THE INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY OF NBC’S 24/7 RADIO NEWS & INFORMATION CHANNEL

This is a slightly edited version of a post the first appeared on Friday, June 3, 2016. It is one of our most popular stories. Ken.

NBC’s News and Information Service (NIS) began on June 18, 1975 with the boast “The Most Important Day in Radio History.” When NIS died eighteen months later, it was known as one of the biggest failures in American radio history. What happened to the 24/7 News and Information network that seemed to have so much promise?

Common wisdom is that NIS failed because it “was ahead of its time” and was too expense, both of which are partially true.  

 According to a former NIS staffer who asked not to be named, NIS failed because of “Lack of imagination and poor execution.” Plus it sounded awful – “group-think” at its worst. (Scroll down to hear what NIS sounded like.)

Forty years later, NIS could have been a major news source that might have challenged NPR News.

THE NIS STORY

Jack Thayer

In the fall of 1974 NBC Radio was trailing the other big nets ABC, CBS and Mutual.  NBC’s O&O (Owned and Operated) FM stations were languishing. The radio division, run by Jack Thayer, needed a big big idea that would turn the ship around.

ABC Radio had revolutionized the business of network radio when, in 1968, they began feeding four different newscasts each hour designed for specific formats. At the time most radio stations carried network newscasts.  ABC’s bold move allowed them to quadruple its number of affiliates and ad revenue.

Thayer held brainstorming sessions to determine NBC’s next big thing. According to the former NIS staffer several scenarios were considered. One option, pushed by younger folks, was a live hourly version of Earth News, a counter-culture news service delivered to stations via scripts and transcription discs.

At that time FM listener penetration in many markets was beginning to top AM stations. NPR was just getting started; their only national news program at the time was a 90-minute version of All Things Considered. This was before Morning Edition – some NPR stations at the time didn’t even sign on until Noon.

Alan Walden

Thayer decided to turn the project over to Alan Walden, an old-school AM radio personality, who had great success running NBC’s WBAL-AM in Baltimore.

In 1975 a 24/7 national news service was a new idea.  This was before CNN.  

 The model was local news & weather AMs such as 1010 WINS, KNX and KFWB. So NIS was breaking new ground and the eyes of the biz were on NBC.

THE ROLL OUT OF NIS

On February 10, 1975, The New York Times broke the news about NBC’s NIS 24/7 news network. I

t would make full use of the resources of NBC News in a new way: 24/7 continuous news and information.

At a news conference Thayer said NIS would provide affiliates with 50-minutes of programming every hour. 

Affiliates were required to pay $15,000 per month in the largest markets and $750 per month in the smallest markets. Plus stations were required to air commercials embedded in NIS programming. Thayer predicted NIS would have affiliates in 75 of the top 100 markets.

Walden went to work building the NIS staff of over 200 people. Many members of the founding staff came from established AM powerhouses like 1010 WINS, WCBS and KNX.

Walden crafted a format clock (shown on the right) with something for everybody: Headlines, features, commentaries, vox pop and interviews, all sliced and diced into short chunks of time to 

fit into the program clock.

When NIS debuted on June 18, 1975, it had fewer than 50 affiliates. Even some of NBC’s O&O FMs refused to carry it.  Many stations balked at the high cash fees and onerous commercial carriage requirements. 

So NBC began marketing NIS as an updated version of Monitor, a weekend news service that was popular in the 1950s and 1960s.

By Spring 1976, most of the NIS affiliates were old beat up AM stations, many former Top 40 giants like KRUX in Phoenix, KUDL in Kansas City and WPOP in Hartford. 

The ratings weren’t great. 

(The Spring 1976 NIS carriage list is shown on the left.)

I looked up the Spring 1976 Arbitron ratings published by Duncan’s American Radio found on the American Radio History website [link], a truly amazing historical resource. 

At that time NIS was on 10 FM stations and 25 AM stations in rated markets.   

Only 19 stations were in the top 100 radio markets.

