“Traffic and weather together” (on the “1s” or “8s”)

The radio saying used to be just "traffic and weather every ten minutes" (especially on 1010 WINS News). It became "traffic and weather together" and "on the 8s" (for all-news radio WCBS 880 AM) becasue of Harvey Nagler, director of news and programming for WCBS-AM Newsradio 88 (1987-97).

Television's NY1 News has "weather on the 1s." Channel 7 (ABC-TV) has advertised "seven minutes" every morning -- not "on the 7s," but "traffic and weather together" every seven minutes.

Radio stations in other cities have copied the formula.


11 April 1993, New York (NY) Times, pg. SM22:
It's the morning music of urban life. It's turning on the news and getting the world in 22 minutes and, along with the world, the traffic and weather together. And every now and then you actually hear the traffic report, the benignly vivid words used to describe events that have probably permanently changed people's lives or even ended them. The "rubbernecking delays" caused by the "fender bender" and invariably involving "jackknifed tractor-trailers." You begin to obsess about why there are so many jackknifes; you decide to investigate. -- ERIC P. NASH

CBS News
October 9, 2009, 9:53 AM
Harvey Nagler
Harvey Nagler was named Vice President, CBS News Radio in January 1998.
(...)
Prior to joining CBS Radio News, Nagler was Director, News and Programming for WCBS-AM Newsradio 88 (1987-97). During that time, the station achieved record ratings and was honored with many national and local awards for excellence in reporting. Nagler developed and implemented several practices which have since been adopted or imitated by hundreds of stations across the country, including the slogan, "traffic and weather, together on the 'eights'" and "guaranteed weather," and the broadcast of the Standard & Poor's future numbers in each morning's business report.

Google Books
Weather on the Air:
A History of Broadcast Meteorology

By Robert Henson
Boston, MA: American Meteorological Society
2010
Pg. 178:
The format of drive-time weather solidified in the 1990s with the influential "traffic and weather together" approach, pioneered by news director Harvey Nagler during his tenure at New York's all- news WCBS radio.

Radio Ink
NAGLER RECOGNIZED BY RTNDA
9-8-14
This past Friday night CBS Radio's longtime VP Harvey Nagler received the Radio Television Digital News Association’s 2014 John F. Hogan Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes an individual's contributions to the journalism profession and freedom of the press. The ceremony took place at Opryland in Nashville. Nagler's been VP of CBS Radio News since January 1998 and oversees CBS News’ worldwide radio operations. During his previous tenure as director of news programming for WCBS-AM in New York, he coined the phrase “traffic and weather, together on the eights.” Here is a portion of the speech Nagler gave at the ceremony.