Biggest offenders for interrupting programing for severe weather

[MattParker]

And I remember Channel 12 getting a lot of grief about it, since
the tornado had passed through about three hours before NBC's
coverage of the Derby began. But WFMY and WGHP were staying
with the tornado story, so WXII must have figured it had to, too.

That's what I'm talking about. Broadcasting is a competition-focused business. Not viewer focused. Not even client focused in news and programming areas. Now, we are coming up on the State of the Union speech. The schedule says all four major commercial networks will cover it. Why? All they are doing is driving viewers to cable. There is no difference between what's shown on one network or another - they all take the same pool feed. Most of the audience could care less but that doesn't matter to news geeks.

 

[vchimpanzee]

More stations should broadcast weather reports during commercial breaks only and display only small text of counties under storm watches or warnings at the bottom of the screen rather than maps highlighting the counties. Doing too much could make viewers and listeners lose interest, which could lead to danger in the distant future for some folks.

Interrupting commercial breaks may mean lost advertising revenue, but it shouldn't matter if the stations are willing to have long weather reports after interrupting other programs, including the flow of newscasts.

I've seen stations do this. They should use the advertising budget that is normally used for those commercials where they say, "Coming up at 11, Obama speaks to Congress."

One station where I live rarely interupts, using the logic that if people really need to know, they'll do it (though one time they went wall-to-wall and it didin't turn out to be that bad). But these other stations are doing something dangerous because people won't know when it's really bad if they go wall-to-wall for the most minor thing. I have no patience with these stations that show off their fancy equipment. The one station I watch for weather usually tells us the low and the high for the day, something most stations don't bother with but it's the only way I'll find out that day instead of waiting for the next day's newspaper. Okay, I DO have a computer now, but I never look at such information there. That station has no fancy radar, though they do have a radar. And they also don't interrupt much.

 

[vchimpanzee]

That's what they still do here. They always turn off the ticker during commercials.

On the other hand, one station did that and hadn't gotten all the way through the message, but then they never turned it back on.

Ironically, that station was WCNC Charlotte, NC, one of the worst offenders when it comes to interrupting programming for a "possible" tornado and staying with it, showing off their fancy equipment and never showing anything new or worthwhile. And I have yet to find the "Jeopardy" episode I missed that one time when the other "Jeopardy" station also went wall-to-wall (I can only hope its one of the select episodes that gets shown on Saturday night and that one of these stations actually shows it). At least if it's NBC programming it'll be online. Though my Internet at home isn't fast enough for video (it is fast enough for this site, amazingly) and I never turned on the sound for various reasons. And a lot of libraries want you to bring your own earphones or buy them; I only go to three libraries that provide them.

 

[recto101]

I noticed sometimes in the San Francisco Bay Area there were cases when KTVU and KGO TV did scrolls in a headline ticker during Network Programming when they say the USGS recorded a 2.9 quake to 3.2 quake on Faults in the Bay Area. Nobody in the bay area pays attention to a 2.9 quake. We only care about quakes if its 5.5 to 7.9 this is when we panic here in Norcal.