There were also audio quality issues. Andy Denemark, now Executive VP for Programming at United Stations, joined NBC in 1980 to market The Source, NBC’s service for AOR stations. 

People at The Source previously worked at NIS and told Denemark about technical faults of NIS:

“[NIS was] delivered on phone lines in those days... a 5k equalized line into major markets, a 3.5k un-equalized line into smaller towns. The high cost of those “webs” of wires (for which the phone company charged by mileage) was outrageous.”

According to Arbitron, NIS stations had around 2,000,000 estimated weekly cumulative listeners. Many of these station only used NIS overnight. The end was in sight.

The New York Times reported on November 4, 1976, NBC had pulled the plug on NIS. There were fewer than 70 affiliated stations.  NIS had lost more than $20,000,000 (close to $400,000,000 in 2016 dollars).  Heads rolled at NBC.

NIS staff were told that NIS was cancelled from Dick Wald, then the head of NBC News, at an all-staff meeting. The meeting occurred the day after NIS had  covered the 1976 election, when Jimmy Carter was elected President.

After NIS folded, there was never another serious attempt by any commercial network to establish a 24/7 news service. In a few years, NBC left the radio news businesses entirely.

WHAT NIS SOUNDED LIKE

As I said above, I think it sounded awful. Give a quick listen to a two-minute scoped version of NIS on WNWS-FM, New York, during the 6:00pm hour in August 1976:

HYPOTHETICAL “WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN”

The following is completely conjecture.

The former NIS staffer (who did not want to be identified) mentioned that one alternative plan for what became NIS was to create an alternative news service for Album Oriented Rock (AOR) stations.  Rock on FM in 1976 was becoming a major success. Stations like WNEW and WPLJ in New York, KMET and KLOS in LA and WXRT in Chicago dominated listening by folks under 40.  What if instead of an AM clone like NIS, NBC would have set up a specialized news service for AOR and other contemporary rock stations.

Suppose NBC had decided to bring in programming folks who understood the potential for FM news to reach younger listeners with a more modern presentation style and sensibility. In 1976 key creators of NPR such as Jim Russell and Jay Kernis were guns for hire.  Both had worked in commercial broadcasting and both new how to do a start up with a lean budget.

Suppose they attracted the best and brightest young reporters and storytellers.

Suppose it was still in business when MSNBC got a life in the mid 2000s.

Suppose Rachel Maddow (a seasoned radio vet with Air America) did a TV, online and FM simulcast truly using the resources of NBC News. I think it would have worked.

THE INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY OF NBC’S 24/7 RADIO NEWS CHANNEL

NBC’s News and Information Service (NIS) began on June 18, 1975 with the boast “The Most Important Day in Radio History.” When NIS died eighteen months later, it was known as one of the biggest turds in American radio history. What happened to the 24/7 news network?

Common wisdom is that NIS failed because it “was ahead of its time” and was too expense, both of which are partially true.  According to a former NIS staffer who asked not to be named, NIS failed because of “Lack of imagination and poor execution.” Plus it sounded awful – “group-think” at its worst. (Scroll down to hear what NIS sounded like.)

Forty years later, NIS could have been a major news source that might have challenged NPR News.

THE NIS STORY

 

Jack Thayer

In the fall of 1974 NBC Radio was trailing the other big nets ABC, CBS and Mutual.  NBC’s O&O (Owned and Operated) FM stations were languishing. The radio division, run by Jack Thayer, needed a big new idea.

ABC Radio had revolutionized the business of network radio when, in 1969, they began feeding four different newscasts each hour designed for specific formats. At the time most radio stations carried network newscasts.  ABC’s bold move allowed them to quadruple its number of affiliates.

Thayer held brainstorming sessions to determine NBC’s next big thing. According to the former NIS staffer several scenarios were considered. One option, pushed by younger folks, was a live hourly version of Earth News, a counter-culture news service delivered to stations via scripts and transcription discs.

