News every 30 mins - Why?

IanCurtis

Someone posted a remark about this in a another thread but it drives me crazy

Why oh why, on every channel in Dublin bar Phantom, do they feel they need to tell us the news every 30 mins????

My commute is an hour so sometimes that's THREE times I'm listening to these same headlines and sports news....i know them off by heart by the time I reach the office.

I don't have Alzheimers...I don't need this kind of repitition.

Ipod on, radio off.

:mad:

Mr E

At the top of the hour, its usually full news and sports headlines. At half past, its 30 seconds of news headlines and full sport. Doesn't bother me to be honest (but my commute isn't an hour!)

Big Balls

Go ask the BCI. They make the news and current affairs rules.

yamo

I must admit, the news heads every 30 mins is a bit of an annoyance. Although it's a lot better than Newstalk's original 20/20 news idea....

What really annoys me though is the laziness I hear from time to time. Having had a catastrophic iPod incident a while ago, I've been listening to the radio a lot more, and there have been times where I've been listening to stations and heard the bulletin repeated, almost verbatim, in the same order, over the course of 2/3 hours. Sports readers are as guilty as news readers. In fairness, it's not that hard to rewrite copy and freshen it up a little...

DMC

IanCurtis wrote: »

I don't have Alzheimers...I don't need this kind of repitition.

Its a real issue with morning radio, the repetition of news if you are listening for a duration. Yet there is a sound reason for it. People wake up at different times, and therefore, it updates them. I dunno if it would cost them to vary it a little over the course of the hour.

For the independent stations, there is the small matter of "20% news and current affairs and a minimum of 2 hours between 7am and 7pm" to fill.

IanCurtis

Mr E wrote: »

At the top of the hour, its usually full news and sports headlines. At half past, its 30 seconds of news headlines and full sport. Doesn't bother me to be honest (but my commute isn't an hour!)

What's worse is that I wake up to the radio too, so that's another half hour....by the time I get to my desk I might've heard the news FOUR TIMES (7am, 7:30am, 8am, 8:30am)!!

It's excessive for 90mins or so surely?

And an hour commute would be pretty common I reckon, so it's not just me!

projectmayhem

don't stations do it because the BCI say you must dedicate a certain amount of time to current affairs... so for music stations news is the only way of doing this.

i think it's absolutely ridiculous in this day in age with laptops, newspapers etc. everywhere. newstalk, RTE and the like would be more useful if they were more dedicated rather then having hap-hazard headline reports on spin, 104 etc.

silvine

Yes under the terms of their BCI licence they have to broadcast a certain amount of news (and Irish) each day/week.

During the morning and the rush-hour it can get a bit much though. There are only so many times you can listen to the same bulletin. Especially on a slow news day when they are reporting, well, nothing.

TRSJ

unfortunately its the law to do all this news! (even for commercial stations). No other country has a law that forces stations (including music stations) to talk for 20% of their output.

A good website for this info is www.moremusiclesstalk.com and has all the info on the law and research from around the world which highlights the stupidity of this "talk law"

TRSJ

Slicklink

I see you still havent given up on your crusade, TRSJ.

In your research eh....... look to our nearest neighbours and you will find that there are licence provisions for UK stations that "speech will not fall below 20% of daytime output" (over any 4 hours!)

This argument has been played out again and again like a hot tune on fast rotation. In Ireland, quite clearly there is limited bandwidth on FM. Sooooooo, rather than having all the stations playing wall to wall music with little or no obligations other than to print a shed load of money (and in general dumb down radio), there is a quality control approach to radio licensing and content.

BUT Surely people just want more wall to wall music. And if that is the case then these disgruntled people must be turning off in droves and switching to random on their mp3 players with this nonsense 20% new requirement. And at the opposite side of the coin, surely the existing stations would like this monkey off their back as well! Surely they want fewer overheads !

Well TRSJ, obviously not. According to the latest JNLRs [85% of the adult population listen daily to a mix of national, regional and local radio throughout the country]
Wow! How did that happen! Perhaps we are unlike other countries in the world, in that we do like to talk, a lot, after all. Well we obviously don’t mind listening to 20% news content either so somethings not broke.

In my opinion the answer perhaps hinges on the likelihood of FM ever being switched off in favour of digital radio. Maybe that world would allow your equation that claims "less talk provides more diversity" to sit easier!

By the way I think there are derogations.

seamus

I would imagine that they tune it to appeal to the demographic. They probably do it on the basis that most people will hear a headline bulletin on the half hour and a full bulletin on the hour and then won't hear the radio again for a number of hours.

Sport is overkill though. There's no need for sports news every half hour.

TRSJ

Slicklink,

I think you are missing the point here still.

yes there should be a quality control. 100% agree. Nobody wants wall to wall music. You can get that on an ipod! Its the amount of needles talk that is forced on music stations is the issue.

As regards UK radio stations, they usually have 2-3 minute news bulletins an hour, just listen to any of the music driven stations. Not 20% of the hour being talk from 7a-7p just for the sake of it. Just tune to any uk music station and you will hear. The uk licensing is based on the needs of the listener also and what the station proposes in their application. So if they say they will do talk and win a license then yes they must stick by it. So of course there are license provions in place for some stations to do a certain amount of talk and are on a case by case basis. What commercial music driven stations in the uk do you know that have the talk output that we have here?

Your arguement about mp3 players misses the point. Radio is not just about playing wall to wall music. It never has been. It should be about the content in between the music and thats what people tune in for. However surely there should be a fair balance of in the region of 5-10% statutory news not just talk for the sake of talk and that is what people complain about.

the CRTC in Cannda (our BCI) made a good point when they said:
"With respect to commitments in other areas, such as levels of news and
spoken word, the Commission considers that setting across-the-board
requirements would not take into account the particular needs of
different communities or the differing resources of licensees."
Canadian Radio & Television Commissions in its 1998 review of news and talk requirements


TRSJ

IanCurtis

<On Ian Dempsey this morning, I listened 3 times to what the teachers were gonna be moaning about this week at their conferences!!....that was the blinking headline!!>