How much weather coverage is too much?

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Dr. Whiplash
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How much weather coverage is too much?

Post by Dr. Whiplash »

Cut-ins irritate viewers
Saturday, April 28, 2007
By Molly Willow, The Columbus Dispatch


On Thursday night, while residents of Pike and Vinton counties were watching the thundering skies, Columbus-area viewers were preparing for a night of repeat-free television. But instead of Ugly Betty (ABC) or The Office (NBC), central Ohio affiliates opted mostly to pre-empt programming to cover tornado warnings issued by the National Weather Service. The decision prompted news directors to defend their actions to angry viewers such as Terri O'Connor, who was disappointed when her plans to watch My Name Is Earl on WCMH-TV were upset.

"If it (storm coverage) lasts five minutes, I'm OK, but it's like they were constantly repeating the same thing over and over again: what's a 'watch,' what's a 'warning,' where I'm supposed to go. I know those things," said O'Connor, 40, of Columbus. "It's like 'Let me watch my programming; give me a little update.' The same thing for two hours is definitely overkill."

Each station took a slightly different approach on a night of all-new episodes on all broadcast networks.

WCMH, the NBC affiliate, pre-empted 7:30-through-8:30 programming, including My Name Is Earl and most of The Office in prime time. The station broke in occasionally from 9 to 9:45 p.m., during the season finale of 30 Rock and an episode of Scrubs, when additional tornado warnings were issued as the storm moved from Vinton County into Hocking County. Late in the afternoon yesterday, the National Weather Service confirmed a tornado touchdown in northeastern Brown County. WCMH News Director Stan Sanders said the station followed procedures for such situations.

"It's safety first," he said. "We want to make sure we can get people the information to keep them out of harm's way."

Columbus ABC and Fox affiliates used a similar approach. Lyn Tolan, news director for WSYX-TV and WTTE-TV, said tornado warnings prompt stations to cut in.

"That idea of programming for the masses kind of has to be set aside at a time of severe weather so that you can protect people," Tolan said. On ABC, both Ugly Betty at 8 and Grey's Anatomy at 9 were interrupted. (Both episodes can be seen free on ABC.com.) On Fox, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? was pre-empted when a tornado warning was issued at 8:53 for northeastern Pike County. On the game show, a contestant had just earned the chance to win $1 million (he opted to take $500,000).

On WBNS-TV, the CBS affiliate cut in for a rough total of 19 minutes between 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. during new episodes of Survivor: Fiji and CSI. A map of weather-affected counties, with a scroll, was shown at the upper left. WBNS is owned by The Dispatch Printing Company.

"I did not feel it was warranted to stay on wall to wall," WBNS News Director John Cardenas said. "In this case, because we serve central Ohio and this was southern Pike county and Hocking County -- although we do reach those viewers -- you have to look at the population and how much of the population is affected."

The decision earned kudos from Channel 10 viewers, who e-mailed comments to the station. Cardenas said, "we got probably a half-dozen to a dozen e-mails thanking us, saying, 'You guys got it right.' "
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Post by djMatty »

It seems to be one of those darned if you don't damned if you do things.

Folks will gripe when no one does any weather info but when they do what is thought to be too much then they get mad too.
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Post by Arp2 »

If you don't do it, you open yourself to hard-to-deflect criticism from several angles...very legitimate and well-earned criticism, too. You simply have to do it.

Now, though, there might be good options. The one that comes to my mind right away -- say, for example, your digital subchannels are now on your area's cable systems, giving you some confidence in their distribution/availability...your plan could be to immediately switch that first subchannel to the regular programming uninterrupted (except, probably, on-screen graphics).

Of course, that almost requires actual people to be running the station...you know, locally......
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Re: How much weather coverage is too much?

Post by Hoosier Daddy »

Dr. Whiplash wrote:"I did not feel it was warranted to stay on wall to wall," WBNS News Director John Cardenas said. "In this case, because we serve central Ohio and this was southern Pike county and Hocking County -- although we do reach those viewers -- you have to look at the population and how much of the population is affected."

The decision earned kudos from Channel 10 viewers, who e-mailed comments to the station. Cardenas said, "we got probably a half-dozen to a dozen e-mails thanking us, saying, 'You guys got it right.' "
Having lived in Columbus for several years, my first thought is how this smacks of what I found to be a typical Central Ohio elitism. To many Central Ohio residents, Columbus is the absolute Center Of The World, and they have open disdain for the "lesser people" from outlying areas, especially the "inbred hillbillies" from southeastern Ohio.