At that time FM listener penetration in many markets was beginning to top AM stations. NPR was just getting started; their only national news program at the time was a 90-minute version of All Things Considered. This was before Morning Edition – some NPR stations didn’t even sign on until Noon.

Alan Walden

In 1976 a 24/7 national news service was a new idea.  This was before CNN.  The model was local news & weather AMs such as 1010 WINS, KNX and KFWB. So NIS was breaking new ground and the eyes of the biz were on them.

Thayer decided to turn the project over to Alan Walden, an old-school AM radio personality, who was successful running WBAL-AM in Baltimore.

THE ROLL OUT OF NIS

On February 10, 1975, The New York Times broke the news about NBC’s NIS 24/7 news network that would make full use of the resources of NBC News. At a news conference Thayer said NIS would feed affiliates 50-minutes per hour of content. Stations would need to pay $15,000 per month in the largest markets, $750 per month in the smallest markets plus mandatory commercial carriage. Thayer predicted NIS would have affiliates in 75 of the top 100 markets.

Walden went to work building the NIS staff of over 200 people. Many of the founding staff came from AM news powerhouses like 1010 WINS, WCBS and KNX.

Walden crafted a format clock with something for everybody: Headlines, features, commentaries, vox pop and interviews, all sliced and diced into short chunks of time to fit in the tight clock.

When NIS debuted on June 18, 1976, it had fewer than 50 affiliates. Even some of NBC’s O&O FMs refused to carry it.  Many stations balked at the high cash fees and onerous commercial requirements. So NBC began marketing NIS as an updated version of Monitor, a weekend news service that was popular in the 1950s and 1960s.

By Spring 1976, most of the NIS affiliates were old beat up AM stations, many former Top 40 giants like KRUX in Phoenix, KUDL in Kansas City and WPOP in Hartford. The ratings weren’t great.

I looked up the Spring 1976 Arbitron ratings published by Duncan’s American Radio found on the American Radio History website [link], a truly amazing historical resource. At that time NIS was on 10 FM stations and 25 AM stations in rated markets.  Only 19 stations were in the top 100 radio markets.

There were also audio quality issues. Andy Denemark, now Executive VP for Programming at United States, joined NBC in 1980 to market The Source, NBC’s service for AOR stations. Some people at The Source previously worked at NIS and told Denemark about technical faults at NIS:

[NIS was] delivered on phone lines in those days... a 5k equalized line into major markets, a 3.5k un-equalized line into smaller towns. The high cost of those “webs” of wires (for which the phone company charged by mileage) was outrageous.

According to Arbitron, NIS stations had around 2,000,000 estimated weekly cumulative listeners. Most of them only used the NIS overnight. The end was in sight.

The New York Times reported on November 4, 1976, NBC had pulled the plug on NIS. There were fewer than 70 affiliated stations.  NIS had lost more than $20,000,000 (close to $400,000,000 in 2016 dollars).  Heads rolled.

UPDATE 9am  6/4/16: NIS staff found out they were :toast" at a staff meeting conducted by Dick Wald, then the head of NBC News, the morning after they covered the 1976 election.

The notion that the staff found out NIS was cancelled from the news wires is a mistaken urban legend.

After NIS folded, there was never another serious attempt at a commercial 24/7 news service. Now NBC is out of the radio news businesses.

WHAT NIS SOUNDED LIKE

As I said above, I think it sounded awful. Give a quick listen to a two-minute scoped version of NIS on WNWS-FM, New York, during afternoon drive in August 1976.  

UPDATE 2pm 5/3/15: According to Jim Farley, who was at NIS and now is at WTOP, this aircheck was afternoon drive.  However my source for the audio says it was a tape of the 6pm hour.

 Direct link:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDXXqqo4_sc&feature=youtu.be

HYPOTHETICAL “WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN”

The following is completely conjecture.

