Louisville Magazine Article - March,
1967 |
News While It's Hot:
WKLO newsmen take
to the air
any moment the news warrants
There wasn't much music played over Radio Station WKLO on February 1,
1966.
That was the day Louisville was hit with its worst snowstorm in 48
years. Businesses and schools closed, traffic came to a snarled-up
standstill, and the city was in the middle of one of its biggest
emergencies.
Into the breach jumped WKLO, with 17 hours of almost straight news
broadcasting, providing continuous public service to listeners and
reporting every event from giant industrial plan shutdowns to
cancellations of card parties.
"Reporting the news is our main function," says News Director Allen
Bryan, "getting it first, getting it right and putting it on the air
fast. We're geared for speed and accuracy and our setup gives us a
tremendous advantage over the other stations in town."
Any minute 24 hours a day is a deadline for WKLO's trained newsmen, who
have the authority to stop the music at any time and take over the
microphone with an important story, whether it be a local injury
accident or a national event that warrants interruption of the disc
jockeys. Their main function is to report "what is happening now" and
then continue to follow it up.
This policy of complete and fast news coverage has earned the station
the Number One rating for Louisville listeners by several national
surveys.
"There's pressure on our men all the time," says Allen Bryan, who came
here from Oklahoma in 1960 and was named news director in 1965.
"We're organized to cover every phase of City and County government and
to work under tight timing. We can cover four important stories at one
time and we have responsible check sources to back them up."
Five full-time and two part-time newsmen at WKLO are on duty from 5 a.m.
to midnight every day in four- and five-hour shifts. Because of their
wide experience, the station trusts their judgment to make their own
decisions on the importance of events, to make them in a hurry, and to
write and get the stories on the air fast.
Clacking away all day in a room in the studios at 307 West Walnut is a
United Press International teletype, receiving national news. At the
same time, all police and fire calls are being monitored and one man is
recording telephone calls and taking down interviews.
WKLO's Traffic Alert System is an instantaneous service that constantly
keeps motorists informed of injury accidents and expressway jams, urging
drivers to avoid these areas. "Traffic Condition Red!" is a familiar
bulletin 18 hours a day. During Louisville's first snowfall of 1967 on
February 17, some 95 accident reports went on the air by noon, plus
three special roundups per hour.
Outside newsman Bob Henry, director of special events, has a two-way
radio in his car. He's noted for being first on the scene when news
breaks. When an explosion ripped through the DuPont plant in August 1965
at 9:30 a.m. he led all other stations with a pin-point report at 9:38,
followed by his eyewitness account which went out over the at 9:55 on
the regular half-hour newscast.
In the meantime News Director Bryan had dispatched newsman Reed Yadon to
the scene to set up a command post in a nearby house, and for two hours
he was the reporter closest to the disaster. Bob Henry had gone in the
blast area with the first fire company to arrive. His eyewitness
description of the holocaust inside gave WKLO listeners an exclusive and
dramatic account of the emergency, with newsmen Ken Knight and John
Rode, assisted by Program Director Mitch Michael, rapidly editing his
reports and racing them onto the air.
The fast, accurate reporting enabled the station's newsmen to give out
150 up-to-the-minutes stories to 35 stations in the U.S. and Canada, as
well as to UPI, and it was besieged by long-distance calls for more
details.
Bob Henry and his colleagues are on the scene too at every important
civic meeting, running tape recorders. They cover Fiscal Court, the
Board of Aldermen, the Mayor's Citizens; Advisory Committee, the
Metropolitan Sewer District Bard and the Louisville Chamber of Commerce
Board of Directors, to mention just a few.
Because of the contacts Bob's established, he is able to get many
exclusive interviews with officials where other reporters fail. He's
right on the scene at major conventions in town, and gives full coverage
of the City, County and Catholic school board sessions.
In order to give citizens an opportunity to voice their opinions on
controversial subjects, Bob Henry conducts the popular program "Question
Man." Public opinions on everything from higher hemlines to birth
control are on the air five days a week.
Six portable tape recorders are in constant use by the WKLO newsmen. The
station uses more than 4,000 tape excerpts a year. Four minutes of a
live interview may be chosen out of an original 45 minutes. Editing by
the newsmen is sharp, to the point, and lively. First importance is
placed on what is of top interest locally, Allen Bryan says.
Broadcasting of the news begins at 5 a.m. every day, with two full
five-minute newscasts every hour until 9 a.m., the period when the
station hits its highest peak of adult listeners. News is then presented
once an hour until 3 p.m., and then again twice an hour until 6 p.m.
From then until five the next morning, newsmen break it only if a story
warrants.
The biggest teen audience is tuned in during the evenings. Every Sunday
a special 30-minute program of straight news, covering world-wide events
and top local stories, goes out on the air at 8:30 a.m.
Public service is the watchword at WKLO. For its close cooperation with
fire officials, including 25 volunteer departments, the station recently
received two awards. A special broadcast, Derbytown Date Book, comes on
the air every hour, announcing a calendar of non-profit community events
of the day. The station has its own hotline for school officials and is
first out with news of closing due to bad weather and changes of
schedules. Its live coverage of the last election from six different
pick-up points gave listeners the final results seconds after
tabulations were completed.
WKLO is licensed to Mid-America Broadcasting, Inc. and went on the air
in the late 1940s. Charles Sawyer, Cincinnati, is president and Ernest
A. Gudridge is vice-president and general manager.
Big story or small, the veteran seven-man news team, backed up by
responsible check sources, daily covers all news of interest in
Kentuckiana, and not only get the stories out first, but gets them
right.
Related Links
Allen Bryan News Director Q & A
Allen
Bryan Audio Interview
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