With reports from RBR+TVBR in Dallas, Toronto, Los Angeles and Boca Raton, Fla.
Across Monday, April 8, from Mazatlán, Mexico, to Dallas and onward to the northeast to locales such as Dayton, Ohio, and Niagara Falls, millions of Americans were witness to one of the most brilliant total eclipses seen in a generation.
Broadcast and cable television did their part to cover the historic event, while over-the-air radio stations did their part, too, across the nation, to share coverage of the eclipse with their respective audiences.
From the 9am hour onward in Los Angeles, Novena Carmel, host of KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, crafted a playlist largely focused on eclipse-themed selections. Across town, Audacy’s all-News KNX-AM & FM was airing live cut-ins from a public event attended by local political leaders. As this was transpiring, a full eclipse, free of clouds and other obstructions, was seen in the Pacific coast city of Mazatlán.
While Noticias Univision and Telemundo’s newscasts were devoted to what was being seen there, and Univision star journalist Jorge Ramos was stationed in Mexico City at the Monument to the Revolution, Scripps News was also sharing the scene in Mazatlán as part of special coverage seen across most of its the company’s owned-and-operated broadcast TV stations, including WPTV-5 in West Palm Beach.
The Scripps News coverage preempted NBC’s coverage of the eclipse in the West Palm Beach DMA, as network coverage from CBS News aired on Sinclair Inc.’s WPEC-12 and ABC News/National Geographic joint coverage appeared on Hearst Television’s WPBF-25. At Scripps-run and Gray Television-owned FOX affiliate WFLX-29, a “FOX Weather” feed supplied to FOX Television Network affiliates allowed the FOX News Channel to offer its own, unique coverage of the eclipse.
Cable television all-news networks were also heavily focused on the eclipse, perhaps taking a break from political talk, as CNN and CNN en Español joined One America News, Nexstar Media Group-owned NewsNation and NewsMax with coverage. NASA TV coverage could be seen on the Palm Beach County local access channel in the 2pm hour.
Interestingly, in the Miami Valley area that’s home to Dayton, Cox Media Group’s WHIO-7 was sticking with CBS’s national feed as Nexstar-owned WDTN-2 offered locally produced special coverage. On the radio, noncommercial WDPR-FM “Discover Classical” scratched its normal playlist and from 2:30pm-4pm played music “inspired by natural wonders, including pieces about the sun, moon and sky” as local listeners observed the solar eclipse.
The “Discover Classical” playlist was as follows:
2:30 Carl Nielsen: Helios Overture
2:40 Aaron Copland: Open Prairie from Billy the Kid
2:43 Joseph Haydn: The Representation of Chaos from The Creation
2:48 Franz Liszt: Transcendental Etude No. 11 “Harmonies du Soir”
2:57 George Templeton Strong: Die Nacht – I. At Sunset
3:04 Ludwig van Beethoven: Moonlight Sonata – I. Adagio sostenuto
3:09 Richard Strauss: Opening of Also Sprach Zarathustra
3:11 Manuel Ponce: Nocturnal Impressions No. 1 “La Noche”
3:19 Benjamin Britten: Sea Interlude No. 3 “Moonlight”
3:23 Antonin Dvorak: Song to the Moon
3:29 Frederick Delius: Florida Suite No. 4 “At Night”
3:37 Gustav Holst: Neptune from the Planets
3:44 Jean Sibelius: Night Ride and Sunrise
Down in Dallas, where “totality” was happening at 2:40pm Eastern, WFAA-8, a Scripps station, went a step further than offering Scripps News coverage by going live with its own North Texas coverage.
AUDIO INTELLIGENCE
As many were watching television or going outside to view the eclipse themselves, WLW-AM 700 in Cincinnati midday host Bill Cunningham was discussing the event and its impact on traffic with listeners of the top-rated station.
In Toronto, CHBM “Boom 97.3” went with an eclipse-themed playlist timed to coincide with totality.
As one would expect, Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 chart-topper “Total Eclipse of the Heart” aired precisely at 2:24pm Eastern, immediately followed by “Here Comes The Sun”
The Stingray-owned Adult Hits station that can be heard in Niagara Falls, which had a huge crowd of tourists on the Ontario side of the river awaiting the eclipse. And, it heavily promoted its special eclipse-themed playlist across social media channels leading up to Monday afternoon.
At 3:19pm Eastern, crosstown CIND “Indie 88” interrupted programming as the eclipse reached its totality in the GTA with The Dirty Nil’s cover of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
Lastly, Cumulus Media gained national recognition for a solar eclipse promotion at its WZYP-FM in Huntsville, Ala.
For the past two weeks, the Top 40 station gave away roughly 1,000 solar eclipse glasses. But, before WZYP had the glasses made, the station held a listener contest to come up with clever sayings to print on the glasses. The winner? “I’m getting mooned with WZYP.”
Cumulus/Huntsville Operations Manager Steve Smith, who also serves as WZYP Program Director and Afternoon Host, said, “It’s been so amazing to bond with listeners who are as excited about the eclipse as I am. I’ve loved seeing all of the families and kids show up to get them. Personally, I’ve been waiting for this since I saw the last eclipse in 2017. I’m so into the eclipse that I’m traveling to the path of totality. Huntsville will only have around 90% totality, so I’m heading to whatever sunny location I can find in the direct path.”