The former NIS staffer (who did not want to be identified) mentioned that one alternative plan for what became NIS was to create an alternative news service for Album Oriented Rock (AOR) stations.  Rock on FM in 1976 was becoming a major success. Stations like WNEW and WPLJ in New York, KMET and KLOS in LA and WXRT in Chicago dominated listening by folks under 40.  What if instead of an AM clone like NIS, NBC would have set up a specialized news service for AOR and other contemporary rock stations.

Suppose NBC had decided to bring in programming folks who understood the potential for FM news to reach younger listeners with a more modern presentation style and sensibility. In 1976 key creators of NPR such as Jim Russell and Jay Kernis were guns for hire.  Both had worked in commercial broadcasting and both new how to do a start up with a lean budget.

Suppose they attracted the best and brightest young reporters and storytellers.

Suppose it was still in business when MSNBC got a life in the mid 2000s.

Suppose Rachel Maddow (a seasoned radio vet with Air America) did a TV, online and FM simulcast truly using the resources of NBC News. I think it would have worked.

THE RISE & FALL OF NIS, NBC’S 24/7 RADIO NEWS CHANNEL

This is a slightly edited version of a post that first appeared 

on Spark News in June 2016. 

Once there was a full-time radio news channel called NIS: NBC’s News and Information Service. It was a 24/7 service that local stations could customize or just let it play.

NIS began feeding stations the automated format on June 18, 1975. It debuted with the hope it would revolutionize U.S. radio. NBC placed ads in all of the media trade papers calling the sign-on The Most Important Day in Radio History.

 When NBC cancelled NIS eighteen months later, the 24/7 news channel was known as one of the most costly failures in American media history.  It also led to NBC’s eventual exit from the radio news.

Common wisdom is that NIS failed because it “was ahead of its time” and was too expense, both of which are both partially true. 

Now, more than forty years later, people say that if NIS could have continued it might have been a major news source that even could have challenged NPR News.

 According to a former NIS staffer (who asked not to be named in this story), NIS failed because of the “Lack of imagination and poor execution.” The former staffer told Spark News in 2016 that the failure of NIS was caused by “misguided group-think.” Plus it didn’t sound very good. (Scroll down to hear what NIS sounded like.)

Jack Thayer

In the fall of 1974 NBC Radio was trailing the other big nets ABC, CBS and Mutual.  NBC’s O&O (“Owned and Operated”) FM stations were languishing. The radio division, run by Jack Thayer, needed a big big idea that would turn the ship around.

ABC Radio had revolutionized the business of network radio when, in 1968, they began feeding four different newscasts each hour designed for specific formats. At the time most radio stations carried network newscasts.  ABC’s bold move allowed them to quadruple its number of affiliates and ad revenue.

Keep in mind that NPR News was a minor factor at the time. All Things Considered was their only daily news program. Many NPR member stations didn’t sign until Noon. It was also before CNN.

The NIS program clock

Thayer held brainstorming sessions to determine NBC’s next big thing. 

According to former NIS staffers, several scenarios were considered. One option, pushed by younger folks on the staff, was a live hourly version of Earth News, a counter-culture news service delivered to stations via scripts and transcription discs.

Thayer turned the project over to Alan Walden, an old-school AM radio personality, who had great success running NBC’s WBAL-AM in Baltimore.

 Walden's model for NIS were existing AM news stations such as 1010 WINS, KNX and KFWB.

On February 10, 1975, The New York Times broke the news about NBC’s NIS 24/7 news service. It seemed make sense because it would make full use of the resources of NBC News, but in a new way.

At a news conference Thayer said NIS would provide NIS affiliates with 50-minutes of programming every hour. 

Affiliates were required to pay $15,000 per month in the largest markets and $750 per month in the smallest markets. Plus stations were required to air commercials embedded in NIS programming. Thayer predicted NIS would have affiliates in 75 of the top 100 markets.

Walden went to work building the NIS staff of over 200 people. Many members of the founding staff came from established AM powerhouses like 1010 WINS, WCBS and KNX.

Walden crafted a format clock (shown on the right) with something for everybody: Headlines, features, commentaries, vox pop and interviews, all sliced and diced into short chunks of time to 

fit into the program clock.

