks are pre-recorded a few minutes ahead of time. I think that’s a terrible thing. They should be live, live, live, live. Pre-recorded five minutes ahead of time just doesn’t cut it for me.”
