Radio . . . and Me - 31

The ‘bottom-line’ question, Dear Reader, is: How well did the 10-10 WINS Westinghouse Radio 1965 shift to all-news format pay off?
Answer:
1. It’s the longest-running all news station in the country’; and, as the remind us often,
2. ‘More people get their news from 10-10 WINS than from any other radio station in the nation.’
Not bad, considering they have strong competition from sister news station, WCBS 880 (which has now restored ‘all-news’ after starring as the flagship radio voice of the New York Yankees) and some all-sports and all-business stations.

The 10-10 WINS format has been copied (with only slight variations) in such large-market U-S markets as Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, and Boston (on WBZ 1030, which I listened to each day during my year-long stay), on News 1152 in London, England, and on Rogers, across Canada.
It can be a tough move, financially, but because it attracts a more highly-educated and higher-income audience, it can be highly lucrative.
It also inspires high advertiser loyalty; some have been with 10-10 WINS for more than 20 years!
When you tune in to 10-10 WINS, here’s what you get, in a 20-minute ‘loop’ format, as listed on their website:
- News: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year, from, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, with week-long wall-to-wall (no commercials) coverage of major, crisis stories, such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks;
- Traffic: Every 10 minutes on the 1′s, every hour of every day, with extra reports at ‘grid-lock’ times, and Sunday evenings.
(They use data from transport and transit sources and computer data. Traffic reports from a helicopter were a regular feature from the start; Helicopters tend to fly only during rush hours because they cost $750 an hour to keep aloft.);
- Weather: Every 4 minutes, every hour, around the clock, from in-house and ‘AccuWeather’ meteorologists;
- Sports: Every half hour at :15 and :45 around the clock 24 hours a day, almost exclusively of scores of local pro-teams (Nets, Mets, Jets, Giants, Knicks, Rangers, Islanders, Devils … and Yankees!) Sports in-depth is available on ABC (ESPN), CBS Sports, NBC Sports, and others;
- Business: Every half hour at :26 and :56, around the clock, usually from reporters on Wall Street.
Some of their reporters have been on the same beat — courts, City Hall, et al — for years. Names I remember since the 1960s include: Stan Brooks (News Director); Anchors/ Reporters: Charles Scott King, Tuck Stadler, Brad Sherman, Brad Phillips, Stan Z. Burns.
To fill-out the news experience, just before the time ‘beep’ each hour, they list the names of the news writer and who is working 'at the Editor’s desk.’
Also, you know instantly when you’ve tuned to 10-10 WINS: since 1965, a news ’teletype ticker’ loop runs all the time under the anchor’s open mike.
Curious thing! Teletype doesn’t exist anymore, the anchor reads news from a touch-screen.
But the clicks are still there, Dear Reader (listener) -- for the ‘flavour.’