Residents in the 'in between' -- not along the Ohio River and clearly served by Huntington stations, or not in a county that borders Franklin County (Columbus) -- receive a very distant secondary interest and coverage from the two TV markets in news, weather, and sports.

One wonders how 10TV's coverage priorities would have changed if the same line of storms was pounding Union and Madison counties and headed straight for the Leveque Tower.

No, wait. I think I already know.

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Post by Hoosier Daddy »

For what it's worth, I was on the road during these storms, travelling State Route 93 between Ironton and Jackson when the sky got dark. Knowing that Portsmouth's WPAY-FM is the origin point for southeastern Ohio EAS, I decided to tune to the horse's mouth, so to speak, and hear it first.

Never again.

What a botched up, circle jerk, piss poor excuse for the area's primary warning point. The night jock, who sounded about 19 years old and in his first week on the job, did OK with the first EAS alert. Audio levels too high and distorted on the digital trip tones and a little low on the National weather Service "Drunken Helga" computer voice, but I could compensate with my radio's volume control.

But then the WPAY announcer repeated the NWS bulletin twice ad lib after every EAS alert. And he apparently took no notes. After a few more EAS alerts - and they were coming fast and furious for a while there - the guy was combining counties that were in the watch with those in the warning, and intermixing "tornado warning, er, tornado watch ..." several times. Unless you listened to Helga and took notes, WPAY's announcer would completely confuse you as to where the storm was located and what kind of weather emergency your county was under.

Then Tara (whoever that is) arrived. A female station employee/announcer? and started doing the same thing, repeating the NWS information *twice* after each EAS alert, and getting it all messed up just like the kid had done. She was either in a secondary studio or on another mic, because she talked over part of several records giving instructions to the board op, and I heard her say something like 'God I want to go home' over the EAS 1000 hZ alert tone.

The FCC really needs to look at a station's capabilities, especially the ability to handle the pressure of an actual emergency, before handing out the CPCS-1 designation (or whatever its called now).

Just my $0.02.

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Re: How much weather coverage is too much?

Post by Arp2 »

Hoosier Daddy wrote:Having lived in Columbus for several years, my first thought is how this smacks of what I found to be a typical Central Ohio elitism...they have open disdain for the "lesser people" from outlying areas, especially the "inbred hillbillies" from southeastern Ohio.

Residents in the 'in between' -- not along the Ohio River and clearly served by Huntington stations, or not in a county that borders Franklin County (Columbus) -- receive a very distant secondary interest and coverage from the two TV markets in news, weather, and sports.

One wonders how 10TV's coverage priorities would have changed if the same line of storms was pounding Union and Madison counties and headed straight for the Leveque Tower.

No, wait. I think I already know.

:x
Well, wait a sec.....

Keeping in mind that I've already said that you have to do it (meaning that every county in the coverage area is going to get its warnings, etc), don't you think the population and, possibly, economic impact on the station should determine the level of coverage?

Why wouldn't you devote much more time and energy to a storm that's hitting a county where 60-70% or whatever of your population lives and 80% of your dollars come from? Surely you don't think a rural county with 1% of the population and 0% of the dollars merits the same coverage!?!

Heck, in such sparsely-populated, low-density, outlying counties, a tornado could touch down, travel along the ground, and never hit a single person, residence, or business! The same could not be said of a high-population, high-density county where 80+% of the ground has residences and businesses on it.

The central area deserves better coverage...!

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Post by fearpeddler »

I dunno much about how the radio biz handles their operations station to station, or the "mutual" ones they all share. But ALL that is required from any local news station is a crawl. If it werent the start of sweeps I would almost guarantee there would have been 1 cut-in done over the period of an hour at any of those stations.

but hey its sweeps... and the local news people always think they're the most important thing on that channel no matter what state or market..
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Post by genlock »

What if your ratings went up during a daypart where you did a weather cut-in? You would ask for a raise. If they went down, you would ask for an upgrade to the latest and greatest big-tits doppler 37,000 radar.
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Post by fearpeddler »

I guess that would depend on the wx person.
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Re: How much weather coverage is too much?

