News / Sports Bulletins

heybaby

Not sure what the criteria are that the BAI have laid down in respect of what constitutes a news / sports bulletin but I have a minor gripe with stations' bulletin content. News as far as I'm concerned should be just news and not incorporate showbizz news unless its particularly mainstream. For example in Q102's news bulletin just now their final story was about a Mc Fly band member getting engaged, this was then followed by business news. Showbizz stories of this ilk as far as im concerned arent actual news, Q102 already has their showbizz minute during the hour.

Another issue I have noticed is with stations making reference to a sponsor during their sports bulletin and the fact that their sports coverage is brought to you by XXX product / company within the bulletin. I have no issue with the sports bulletin or commentary or updates being sponsored by a company but I feel it inappropriate to mention the sponsor during the bulletin because it essentially turns the bulletin into an advert for the sponsor. I have no issue playing a sponsor sting before or after the bulletin just not during. Any thoughts?

Typer Monkey

I think it depends on the station tbh. I expect a different standard of news from Newstalk, RTE radio 1 and, to a lesser extent Today FM, than Spin, FM104 etc.

One thing that does bother me is the reporting of news from the North, particularly when it's the first item. 2FM are particularly fond of doing this, particularly at the weekend. I've heard bulletins on 2FM where the items concerned a fire, a road traffic death and bizarrely a man arrested for a public order offence in the North. I found myself thinking surely there's some news from this jurisdiction as I really couldn't care less about some drunken man's arrest in another country!

Skid X

heybaby wrote: »

Another issue I have noticed is with stations making reference to a sponsor during their sports bulletin and the fact that their sports coverage is brought to you by XXX product / company within the bulletin. I have no issue with the sports bulletin or commentary or updates being sponsored by a company but I feel it inappropriate to mention the sponsor during the bulletin because it essentially turns the bulletin into an advert for the sponsor. I have no issue playing a sponsor sting before or after the bulletin just not during. Any thoughts?

I agree, It's a bit much. Radio 1 have their Weather sponsored (Newsreader says 'and now The Weather', plays a sting 'Weather on Radio 1 sponsored by 'whoever', then the Newsreader continues with the weather. It is too close to the entire News Bulletin being sponsored.

Black Suir

WLRfm in my opinion is a top class station. There News and Sport is usually good. I say usually because the newsroom which consists of 3 full time and one or two part time readers appear to be on a rota basis at weekends ie you work one weekend and are off the next two or three except maybe if something big is happening, like an election count or something. When one of the readers is on, (I cant remember her name, she moved from Beat when one of the WLR readers left) the news on a Saturday and Sunday morning at 9am (the first local news of the day, it comes from Dublin at 7 and 8am), the news consists of three stories, one of which is often a silly showbiz story and read in a hurry. For a station that is otherwise so professional it does not sound good and I often think the news reader is still with beat and their usually crap news.

real rocker

The BAI will do nothing about showbiz news embedded everywhere given the insatiable interest in this so called HOT GOSS thing.
As for 2FM covering stories from North as top stories in early morning weekend bulletins this happens on RTE Radio 1 also and is a further example of lazy journalism and not caring ( maybe resource issue ) about the early morning audience given its size on Sat. or Sun. AM

neris

News and sports bulletins do my head in especially in the early morning. Of 9 stations i have on the car radio on the hour 8 of them have "news" bulletins (2 of those are news shows). The presenters insist on having "banter" with the news and sports readers after the bulletins. Ian dempsey is the main culprit of this. Im normally in the car at 8 and on the music stations its normally between ten past & 1/4 past by the time music is played.

reg114

Yes news should be purely news and not be including minor showbizz stories because its a slow news day.

Bard

I find Nova quite good for this. It's the station's policy NOT to include any "showbiz gossip" in news bulletins (they do have the odd music story), and bulletins are kept very short (3 to 3.5 mins all-in).

(Disclaimer: Yes, I do read news there occasionally as their 'fill-in' newsreader.)