On the first birthday of the Fox 5-Minute newscast, a gem of a Mike Kinosian piece on Fox News Radio in "Inside Radio" today, full of great, must-read tidbits about the organization:
...Several years ago, CBS provided a mild jolt to the top-of-the-hour news proceedings by updating its news sounder. Toying with sacred tradition is scary stuff.
A much more significant shockwave took place one year ago (6-1-2005) when FOX News Radio, which had already been providing one-minute news updates to its affiliates, entered the fray with a meatier, full-service, five-minute radio cast.
Notwithstanding the fact that vaunted brand names like CBS, ABC, NBC and CNN had a tremendous head start, internal FOX expectations were high. The prevalent feeling was the new venture would do rather well. “We sensed there was a pent-up demand for what we were doing on [FOX News Channel] to be done on radio,” remarks FOX News Radio Senior VP Kevin Magee. “[But] I’m not sure we really anticipated that it would take off quite this way.”
The web’s five-minute casts air in 46 of the Top 50 Markets. “It’s been very gratifying and, to a certain extent, it’s because [Director/News Programming & Managing Editor] Mitch [Davis] has created a very dependable product,” Magee opines. “You have to create sturdy newscasts and give everything they’re intended [to provide]. Fifty-eight stations were kind enough to stick their toe in the water in the very beginning and some people in the business watched to see whether or not we could pull it off. Word began [to spread] about our great affiliate feeds; wonderful two-ways; and that our newscasts were hitting their mark.”
...discernible points of difference should exist among various five-minute net radio newscasts being offered and Magee suggests that several things, including an energetic delivery, make his network’s product stand out. “Our newscasters are a little hipper and have a little more fun,” he contends. “Mitch has taught them these newscasts are [like] meals. There’s meat, potatoes, vegetables and there’s also a little dessert at the end. That’s the way it should [be presented].”
It’s also story count, but Magee stresses, “I’m not a big fan of counting stories because it then ends up just being a scoreboard. It’s a sound that is extremely compatible with traditional AM Talk radio and FM Talk.”
In all candor though, Magee acknowledges there presently aren’t many FM affiliates and wishes he had additional such outlets – particularly FM music stations. “Country seems to embrace us a little more than most other formats,” he notes. “FM music stations that aren’t programming news hope the storm will go away [but] we know it doesn’t. They’re trying to squeeze as many glasses of juice from the orange as possible, which is sometimes being `penny wise and pound foolish.’ If I programmed an FM music station, I’d very desperately want some news. Programmers find themselves using liners like, `Coming up – eight more of your Lite favorites in a row.’ Well – my iPod has 10,000 Lite favorites in a row.”
A recent FOX print ad read: “No one ever got a hurricane warning from an iPod” and Magee states, “We used to say responsible GMs would want news [but now believe] `clever’ GMs better have news. If your FM station just plays songs, I can do that better by myself.”
...The first rule Davis recites to his anchors and reporters is that they can’t be boring. “From the beginning, we [said] this is not your grandfather’s radio network,” he comments. “I looked – and am still looking – for people who have a passion for reporting and love to do news. We don’t stand on top of a mountain and preach down to people. I’m not looking for people with a great delivery – I need people who want to tell a story and who are interested in telling the story. After talking with someone and getting a writing sample, you can fairly quickly get a feeling if this is something they’re doing because they really want to, or if it’s just a job.”
...If Davis ever gets to write a book, he suspects at least one chapter will be devoted to the way people apply for work in this business.
Cartons of tapes from would-be FOX anchors/reporters are kept below his desk. “A friend referred to them as boxes of broken dreams,” Davis jokes. “They contain some absolutely fascinating things.”
...The fundamental/stylistic way FOX looks at news is, in Davis’ opinion, critical in differentiating his product. “Instead of distilling a story and [declaring] this is the objective truth, we [note] `one side says this and the other side says that.’ The other piece of the puzzle for us is that we literally tell our anchors and reporters to [pretend] they’re sitting across from someone in a cafeteria or diner and to talk to them one-on-one. We don’t want them `announcing’ – they’re telling people what they know.”
Read on for insight into how Fox News Radio knows they're pulling a younger audience and how Tony Snow's departure set the stage for "Brian and the Judge"...
