Ryan J. Once again the above quote refers to the owners & managers of the stations. Not the reporters…

AM is http://www.wbysradio.com

I’ve got TWO newscasters (and several play-by-play sports broadcasters) in Canton for two stations, one during the week and one on the weekend. We’ve got a couple of guys in Monmouth/Galesburg for three stations, and we’ve got newsman in our Muscatine operation (2 stations), DeKalb (1 station, and they did an AWESOME job breaking and covering the NIU shooting last spring), Clinton (two stations), Quincy/Rushville (3 stations), and Whitewater, Wisconsin (1 station). Galesburg Broadcasting has a very good and well staffed news department, there are newsmen in the stand-alone station in Aledo, too. Princeton, Macomb, Morrison, Dixon, LaSalle/Peru, Ottawa…are among those who all have news and sports departments.

Among the local “medium” radio markets, only WMBD in Peoria and WJBC in Bloomington have dedicated news reporters among the commercial stations, and there are over 30 stations in the two markets. When I was at the former AAA Entertainment, we used the WHOI staff to do our news for us, by way of remote equipment from their studios, and as far as I know they didn’t get a dime for all the extra work. The other TV stations have radio agreements as well. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, btw, I’m just pointing out that we in the so-called “micro” radio markets still do news, sports and weather. Sadly, a lot of the stations in markets the size of Peoria, Springfield, Bloomington, the Quads, Rockford, etc. are simply jukeboxes 24/7, programmed by consultants to be as safe and careful with their song selections as possible. Again, not claiming there’s a right or wrong there, just pointing out differences.

You want complete coverage of a new factory going up in Canton, instead of a few graphs or a 30-second package? You go to our station or the website.

The local TV stations and the newspapers all do a great job of getting the news to the people, and in their case they have a wide area to cover. We can focus on our home counties. They go hand in hand. It is terribly frustrating and sad to see ANY of our counterparts lose their jobs, I hope it doesn’t happen to the WHOI staff, but if it does, they’re all good people and they’ll find work.

BTW, after five+ months, and with the expert help of local engineers Wayne R Miller and Jeremy Ruck, WCDD, 107.9 FM, is finally back on full strength and booming into Peoria, Pekin, and East Peoria tonight. Our tower was felled by a tornado in July. A couple of very brave young men braved single digit temps and whipping winds to climb 275-feet this afternoon to finalize the job, with Wayne and Jeremy coordinating from the ground.

Mac and Edgar, you both make good points and I agree with both of you. I would say things were better six years ago when I started, but for the people who had been in the business already, they would say things were better when they started…it’s all about perspective. I’m not willing to say things were better then….I’m just saying they’re different. When I was learning to shoot, I was lugging around a 3/4 deck. When I got my first job, we used Beta and edited tape to tape. Now, six years later, most smaller newsrooms are going tapeless. What’s really sad is when we got a new kid right out of college and they looked dumbfounded at the tape to tape editors. Yes, college students have better equipment than what most television stations do and they’re taught to edit on Avids.

Small markets are funny. If money wasn’t an issue, I still don’t think WEEK would be beat. Fancy sets, fancy graphcis, stingers, prepros…whatever you want to throw in there don’t account for much of anything if you don’t have people that are trusted.

I grew up in the Chicago market and that’s the only news I ever saw. The first time I saw small market news was the Saturday before I started my first job. I was shocked to say the least. The whole time I worked there, I almost felt sorry for the people that depended on those reporters for news. Just as you got familiar and comfortable with someone, they were gone, but there was nothing for them in Peoria. I would have spent my whole career in Peoria if I could have gotten some decent money. I liked Peoria. I liked working in Peoria. But I hated where I lived. I hated that I had to budget. That’s not why I went to school.

WEEK has been able to hold on to at least a core of people which is not easy to do. Did I always think they did the best newscast? Honestly, no. I thought they had some talented people and did some good really good things, but I could never watch consistantly. My opinion is that they put too much emphasis on the national stories. Edgar brought up a point earlier about the number 2 and 3 stations having a chip on their shoulder. Of course, at times, I felt like that. Especially on stories where all the news outlets in town were covering the same the story. I was always proud of my work. I knew that every story I shot, that I did the best that I could…but I also knew, that it was going to reach the smallest audience and that was frustrating.

Back to the original point of this post, I don’t know what’s going to happen in Peoria. Honestly, I probably shouldn’t care. For some reason though, it makes me both sad and angry. Competition is good for the news business. I disagree with the comments made earlier that all the stations do the same angle on a story. That may be the case on a few of the big news stories, but for the most part, no they don’t. You can learn something by watching all three, reading the paper, and listening to both WCBU and WMBDRadio. If you have preconcieved notion of local news, I would encourage you to take a closer, critical look at the newscasts. Try watching all three shows one night instead of just the 6 or just the 10. You’re going to see that you’re missing quite a bit.

Think about how many times and how many drastic changes WMBD and WHOI have made in their news sets and graphics packages in the past twelve years. WEEK has made changes, but much more subtle/slight. Why? Because no one (if you go by ratings) is saying they need something different. I used to think they could give Barnett or Lee the old maps with magnets and people would still watch.

Incidently, we recently got an email from a former reporter now working in the number one market in the country. I’m paraphrasing, but his complaint was something like: “They got us this new crappy editing equipment, and every day I come in and I don’t worry about doing a good job as much as I do about just getting it on the air….”

Anyway, Ryan is right on a number of counts about pay and reporting. Were you a photog at 19, Ryan? I made more money per week as a high school student than I did in my first broadcast job after college…and my second job…and my third.

I’m sure a lot of folks believe things were better back in the day. Different, yes. Better, no. The first two stations I worked for no longer exist. The third no longer does news. When I worked at 19, we had only one photographer who knew how to use a sound camera (film). Which was OK, because we only had one camera. And there was one news car…and the radio-side got to use it most of the time for promotions. We tried to shame the station into buying another vehicle by having the news crew drive around in a rusty old Buick which was rattle-can spray painted gold..including the bumpers. It didn’t work.

None of this may be relevent to what’s happening in the business right now, except that broadcasting has always been a business of change and flux. Mac