When NIS debuted in June 18, 1975, it had fewer than 50 affiliates. Even some of NBC’s O&O FMs refused to carry it.  Many stations balked at the high cash fees and onerous commercial carriage requirements. 

So NBC began marketing NIS as an updated version of Monitor, a weekend news service that was popular in the 1950s and 1960s.

By Spring 1976, most of the NIS affiliates were old beat up AM stations, many former Top 40 giants like KRUX in Phoenix, KUDL in Kansas City and WPOP in Hartford. The ratings weren’t great. The NIS carriage list from Spring 1976 is shown on the right.

In the Spring 1976 Arbitron ratings, published by Duncan’s American Radio, we saw that NIS was on 10 FM stations and 25 AM stations. There were  only 19 stations were in the top 100 radio markets, far lower than what Thayer had predicted. Most of the NIS affiliates aired it only late at night.

There were also audio quality issues. Andy Denemark, who worked at NBC in the 1970s and 1980s, told Spark News about technical faults of NIS:

“[NIS was] delivered on phone lines in those days... a 5k equalized line into major markets, a 3.5k un-equalized line into smaller towns. The high cost of those “webs” of wires (for which the phone company charged by mileage) was outrageous.”

The New York Times reported on November 4, 1976, that NBC had pulled the plug on NIS. According the Times, NIS had lost more than $20,000,000 (close to $400,000,000 in 2016 dollars).  Heads rolled at NBC.

Staffers were told that NIS was being cancelled at an all-staff meeting the day after the 1976 election.

After NIS folded, there has never been another serious attempt by any commercial broadcaster to create a 24/7 all news channel.

Here is a YouTube video with audio from NIS from WNBC-FM in 1976 during afternoon drive..

FOLLOW UP: NBC NEWS & INFORMATION NETWORK (NIS)

My post on Friday 6/3 [link] was accessed by more than 1,500 unique readers, a big day for my very specialized blog. I received lots of comments, which I posted verbatim. Many of the best comments came from folks who worked at NIS, NBC’s failed 24/7 radio news channel. Here are some of the comments and further context.

JIM FARLEY

Retired VP of Programing

WTOP Washington, DC

 

JIM FARLEY

When Jim Farley talks I listen. I first met Jim in the 1990s when I was Director of News at PRI. Farley was a consultant during the development of the program that became PRI’s The World. Farley was considered as Executive Producer for The World. PRI missed an opportunity when they didn’t choose him for the gig.

Farley was/is the most influential individual in the radio news biz. He began his career in 1966 as a “copy boy” at 1010 WINS, New York, one of the pioneers of 24/7 radio news. When Farley retired from WTOP in 2013, Jim Russell wrote a tribute to him on his blog [link]:

Farley is known for his one-liners that have inadvertently become his legacy. Sayings, such as, “Get it right, then get it first,” have become the mantras of the newsroom.

“It’s what I’ve been preaching: Radio is the medium of the here and now. You’ve got to reach out through the microphone and grab people by the lapel and say, ‘Hey buddy listen to me!’ It’s storytelling. It’s not reporting, it’s storytelling,” Farley says.

Farley was hired by NBC Radio News in 1975 and was part of the team that created NIS. He was there for every minute of NIS’s life. Here are Farley’s comments about my article:

FARLEY: Lots of inaccuracies here. I was there from the beginning to the end. One example: According to Denmark the NIS staff found out they were “toast” WHEN IT CAME OVER THE WIRES. Ugh. Wrong. The announcement was made in the NIS Newsroom by NBC News President Dick Wald.

KEN SAYS: Other folks who were at NIS at the time confirmed that what Farley said is correct. My assertion that the NIS staff heard they were being cancelled from the news wire is an urban legend. I have changed my original post to reflect the truth.

FARLEY: That scoped version of NIS was definitely not afternoon drive. This sounds like overnights. Drivetimes and other weekday hours had dual anchors.

