Pillar of news coverage replaced by sports talk

 

   By Reginald Johnson

    

These are the last days for a bastion of news coverage, WCBS News Radio 880 in New York.

The station, which presented local, regional and national news pretty much 24-7 for the past 57 years to millions of people in the New York tri-state area, will close down news operations on Monday. A new station called WHSQ will take over and present ESPN sports talk.

  What a disaster. WCBS did quite a good job over the years reporting news in a thorough and professional manner. You had local and regional reports throughout the day and national and world stories at the top of the hour. And every half hour, you got sports headlines, traffic and weather.

 You could always turn on 880 and be sure you were going to get a pretty good overview of what was going on. It was kind of like “Old Reliable” on the radio dial.

 Now there’s going to be a “news desert” in what is supposed to be the “communications capital of the world” --- New York City.

  The parent company of WCBS, something called “Audacy” (they should just call it “Audacity”) insists that all is not lost. They say a sister station, 1010 WINS, still offers 24-7 news and will fill the void.

  No, it won’t. I’ve listened to 1010 WINS and it’s pathetic. Here’s the typical fare on WINS: somebody got assaulted in Times Square, a person was shot in the Bronx, or a car jumped the curb and hit a store window in Queens. Few national stories or any stories of import are offered.

  People will say, no problem, just bring up the Internet on your cell phone and you’ll get all the big news you need. Yes, you can, but in most cases you’ll have to pay for it. For most sites, like newspaper sites, you have to be a subscriber.

 And that’s another nice thing about WCBS 880. It’s free. Just turn on the radio, hit a button, and you’re there. You had news for free and totally accessible. No pay walls.

 Yes, you had to put up with ads, but so what? You got a lot of news.

 Personally, I go way back with WCBS 880. I've been listening for over 50 years. I can remember listening to the Senate Watergate hearings in 1973, and John Dean giving testimony, as I drove to work at the Bridgeport Telegram where I was a cub reporter. The station was running the Watergate hearings live, which was a real public service.

 And that's another key point that has to be made here. WCBS 880 provided a public service.  This is what journalism is supposed to do. The station is really a public service institution. Now some corporation, looking solely at its bottom line, and not considering the public interest, can just flick it away. Gone. This should not be allowed to happen.

But it does happen in our capitalist system where public needs or community needs are just not part of the equation.

Yesterday I heard longtime anchors Wayne Cabot and Paul Murnane chatting and reminiscing. Both have been there for 30-40 years covering so many big events, including 911.  Former legendary reporter Rich Lamb (who I remember came up to Bridgeport in 1987 to cover the L’Ambiance construction disaster) called in and said the end of WCBS represented a “radio earthquake” for the New York area and leaves a "vacumn." He’s right. Former anchor Bridgette Quinn and a producer (whose name I can't remember) also mourned the loss of the station. The producer said the time she spent at the station were “the best years of her life.” It was sad.

 Below is a good piece from CNN about the closure of 880, the decline of all-news radio, and the financial pressures stations are facing. https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/16/media/news-radio-local-wcbs-wnyc-sign-off-job-cuts-spotify/index.html

So there you have it.

All-news radio replaced by 24-7 sports talk.

Welcome to the dumbing down of America.