Radio Content Analysis

The next key ingredients in the radio format were weather and traffic. They were usually 20-to-30-second segments that were repeated, with updating as needed, throughout the hour, sometimes from a designated traffic and weather personality and other times from the program host.

On KTRH’s morning show in Houston , for instance, the rundown following roughly 10 minutes of news headlines with promotions and ad time was an 11-minute, 29-second period that featured traffic, then weather, a station promo, and three minutes of ads. After the break, another promo, then sports headlines, then more ads, then back to traffic and weather. The totals: 86 seconds of traffic, 3 minutes and 37 seconds of weather, 69 seconds of promotions, and nearly five minutes of advertising. The rundown, following the news headlines from minutes 1-11 went as follows:

KTRH 6 A.M. Hour

Programming Min: Sec

Traffic 11:27-12:10

Weather 12:11-12:50

Promo 12:51-13:02

--Ad Break—

Promo 16:04-16:28

Sports 16:29-19:45

Promo 19:46-20:18

--Ad break—

Traffic 21:32-22:13

Weather 22:14-22:55

All of the morning and evening news programs monitored offered between five and eight traffic and weather segments each hour — about every eight minutes on average. The lone exception in our sample was the NPR affiliate, WGTD, in Kenosha , which offered two. (The mid-day hours were less focused on traffic and weather, with just two or three segments each.) It is worth noting, though, that even this dominance was much less than what was found on local TV news that day. All in all, traffic and weather accounted for more than double the news time on local TV than on local radio (22% versus 9%).