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Happenings Such as WCBS Newsradio 880 Turning Its Airwaves Over to ESPN an Opportunity for Lawyers

August 13, 2024

The more news coverage changes, the more it remains the same.

I doubt many people remember -or were alive – when you caught far away AM news and sports coverage on those nights when the atmosphere was such that radio waves would bounce back and forth between the atmosphere and earth, enabling signals to reach thousands of miles.

A small town Midwest kid like me found it special to catch New York, LA, DC, Miami, Denver and New Orleans on those nights.

I liked news and sports. Now one of the stations I listened to then, and even today via the net, WCBS Newsradio 880, from New York City is going silent, turning over its signal to a local ESPN Station, for Mets coverage. The Mets.

From The New York Times’ Corey Kilgannon

It is an almost inevitable development as reliance on radio news continues to decline, with the rise of podcasts and smartphones delivering news, weather and traffic information.

Local radio was once a pillar of the New York City news ecosystem. WCBS helped make up the running backdrop of frenetic city life. Residents listened to it in the shower, at the breakfast table, in their cabs. It blended with the clamor of the delis and bodegas. It provided the small informational necessities that enable urban living — traffic and weather every 10 minutes on the 8s — and chronicled the epochal events that shaped New York.

Local news coverage in general has declined in recent decades. City desks downsized, and many neighborhood papers vanished or were bought up by chains and cut back. Newsstands once draped with dozens of papers now carry few or none or have disappeared entirely.

It’s not like we don’t have news, the reporting of news and the assimilating of what is news. How it all comes about is changing.

To some extent this is an opportunity for lawyers and the people who could benefit from receiving news and commentary on niche subjects on the law from lawyers they could learn to know and trust. Just like broadcasters listeners came to trust.

Imagine a New York City lawyer blogging insight and information on a particular type of court procedure for one of the five boroughs or covering a city regulation impacting a large number of people and businesses who may ultimately need legal assistance on the matter.

These topics that would be covered by lawyers from their homes or offices, topics that would have never been covered by traditional news sources.