KEN SAYS: I stand by my assertion. The person who made the aircheck told me he taped it on August 11, 1976 around 6:00pm EDT.

ANONYMOUS COMMENT

I apparently touched several nerves with this person.

ANONYMOUS: The quote [that NIS was one of the] biggest turds in American radio history should really destroy any credibility of the article to start with. Who the hell writes something like that? Compared to what?

As for the sound, it was equal to all network broadcasts at the time, and yes, in just a few years after RKO pushed everyone to jump into satellite broadcasting it would have sounded a hell of a lot better. The idea that going young would have been better is just ignorant.

KEN SAYS: The comment proves that the “generation gap” is still with us. The anonymous assertion that NIS was equal to all network broadcasts at the time demonstrates why NIS sounded like old-AM radio, one of its biggest faults. The creators of NIS probably weren’t aware that NIS didn’t sound like what people expected to hear on FM radio.  In the mid 1970s successful FM stations had a looser, more conversational sound.  To younger radio people like me, NIS sounded like it was designed by and for old farts. At that time, NIS was irrelevant noise to me.

The anonymous person who sent this comment seems to still have grudge because RKO pushed everyone to jump into satellite broadcasting and seems to resent the fact that going young was what established FM as the dominant radio platform.  Roll Over Beethoven!

STUART CHAMBERLAIN

NIS Staffer & ABC Radio News Writer & Editor

 CHAMBERLAIN: I loved working at NIS (Jim Farley hired me). There was one other technical issue that helped kill it. Just as the net was about to break 100 affiliates - rumor had it that Westinghouse was going to join us - NABET went on strike. Engineering was critical to our operation, and nobody but the engineers knew how to do it. So the quality we delivered to stations was dreadful.

ANONYMOUS COMMENT

I believe NIS was ahead of its time. The daytime quality if content was outstanding. I was a radio news director of a traditional AM station carrying NBC, but monitored NIS for hours at a time in the Newsroom. The staff quality was high and the presentation excellent. Better signals-and more of them--coupled with marketing money, might have turned the corner. NIS was a well kept secret to most of the nation.

KEN SAYS: It was a “secret” because almost no one listened to it.

ANONYMOUS COMMENT

I recall hearing NIS on WRC in DC. The need to share the distribution lines with the primary network resulted in this somewhat ridiculous situation: When NBC news sought to broadcast a bulletin, [WRC] would [say] “we interrupt our continuous news coverage to await this special bulletin from NBC News.”

GARY KAYE

NIS STAFFER

NOW CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER, TECH50+ [link]

 

GARY KAYE

KAYE: NIS was a challenging but amazing experience for me as a journalist. I got to delve into topics in depth in ways no other radio format - including NPR would allow. We produced thirty part series on major public policy issues, case in point, "The Cost of the Campaign Promises" in which we analyzed the economic costs of the campaign pledges made by the candidates. No one did that. We did.

And yes, I was the editor on the morning after election coverage when Dick Wald walked into the newsroom and tapped his clipboard on the producer's turret, saying something like, "Boys and Girls, last night NBC had the best radio coverage of an election since the advent of television. But NBC is getting out of the all-news radio business." And that was how it really went.

READER COMMENTS

TOPIC ONE: BIG MARKET CLASSICAL STATIONS ARE SHUNNING NATIONAL PROGRAMS

Last Monday [link] we featured a new study we conducted about carriage of nationally syndicated programs on Classical music stations. In study we found that the largest Classical stations in the system (based on their number of estimated weekly listeners) are carrying an average of 2.2 national programs per week. However, stations in smaller markets are carrying an average of 6.5 national programs per week.

We asked the question – Why is this happening? – and we received quite a few responses:

Robert Conrad

• Comment One came from Robert Conrad of WCLV – The Dean of Classical Music Radio:

Conrad:  

Very interesting, Ken. We, as a minor syndicator, have noticed the downward trend in interest in syndicated programming. However, how come you didn’t include orchestra broadcasts? Or didn’t any show up?

