We told you last week that WIBX News Director Stacey Lynn McAdams moved to mornings on sister station WFRG, to fill the morning show co-host position vacated by Annie Croakley. Now, somewhat of a "reverse trade," as one of Big Frog 104's part-time jocks temporarily adds news reporting duties for WIBX.
Insiders tell us WFRG's "Joe Hopper" -- known in a past life as B104.7's "Joe Daniels" -- is going by his real name, Anthony Schiavone, when wearing his WIBX hat. He's helping with reporting and co-anchoring the station's "5 O'Clock News Block" as Regent searches to fill the WIBX News Director vacancy.
Speaking of which, we're told WIBX veteran staffer Jeff Monaski is holding down the fort on an interim basis. Our source hinted that Monaski may be interested in getting those ND stripes permanently, but Ops Manager Bill McAdams is still interviewing potential candidates.
In the past, it was unheard of for on-air talent to serve as both jocks and news personnel. But this story, along with WSYR's occasional use of Y94/Nova jock Rachel Marisay, show that line doesn't seem to be as "rigid" as it used to be.
What do you think? Simply an efficient use of staff? Or does it breach journalistic ethics? (Even if it does, would listeners care?) If you have a CNYRadio.com account, leave your thoughts below. If you don't have one, sign up now (it's free) and you can take part in the discussion.
Hmm... a great question! Most managers would probably prefer to maximize their existing resources before hiring someone new, especially if it's just a sporadic/temporary need. Still, it's awkward to hear a jock reading news, when a spot voiced by that jock winds up airing pretty close to newstime. Then again, it's not often that part-timers voice commercials, so the WIBX case may not be a big deal. Clear Channel full-time FM jocks doing news on WSYR... that's a different story.
The WSYR situation is interesting. They no longer have any jouralistic ethics. They don't have a news director, their program director never worked in news, their midday anchor wrote commercials for 20 years and their PM anchor voicetracks at least 15 FM stations.
Hey guys... let's be civil here. See rule #4 in our [Comment Posting Policy]... the one about keeping it professional and clean. The original topic was about the question of jocks crossing the line into news reporting... not whether or not people have a questionable past. If this turns into a gossip board, we have the power to turn off comments altogether. Let's not have a few people spoil it for everyone.
I think that's just what you're going to get when big companies own a bunch of stations in the same market. They'll look for ways to consolidate and save money, and most average listeners probably won't notice. If the quality suffers, so what? In some cases their station is the only one in the market in it's format.