Post by Hoosier Daddy »

Arp2 wrote:...don't you think the population and, possibly, economic impact on the station should determine the level of coverage? Why wouldn't you devote much more time and energy to a storm that's hitting a county where 60-70% or whatever of your population lives and 80% of your dollars come from?
There you go.
Surely you don't think a rural county with 1% of the population and 0% of the dollars merits the same coverage!?!
Yes I do, if those residents depend on that station for emergency warnings.
Heck, in such sparsely-populated, low-density, outlying counties, a tornado could touch down, travel along the ground, and never hit a single person, residence, or business! The same could not be said of a high-population, high-density county where 80+% of the ground has residences and businesses on it.
True enough.
The central area deserves better coverage...!
No. It's just (1) easier for the station, and (2) easily turned into an advertiser-stroking ratings and marketing gimmick when the affected area is home to a majority of businesses who advertise on your station.

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Post by sportsvoice »

Sounds like par for the course for WPAY...some things never change. You'd be better off to cut out the middleman and just use a NOAA receiver. I use one since I generally stick to Sirius in the car.

As for the LP1...the only reason that they have it is probably because of their signal. There's not much left that can cover the entire south central EAS region. 93.3 was the LP2 until it was moved away to Columbus, I think the weaker 94.3 is LP2 now but probably doesn't cover the whole region. Another option is 96.7 maybe, but that becomes moot if it gets moved away. After that, you're down to not much but Class A's that can't cover the whole area.
Hoosier Daddy wrote:For what it's worth, I was on the road during these storms, travelling State Route 93 between Ironton and Jackson when the sky got dark. Knowing that Portsmouth's WPAY-FM is the origin point for southeastern Ohio EAS, I decided to tune to the horse's mouth, so to speak, and hear it first.

Never again.

What a botched up, circle jerk, piss poor excuse for the area's primary warning point. The night jock, who sounded about 19 years old and in his first week on the job, did OK with the first EAS alert. Audio levels too high and distorted on the digital trip tones and a little low on the National weather Service "Drunken Helga" computer voice, but I could compensate with my radio's volume control.

But then the WPAY announcer repeated the NWS bulletin twice ad lib after every EAS alert. And he apparently took no notes. After a few more EAS alerts - and they were coming fast and furious for a while there - the guy was combining counties that were in the watch with those in the warning, and intermixing "tornado warning, er, tornado watch ..." several times. Unless you listened to Helga and took notes, WPAY's announcer would completely confuse you as to where the storm was located and what kind of weather emergency your county was under.

Then Tara (whoever that is) arrived. A female station employee/announcer? and started doing the same thing, repeating the NWS information *twice* after each EAS alert, and getting it all messed up just like the kid had done. She was either in a secondary studio or on another mic, because she talked over part of several records giving instructions to the board op, and I heard her say something like 'God I want to go home' over the EAS 1000 hZ alert tone.

The FCC really needs to look at a station's capabilities, especially the ability to handle the pressure of an actual emergency, before handing out the CPCS-1 designation (or whatever its called now).

Just my $0.02.

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Post by Hoosier Daddy »

sportsvoice wrote:As for the LP1...the only reason that they have it is probably because of their signal. There's not much left that can cover the entire south central EAS region.
I always thought 101.5 WRYV would be an excellent choice, but nowadays they're pretty much a Huntington station.

WKOV is probably all but gone to Frazeysburg. I saw a write-up in one of the local papers (the one NOT owned by WKOV) today where some broker waxed nostalgic about how this move would serve over 300,000 people in a small town "with no local radio station" :roll: and how WKOV leaving Wellston would only result in "one less choice on the dial" that left the county with two remaining local stations and a number of other choices outside the county.

Talk about spin ... :lol: :lol: :lol:

The Stockmeister folks said it was all about money -- a business transaction. So there you go. Done.

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Re: How much weather coverage is too much?

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Hoosier Daddy wrote:
Surely you don't think a rural county with 1% of the population and 0% of the dollars merits the same coverage!?!
Yes I do, if those residents depend on that station for emergency warnings.
...and they would get them, but that fraction of 1% that has its TV on and on that station and that is in the path of the storm just cannot expect to have the wall-to-wall treatment those in the home county with 60+% of the population would see with a storm coming through. You could easily be talking about 2,970,000 vs 30,000.
The central area deserves better coverage...!
No. It's just (1) easier for the station, and (2) easily turned into an advertiser-stroking ratings and marketing gimmick when the affected area is home to a majority of businesses who advertise on your station.
Mmmm....no, not so much. One, it's not easier (same on-screen talents and crew required to talk about any county's warning), and, two,....actually I'm not sure how that really applies. Weather is a key image to build and own, sure, and it can be sold, but I'm not sure what you mean past that......
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Post by sportsvoice »

Hoosier Daddy wrote:
sportsvoice wrote:As for the LP1...the only reason that they have it is probably because of their signal. There's not much left that can cover the entire south central EAS region.
I always thought 101.5 WRYV would be an excellent choice, but nowadays they're pretty much a Huntington station.

WKOV is probably all but gone to Frazeysburg. I saw a write-up in one of the local papers (the one NOT owned by WKOV) today where some broker waxed nostalgic about how this move would serve over 300,000 people in a small town "with no local radio station" :roll: and how WKOV leaving Wellston would only result in "one less choice on the dial" that left the county with two remaining local stations and a number of other choices outside the county.

Talk about spin ... :lol: :lol: :lol:

The Stockmeister folks said it was all about money -- a business transaction. So there you go. Done.

:?
So did the article say if they had a buyer lined up after the move? Everyone seems to be betting on the WHIZ FM owners.

If it's about money, I would think that selling your best signal would amount to shooting yourself in the foot over the long term. Guess it doesn't matter though when you own (or operate) every station in the county.
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Post by Hoosier Daddy »

sportsvoice wrote:So did the article say if they had a buyer lined up after the move? Everyone seems to be betting on the WHIZ FM owners.
The articles I've read aren't clear as to whether the station will be sold to another entity, or Jackson County Broadcasting will somehow operate the station at Frazeysburg.
If it's about money, I would think that selling your best signal would amount to shooting yourself in the foot over the long term. Guess it doesn't matter though when you own (or operate) every station in the county.
My guess is that, should WKOV be sold or moved, Jackson County Broadcasting will attempt to purchase Lew Davis's 98.7 (WYRO) that is currently being operated under an LMA, and maybe his public access Cable TV channel. You'll probably see WKOV's Hot AC format moved to 97.7 or 98.7.

My best guess is they'll leave 97.7 alone. WCJO has been country since Christ was a corporal, and it has the centrally located (Jackson tower) but overall inferior signal. 98.7 has surely taken a hit since 101.5 went Classic Rock, and it manages to put a decent signal into Chillicothe and toward Athens.

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Post by SPIKE NESMITH! »

My 1 British pence: Put a crawler on. No maps, no noises, no sponsorship, and don't distort the picture. Let me know if I'm going to die, otherwise leave my shows alone. This is the 21st century, put the "rolling weather coverage" on your website and let me decide if a stiff breeze watch for Bumfuck county 150 miles away is important or not. At the very, very most, record a 30 or 60 second weather update and put it in the breaks.
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Post by Big Media »

I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to WCHS for their very understated, barely noticeable, weather crawl, during Grey's Anatomy Thursday night. This is the way to go.

It pisses me off to no end when other stations shrink the program I am trying to watch to put up their ridiculous weather graphics and flashing counties. I live in Cabell County. If you tell me there is a tornado watch in effect for Cabell County, I will know, perfectly well, where Cabell County is located in relation to the other counties included in the watch without your ridiculous map with Cabell County flashing like a tower beacon. So, STOP IT! Just freakin' stop it! :twisted:
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Post by Dr. Whiplash »

I agree about the 3-inch, 30-county maps. Worse than useless. As for the Columbus stations, they go much more heavy on severe weather coverage than the H-C stations. Of course tornadoes are considerably more common up on the plains, but still, they keep rehashing the same information and speculate on possible tornadoes without warnings as if their SuperDuper Triple Doppler 6000 sees shit the live NWS dopplers can't. (WBNS does have its own live radar but recently integrated it into a multi-site sweep similar to WOWK's. Now Chris Bradley is showing storm rotation in freaking Indiana...repeatedly.)

As for covering areas in between the Cols and H-C markets - where I've lived nearly all my life - I have to defend the efforts of stations in both markets, especially Cols. A friend of mine at 'BNS says they get bombarded with complaints for covering severe weather in small rural counties. After all, most of the market population - 1.2 million - lives in Franklin County, so I give them credit for keeping the Hill People informed. I just wish they'd show some restraint in the length of their live coverage. And lose those little damn county maps!
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