KEN SAYS: Actually, we should have included the orchestras but we didn’t because many are seasonal broadcasts.  Then we added the Met Opera, which, of course, is seasonal. Soon, we will do a study of the orchestras.

Carriage of the orchestras followed the same pattern as the national shows: Declining carriage in the biggest markets but lot’s of carriage by smaller market stations,

Joe Goetz

• Comment Two came from Joe Goetz from K-Bach in Phoenix, via the AMPPR list:

Goetz:  [The reason] is really quite simple: larger market, larger budget (in general). 

Stations that are resource-rich have the ability to worry about things like maintaining a brand across dayparts.

 Smaller stations in smaller markets might have only a few full-time people at the most, and national programs are the only way they can fill air time.

• Comment Three came from the former Executive Producer of one of Classical music’s most successful national programs. Confidentiality was requested and given:

Confidential: In your discussion of syndicated music programs, you left out classical music. Naturally, given my history with redacted, I’m curious about how the show’s carriage stacks up these days.

KEN SAYS:  Your former program is doing quite well but it has very little carriage in the biggest markets. The program does have excellent carriage in medium and small size markets. So, your “baby” is doing pretty well.

FYI – Confidential is referring to our post of March 29^th [link] that was about syndicated national programs on noncom AAA stations. We should have been more clear that it wasn’t about Classical shows. This comment from Confidential gave us the idea to do the Classical national programs carriage study.

TOPIC TWO: NBC’S EXPERIMENT WITH 24/7 ALL-NEWS RADIO – NIS – THE “NEWS AND INFORMATION SERVICE”

Pre sign-on hype for NIS

We received a comment on one of our most popular posts: The Incredible True Story of NBC’s 24/7 Radio News & Information Channel. It was first published on June 3, 2016 and updated on June 21, 2017 [link].

The comment came William Burpree, a freelance writer and radio historian now based in Illinois. Burpree started his radio career at WERS, Boston, while he was a student at Emerson College. Burpee wrote:

“I was living in Tampa, Fla. when the first plans for NIS were announced. I wrote to them asking if the Tampa Bay area would have an NIS station. The reply I got from NBC said For competitive reasons (which I’ve long since come to understand), NBC could neither confirm or deny that NIS was coming to Tampa.”

“My family and I had moved up north to New England, which had several NIS stations, including WPOP, WEAN and WCSH. In fact, I heard NIS during its first week of operations on WNWS-FM, New York in June 1975. I liked it a lot.”

“I think if NBC had stuck with NIS, it could have made it. The shutdown of NIS left a void in radio that has never been replaced.”

KEN SAYS: This is a story about what could have been.

Back in the 1970’s NBC was a major player in radio news. In 1974 NBC decided to create a 24/7 all-news channel. The target was FM station’s nationwide. Many FM stations were not doing well at the time, so there appeared to be a need.

NBC’s News and Information Service (NIS) began on a couple dozen stations on June 18, 1975. It seemed to have so much promise.

The NIS Program Clock

NIS was way ahead of its time. When NBC pulled the plug on November 4, 1976, NIS had lost millions of dollars. At the time, NIS was considered to be one of the biggest failures in American media history.

There were lots of good reasons why NIS failed. Big commercial station owners didn’t get the concept. FM stations were becoming much more popular powered by Album Rock and Beautiful Music. By the time NIS ended, it was carried on fewer than 100 stations, many were AM stations.

Now, observers say that NBC should have stuck with NIS because the media environment was changing.  Satellite delivery of programming was just three years away. NPR was bringing news listeners to the FM dial. In the early 1980s the FCC made available hundreds of new FM station licenses via Docket 8090.

But, NIS failed for another reason that Mr. Burpee probably won’t agree with: It sounded like shit.

What proof? Give a listen to this YouTube video we produced featuring an air-check of NIS’s flagship station, WNWS-FM, New York, during afternoon drive in August, 1976: