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Ancient Weather Forecast on WRKO 680
- Thread starter ajaynejr
- Start date
Going back to the beginning of this thread, I find it inexcusable with technology these days for a station to run last weeks show complete with the news, weather, and traffic reports from a week ago. Even iHeart has the technology to put markers before and after commercial breaks to segment the show recordings. That just means it's easier for them to just play back one file instead of making cart numbers for each segment. Laziness. Could there be nobody in the studio to do it and they don't care how it sounds? Probably true.
As a former PD, I notice these issues all the time. I used to scour my logs meticulously and carefully. You can have everything as perfect as possible, but if somebody updated the forecast under the wrong cart number, old forecasts can run. They can run repetitively if you use the same forecast all day.
I remember having two different versions of the forecast run through each daypart during automation. I think it was 8-10 forecasts per day that were recorded for Saturday and Sunday. If you were listening at 8pm, you'd hear "cloudy skies for the rest of tonight..."). If a line of storms developed on a Sunday afternoon when nobody was in the building, I'd call whoever we used at the time (accu-weather or wx channel), and ask for updated forecasts to be sent. I couldn't do that every time and still have a life, but you did what you could to sound live and local while staying dependable.
It got harder and harder with the more people you lost. Forecasts ran longer, forecasts from the weather channel were cut out of the budget, nobody was there to update the forecasts and they were recorded a day ahead of time. Nobody was there anymore to verify the files for the sunday night show downloaded properly. These things add up. I agree that it is a lot more common at the corporate giant. Nobody is there to answer the emails, either. They get printed and put in the public file ceremoniously.
As a former PD, I notice these issues all the time. I used to scour my logs meticulously and carefully. You can have everything as perfect as possible, but if somebody updated the forecast under the wrong cart number, old forecasts can run. They can run repetitively if you use the same forecast all day.
I remember having two different versions of the forecast run through each daypart during automation. I think it was 8-10 forecasts per day that were recorded for Saturday and Sunday. If you were listening at 8pm, you'd hear "cloudy skies for the rest of tonight..."). If a line of storms developed on a Sunday afternoon when nobody was in the building, I'd call whoever we used at the time (accu-weather or wx channel), and ask for updated forecasts to be sent. I couldn't do that every time and still have a life, but you did what you could to sound live and local while staying dependable.
It got harder and harder with the more people you lost. Forecasts ran longer, forecasts from the weather channel were cut out of the budget, nobody was there to update the forecasts and they were recorded a day ahead of time. Nobody was there anymore to verify the files for the sunday night show downloaded properly. These things add up. I agree that it is a lot more common at the corporate giant. Nobody is there to answer the emails, either. They get printed and put in the public file ceremoniously.
The fact is the technology is what makes it more likely for mistakes to happen.
Think about that the next time you board an airplane, and realize how much of what happens is controlled by technology.
One of these days whether accidentally or maliciously the GPS system will be unreliable. IIRC the old VORs are still around, so planes won't get "lost' as long as the radar system holds up but the computer generated flight plan for maximum fuel efficiency will be iffy. My son can't drive anywhere "new or different" without GPS. I can usually read the signs and remember the route number order to get me to the desired city or town but the residential streets in a town require a map or GPS for me.
While I am derailing the tread, if you use Goggle Maps in North GA., sooner or later it will take you needlessly on narrow county roads. My street didn't even show up on Google Maps for 5 years after I moved here.
While I am derailing the tread, if you use Goggle Maps in North GA., sooner or later it will take you needlessly on narrow county roads. My street didn't even show up on Google Maps for 5 years after I moved here.
Punch in my street address and Google maps sends you a mile away to the next town over. Really makes it difficult to get non-standard deliveries (e.g. Amazon's own delivery service or an LTL freight truck). Any non USPS/UPS/Fedex delivery ends up in the next town over. Fortunately the guy who owns that house and I have become good friends so he just drops stuff off when it gets mis-delivered. Numerous attempts to get google to correct their mistake have been ignored.
I wonder if the Big 68 realizes that their weather sounder always overwhelms the first sentence or two of their forecast.
Or cares.
Or cares.
not meaning to hijack, but this seems related. RKO and T1200 (haven't noticed on BZ so far) are usually midsentence upon rejoin. that is, howie saying something like "...3-5152, call today!" or "...dot com. check it out!"
sometimes it's the show itself, usually it's howie doing a live ad read. but it's clear he's been at it 10 (20? 30?) seconds already before the rejoin happens.
what would cause this and how can his engineers not notice? been like this 2-3 years(!) now.
i have to wonder whether the STREAM version is going out w/o problem, otherwise his engineers would just HAVE to notice. right? RIGHT?
2-3 years!
sometimes it's the show itself, usually it's howie doing a live ad read. but it's clear he's been at it 10 (20? 30?) seconds already before the rejoin happens.
what would cause this and how can his engineers not notice? been like this 2-3 years(!) now.
i have to wonder whether the STREAM version is going out w/o problem, otherwise his engineers would just HAVE to notice. right? RIGHT?
