When radio reporter Randy Riddle prepared a story at WBBM in Chicago during the ’70s, he rummaged through rolls of pale-white teletype paper, literally cutting and pasting wire-service stories.
Today, as financial reporter for KNX-AM 1070, Riddle has gone high tech. News reaches him at home hours before he first steps foot into a battleship-gray office above the floor of the Pacific Exchange. Online, he combs through the vast Internet news sites, hunting for financial stories. He regularly draws upon the resources of Dow Jones and Reuters for his many hourly business reports on the CBS-owned, all-news radio station.
The only cutting and pasting Riddle does these days is electronic. At night, long after he has left the exchange, he goes online to read electronic newspapers well before their print editions hit the newsstands.
“The differences in the way I do my job now is like day and night,” Riddle said. “It’s science fiction made real with all these Internet connections. I am knocked out that I can read the Washington Post or the Houston Chronicle.”
And yet with all the instant information at his disposal, Riddle remains as harried as he was when he reached for the glue pot and scissors. He and the other members of KNX’s financial news team Charles Laszlo and Bob McCormack are overloaded with a dizzying array of financial news services.
“You can only read as fast as you can read,” Riddle said. “You only have two eyes and one brain. Every worker on the air has less and less time to prepare and read up. There is so much information out there.”
And despite the speed of an all-news radio station, news junkies can now go online and get their financial data and updates on demand, rather than waiting for broadcast updates. “We are competing against technology,” he said.
Riddle, 54, joined KNX 15 months ago after a stint at Marketplace Radio, which is produced at USC for National Public Radio. A veteran CBS News correspondent, he spent 12 years in New York before retiring to Mexico with his wife in 1994. (The section of Mexico he chose was Chiapas, which had become a hotbed of revolution led by the Zapatista movement. Riddle quickly became tired of dealing with roadblocks, checkpoints and men with guns. He and his wife left and eventually wound up in Los Angeles.)
Riddle arrives at the KNX booth around noon each day. He spends about two hours at home, reading through the Internet and several newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, the financial pages of The New York Times and the Washington Post.
“I don’t look at the Los Angles Times business section every day because I assume everybody else has been reading it,” he said.
Riddle reports on business news several times each hour. These include the top business news stories, stock prices and the state of the market. Both he and Laszlo discuss topical business issues for the daily KNX Business Hour, which starts at 1 p.m.
During his shift, Riddle also prepares three 90-second business reports that are taped and used throughout the night after he leaves at 7:30 p.m. For weekend business news, he tapes five 60-second features pieces.
Despite the technology, both Riddle and Laszlo type their scripts on decidedly low-tech Adler Royal electric typewriters. Their copy paper is yellow; each sheet is torn in half and stacked by their machines, ready for a news update. There may not be any glue pots, but the scene seems somewhat reminiscent of Riddle’s days in Chicago.
Riddle, who considers himself “an information worker,” times his business reports with a small pocket watch. He admits that when he goes live, despite all the years in front of a microphone, he gets tense. Laszlo jokes that he has plenty of antacid pills ready for his colleague.
“I am always nervous,” Riddle said. “I hate live radio. I prefer pre-recorded radio features.”
Not surprisingly, Riddle does not extemporize his reports or make off-the-cuff remarks. He sticks to his script and not to scribbled notes.
“I type it out,” he said. “I like to see all the words there.”
