It's disappointing

I have to admit I was a little excited when the announcement was made a few months ago that WZTK was going to an all news/talk format.

So far, I've been supremely disappointed in their news coverage. I was expecting local news and sports coverage like I had yet to hear on an FM station in the Triad. What we've gotten is a pathetic showcase of "rip 'n' read" news. For those that don't know what rip 'n' read is, it's an old term that came from when newswires such as AP, UPI or Reuters actually spewed out volumes of continuous feed paper with news stories on them as they occurred. Newscasters would "rip" the paper off the machine and "read" whatever was there on their next newscast. The old newswires have come into the modern day and age at most broadcast stations whereby the newstories are piped into a computer and the newsperson can pick and choose what they want to print out or even, at times, read the stories directly from the screen.

I was in the car this morning on a return trip from Asheboro and tuned in to hear the noon news. You would think that with Democratic candidate John Kerry in Greensboro, it would be the lead story. Oh no, it was no less than the fourth story on the newscast. After such supremely-important-to-the-Triad stories of how the Russian government was responding to terrorist attacks, hurricane, now tropical depression Frances' impending visit to the Triad, and some other equally less revelant story which I can't even remember now.

And what did their coverage consist of? A two or three sentence blurb about Kerry being in Greensboro for a town meeting at the depot and how people were braving the rain and bringing their children to see Kerry. The newscaster did happen to mention that the station's news director was at the event though. No live report.

Good Lord. When I was first starting out as a radio news reporter at a small country AM/FM station in Lancaster, Wisconsin, if I would have filed a report like that about a presidential candidate in our coverage area, my news director would have honest to God killed me. Not to mention how I would have treated myself when I was a news director at an AM news/talk station in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

The story would have dominated the entire newscast. And even if the meeting was still going on, I would have been required to step off to the side or out in the hall to phone in a live report. That would have been followed up with a ton of pre-recorded audio interviews from event organizers, campaign spokespeople, man-on-the-street interviews, and actual audio from the town meeting itself.

I'd have to say that ZTK really dropped the ball on this one. It was a spectacular chance to really bring their station to the forefront. They blew it. With their FM signal coverage, they are positioned to be the premier news station in the entire Triad. In a market this size, not a newscast should go by without audio in at least one story and preferably, two or three. I find it funny that they advertise that they have a network of nearly 100 traffic reporters throughout the Triad, some of whom are actually paid, but apparently, they aren't willing to spend a few dollars a week on some real news reporters to get out into the communities and do some real news coverage.

It's sad and pathetic the way they are wasting this opportunity. And don't even get me started on their lack of local sports coverage.