Breaking News About Radio News

When is news not new? When it’s prerecorded, of course.

It’s long been the case that television news “updates” are often recorded before the 6pm news and played out across the evening.

And, during daylight saving in southern states, Queensland audiences almost always get their morning news from the likes of Today and Sunrise an hour late.

With the world moving so quickly, and “real-time” news sources abundant online, that is not good enough. I’ve said all that before.

It’s disappointing because you’d think traditional media would be going to great lengths to ensure listeners get the most up-to-date news possible. Especially on radio, where the turn-around time between reports coming into the newsroom and being broadcast on air can be very short indeed.

I’ve heard that early-morning commercial radio news has been prerecorded for some time now, but the main daytime bulletins have remained live.

Not for much longer, it seems, for regional stations served by Tapt Media — the company that owns 4BC, 2GB, 3AW and 6PR.

A Sydney-based source tells me that, from October, Tapt will stop supplying live top-of-hour news to syndication partners. Instead, they will get pre-recorded bulletins that will be state-based Monday-Friday from 6am-6pm and from 6am-noon on weekends. Outside of those hours, it will be national content.

While live bulletins will still continue for Tapt-owned stations, the regional affiliates will be fed pre-recorded bulletins via an MP3, requiring a download from a computer server into the on-air playout systems.

My source says: “Tapt are trying to cut costs by cancelling the satellite delivery and move to an ISP model.”

The source continues with a hypothetical example of how that policy might have affected listeners over the past few days:

On Tuesday, Victoria changed premiers at one minute to midday. A live radio newsroom can handle that, which they did on Tapt Media owned and affiliate stations. The bulletin opens at 12 and the country hears it as it happens.

Now run it through a Tapt Media pre-recorded model. Re-cutting that bulletin takes three minutes minimum to re-record, save [and] upload, then it has to land on the affiliate’s on-air server. It does not make 12 o’clock. It cannot.

So, under the Tapt Media model, regional Australia doesn’t hear that Ben Carroll is premier. It hears that Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny is contesting the leadership which in fact happened between 11:30am and 11:58pm but that event had already collapsed, because Kilkenny withdrew and Carroll went through as premier.

And the deadlines make it worse. For the file model to work at all, audio has to be with affiliates no later than 15 minutes before the top of the hour. So, your midday news was locked at 11:42am. Any breaking news between 11:42am to 12pm is not available to be told.

My Sydney source concludes: “A live news bulletin isn’t nostalgia. It’s the last thing on radio that can’t be made anywhere else.”

So, at a time when news can unfold on air in real time, for regional listeners to commercial radio stations across Australia it no longer will.

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The Mad F—king Witches are claiming another victory after Kyle Sandilands announced he is stepping away from his judging role on Australian Idol to save the Seven network from facing a MFW-led advertiser boycott.

Farewell, Glenn A. Baker. The rock brain of two centuries has left the building at just 74. I had lunch with him in the 1990s. Like others who encountered him, I was impressed by what he had to say and engaged by his manner. He was, by all accounts, a good bloke who’s left us too soon.