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Accu Weather being downsized at WBZ

D

DavidZ

I noticed this morning and again this afternoon that WBZ no longer has Accu Weather reports after every traffic report.

The anchor reads the weather report. They still have the 4-day Accu Weather report a :23 & :53 past the hour.

It will be interesting to see if they have the anchors just reading the reports during stormy weather. In the past when inclement weather struck, they would have live Accu Weather reports after every traffic report.
 
Every time they run it, they have to clear an Accu-Weather spot.

Everybody gets their weather from the same place: NOAA. So it really doesn't matter if it's Accu Weather or not.
 
It never mattered in the past that they had to clear a spot. I guess now it does under their new ownership.

iHeart happens. 🙁
 
DavidZ said:
It never mattered in the past that they had to clear a spot. I guess now it does under their new ownership.
Click to expand...

Maybe there's a reason why CBS got out of radio. OTOH iHeart owns its own weather service. It gets its information from the same place as Accu weather. So it won't make a difference to listeners.
 
DavidZ said:
It never mattered in the past that they had to clear a spot. I guess now it does under their new ownership.

iHeart happens. 🙁
Click to expand...

Hey, this is more opportunity for listeners to hear a local voice on WBZ instead of an out-of-town weather yacker reading the same forecast piped in from AccuWeather. What exactly is iHeart doing wrong in this situation?
 
I have no problem hearing local voices. It’s the fact that the anchors are now just reading a weather report for the next 12-18 hours.

With the previous ownership, I knew that I could always count on a full 4-day forecast after every traffic report.
 
DavidZ said:
I have no problem hearing local voices. It’s the fact that the anchors are now just reading a weather report for the next 12-18 hours.

With the previous ownership, I knew that I could always count on a full 4-day forecast after every traffic report.
Click to expand...

David,

Just shoes to go ya, if you say things critical of iHeart on this site, they set the pit bulls on you. :rolleyes:

Yes, I noticed the absence of the four-day forecast, and wondered if I'd blacked out right after the traffic report, but, praise God, I didn't; the weather was indeed truncated.

I would like to see, er, hear, the return of the WBZ-TV meteorologists as a supplement to the now scarce AccuWeather forecasts. Tht's local enough for me.

Re what I just said in my previous paragraph: yeah, we can only dream. Radio being a business, you know....
 
If you want ACCURATE weather for a couple of days out .... learn how to read a terminal aerodrome forecast (TAF).

It is what pilots use for flight planning and it is super accurate.
 
nowradioguy said:
David,

Just shoes to go ya, if you say things critical of iHeart on this site, they set the pit bulls on you. :rolleyes:.
Click to expand...

No pit bull here, just a non-industry guy with no connection to iHeart but a gut feeling that most listeners who tune in for the weather aren't doing so for the forecast three or four days ahead.
 
nowradioguy said:
Just shoes to go ya, if you say things critical of iHeart on this site, they set the pit bulls on you.
Click to expand...

This isn't an iHeart thing. For some context, Entercom's KYW in Philadelphia is also cutting back on AccuWeather. Had Entercom kept WBZ, these changes are very likely to have happened anyway.
 
I imagine weather services with their own broadcasters will eventually go the way of the dodo bird, much like those "Spy in The Sky" (Tony Dibiasio) traffic reporters eventually did, replaced by newer technology. Local conditions are easily obtained via online sources (say, for instance, aprs.fi / aprsdirect) and forecasts obtained from noaa or other services.
 
DavidZ said:
It never mattered in the past that they had to clear a spot. I guess now it does under their new ownership.

iHeart happens. 🙁
Click to expand...

Every group broadcaster has a fear of letting someone else price and sell their spot inventory.

When you engage in barter agreements, you know that somebody else is going to be pitching your station to agencies. And they may be offering it at rates lower than you like to sell for.

Most people who have done national sales have run into cases where a buyer we are negotiating with comes back with "you gotta' drop the rate some more, 'cause I'm getting you for a lot less by buying (insert the barter reseller here)."

When one has no choice... such as talk stations that depend on syndicated full shows... barter agreements are accepted. But with so many other ways to get services like weather, traffic and the like, it is easier to end barter in those areas than ever before.

Barter works when you get something you can not emulate or do yourself. That was why the first bartered show, American Top 40, was such a success. And it still works with talk shows, high-talent morning shows and off-hour specialty shows (where the spots run inside the show only, not in other times and days).

I even worked for a Top 10 station owner that had a strict no-barter policy. Nothing, nada, never.
 
I was wondering if they would have additional Accu Weather reports during inclement weather or when big storms were on the horizon.

I have my answer…this morning they added additional Accu Weather reports at :03 & :33 past in addition to the new times of :23 & :53 past.

Jeff & Deb Lawler still read the weather report at :13 & :43 past.
 
DavidZ said:
I was wondering if they would have additional Accu Weather reports during inclement weather or when big storms were on the horizon.

I have my answer…this morning they added additional Accu Weather reports at :03 & :33 past in addition to the new times of :23 & :53 past.

Jeff & Deb Lawler still read the weather report at :13 & :43 past.
Click to expand...

Obviously with a winter event of epic proportions soon to be upon us, today, Saturday 19 January and I expect into tomorrow, the AccuWeather forecasts are being broadcast on WBZ six times each hour, just as they were in “the good ole days”. And count me among the grateful for this!

But the situation reminds me of the 1980 disaster spoof “Airplane”, in which Lloyd Bridges’ character Steve McCroskey keeps muttering, “Looks like I picked a bad week to quit (smoking/drinking/sniffing glue/doing drugs)!”
 
nowradioguy said:
But the situation reminds me of the 1980 disaster spoof “Airplane”, in which Lloyd Bridges’ character Steve McCroskey keeps muttering, “Looks like I picked a bad week to quit (smoking/drinking/sniffing glue/doing drugs)!”
Click to expand...

What's more important: The weather or the branding?
 
TheBigA said:
If the weather report comes from the same place, and is read by the same person, why does it matter?
Click to expand...

It doesn't. Weather reports are a utility function of radio, not an entertainment function. If the information is provided by expert meteorologists, based on the best possible science available, and delivered with its content unaltered and free from editorialization, clearly and concisely, it matters not a whit if a meteorologist reads it, if a staff announcer reads it, or even if a synthesized voice reads it, so long as it is fully understandable. It certainly doesn't matter that a meteorologist who fancies himself an entertainer wraps an eloquent or witty or humorous soliloquy around the forecast. Making the listener chuckle is not why stations report on the weather, or at least it shouldn't be. Just read it straight, whoever is reading it, and get on with the programming the station's regular listeners want to hear.
 
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