2-3 years!
back on the main topic, RKO/BZ/T1200 routinely advertise shows after they've passed. i would shrug it off, same as the weather reruns, were it not for the fact that this NEVER happens on tv.
when's the last time u saw an ad for a tv show after the fact, or some preview which turned out to be last week's episode?! in my entire life, i have maybe experienced that once or twice!
and yet, on radio, it's an everyday occurrence. esp during weekends and holidays.
i would think software alone could easily prevent this. why is it so common?
when's the last time u saw an ad for a tv show after the fact, or some preview which turned out to be last week's episode?! in my entire life, i have maybe experienced that once or twice!
and yet, on radio, it's an everyday occurrence. esp during weekends and holidays.
i would think software alone could easily prevent this. why is it so common?
It really depends on account rep. If he / she doesn't put time limits on the commercial, it will get TFN on the sound file ( commercial) in the automation. Depending on how the commercial log is played by the automation it will get played if it's on the log. Then there are freebies to if a hard break with strict time to fill. Sounds like the real issue is no one is checking the dates and time of the orders when entered into the system.
Back last century I had an account that wanted his spots (one made up for each daily show) between between 7am and 5:30 pm Monday thru Friday. (TV station was doing a TV show that ran 5:30 to 6pm). The first day of the order I heard the commercial at 7:15 PM. Next Morning I asked what happened to the the secretary that did the commercial log. She looked at the order and said I didn't put "no bonus commercials" on the order. She got the order correct for the paid commercials. I asked her to please put no bonus spots on the order. I was unaware that the station did bonus commercials after 6pm. I had heard commercials evenings on the station but I thought they were "Run of Schedule".
As my Dad said "To err is human, it requires a computer to really foul thing up".
Sounds like a feature like block fill is not turned on or not enough fill material assigned to the stream. The stream is set up as a slave station to the master. It’s supposed to match the break length of the master station as precisely as possible. It goes to break when the main station breaks. If the jock removes something from the break while the break is occurring it’s supposed to compensate immediately. If you don’t have enough :05, :10, :15, :03 length whatever pieces of imaging such as website mentions or promos to pull from to help fill gaps caused by local spots that were not exact length or other anomolies this will certainly happen. Very simple thing to fix. They may also have a show rejoiner inside of a spot block on the stream while the main station has one outside. The stream doesn’t know better in that case.not meaning to hijack, but this seems related. RKO and T1200 (haven't noticed on BZ so far) are usually midsentence upon rejoin. that is, howie saying something like "...3-5152, call today!" or "...dot com. check it out!"
sometimes it's the show itself, usually it's howie doing a live ad read. but it's clear he's been at it 10 (20? 30?) seconds already before the rejoin happens.
what would cause this and how can his engineers not notice? been like this 2-3 years(!) now.
i have to wonder whether the STREAM version is going out w/o problem, otherwise his engineers would just HAVE to notice. right? RIGHT?
2-3 years!
aren't u explaining the reverse case?
it is the terrestrial signal where the rejoin is all screwed up. i was speculating that perhaps (have not listened) the stream was doing ok.
and "the jock removes something" sounds like an occasional issue. this, rather, is happening a dozen times in every show, day in day out.
it is the terrestrial signal where the rejoin is all screwed up. i was speculating that perhaps (have not listened) the stream was doing ok.
and "the jock removes something" sounds like an occasional issue. this, rather, is happening a dozen times in every show, day in day out.
Yes, but the same scenario. Let’s say you get a 2:00 local break. While in the break, the network has network filler.
You could be hearing the tail end of that filler because the station isn’t filling all the way to that 2:00 or 2:30 (whatever it may be).
The opposite could be true. Howie comes back on after 2 minutes and the station overfilled the break and is rejoining the network late.
You could be hearing the tail end of that filler because the station isn’t filling all the way to that 2:00 or 2:30 (whatever it may be).
The opposite could be true. Howie comes back on after 2 minutes and the station overfilled the break and is rejoining the network late.
If you look at the major TV networks there is most likely is / are human being (s) that actually reads over the commercial logs simply due to the amount of money involved. (Sales Intern maybe?)* Also I am pretty sure there are "stop dates and times" on every commercial entered in the sever. I will will be you regular cup of BK coffee that date and time corresponds with the dates and times with what ever or who ever generates the commercial logs.
All this Automation that was supposed to reduce human beings. But like any computer: garbage in equals garbage out. I will bet there isn't enough revenue involved for management to enforce proper entries accurate date / time entries for promos entered into the system at the station in question.
But there were screwups with stations before computers. Last century I will never forget driving back to my house after a week of vacation, going thru Charleston WV, listening to the old WKAZ AM. There was a department store that was closing their doors forever at 5 pm Sunday night. I drove into reception range just after 5pm and until I drove out of range at around 6:30Pm least 6 or 8 times, I heard a spot for the store as the first commercial and repeated as the last commercial in each commercial break. The ad included "95% off everything in the store today if you got there before the doors close "forever at 5pm". The station was live with an announcer back then. There is no way in the the world these commercials helped the client. They were "live" back then why these commercials were in the log is a question for the sales department.
* I have worked a two stations that had interns and at both they actually looked at and was informed about the commercial log the first day. After that, they ran out and got me lunch at a sponcer's restaurant. To be fair I paid for their order too.