B
bierkenstock
Guest
Where in the world is WLIB traffic?
Traffic.com does have an operations center in Secaucus. For the most part, however, reports are recorded in Chesterbrook, PA and uploaded to WLIB for broadcast. There is a back-up studio in Secaucus in the same building as the operation center and some weekend and evening reports are done from there for the convenience of some of the part-time announcers.
As a cost-saving measure, the Secaucus operations center like Traffic.com ops centers in other cities close down during certain evening, overnight and week-end periods. During those periods, traffic information comes from a "national operations center" in Chesterbrook, PA. This national operations center gets traffic data from the company's sensors and other sensors (when available), from the Internet and from telephone checks, but the quality of coverage is not optimal. In contrast, Metro works from local operations centers when producing reports.
Most of the time, the announcer doing traffic for WLIB is in the Philly area and getting info from the New York area (via the company website). Occasionally, the announcer is in the New York area and the info comes from the national ops center outside Philly. Even when the announcer and the ops center providing the information are in the same city, the announcer works from a broadcaster web-page and is not able to see traffic cameras (Metro operations centers with which I am familiar are set up to allow announcers to see what they are saying).
WLIB is completely automated. For this reason, traffic reports are pre-recorded and uploaded to the WLIB automation computer. Reports are generally prepared five to 20 minutes (or more) before broadcast. Because of technical or other problems, old reports are sometimes repeated.
While some part-timers doing WLIB traffic reports do know the New York metro area, weekday morning, midday and afternoon reports are done from the Philly area by Philadelphia DJ's without prior traffic reporting experience and who have never lived or worked in the New York area (or even visited much).
Traffic.com does have an operations center in Secaucus. For the most part, however, reports are recorded in Chesterbrook, PA and uploaded to WLIB for broadcast. There is a back-up studio in Secaucus in the same building as the operation center and some weekend and evening reports are done from there for the convenience of some of the part-time announcers.
As a cost-saving measure, the Secaucus operations center like Traffic.com ops centers in other cities close down during certain evening, overnight and week-end periods. During those periods, traffic information comes from a "national operations center" in Chesterbrook, PA. This national operations center gets traffic data from the company's sensors and other sensors (when available), from the Internet and from telephone checks, but the quality of coverage is not optimal. In contrast, Metro works from local operations centers when producing reports.
Most of the time, the announcer doing traffic for WLIB is in the Philly area and getting info from the New York area (via the company website). Occasionally, the announcer is in the New York area and the info comes from the national ops center outside Philly. Even when the announcer and the ops center providing the information are in the same city, the announcer works from a broadcaster web-page and is not able to see traffic cameras (Metro operations centers with which I am familiar are set up to allow announcers to see what they are saying).
WLIB is completely automated. For this reason, traffic reports are pre-recorded and uploaded to the WLIB automation computer. Reports are generally prepared five to 20 minutes (or more) before broadcast. Because of technical or other problems, old reports are sometimes repeated.
While some part-timers doing WLIB traffic reports do know the New York metro area, weekday morning, midday and afternoon reports are done from the Philly area by Philadelphia DJ's without prior traffic reporting experience and who have never lived or worked in the New York area (or even visited much).