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HAS NEWS RADIO WCBS 880 SWITCHED WEATHER SERVICES?

A

Adman4120

Guest
Hello...I am in the Utica-Rome-Syracuse area, but listen to News Radio WCBS most of the time when their signal begins to boom into Central NY near sunset and early morning.

It's probably nothing, or maybe it's because of the holiday week, but this afternoon when Wayne Cabot and Debra Rodriguez went to the weather center, they never mentioned their normal "Pinpoint" Weather with Craig Allen or any of the other regular people that do the weather. Instead, they said lets go to the weather center and CBS 2's ____________. I forget the girls name.

I did not know if they are now using Channel 2's weather people and dropped the weather service company they have been using for years, or, if this is something they do from time to time.

I know this isn't a big deal to most people, and it isn't a huge deal to me....just curious as you get used to listening to certain people all the time.

Thanks for any information.

Dave
 
Since February or March, 2010, WCBS-AM has been using the WCBS TV weather anchors (Elise Finch, John Elliot, Lonnie Quinn) in weekday midday dayparts. Craig Allen still appears in weekday drive times along with the other forecasters you're used to hearing on the weekends. "Pinpoint Weather" is a euphemism for "Accuweather" which is what sister station WINS AM uses & announces on-air. I believe (as you posted) that WCBS-AM doesn't use the "Pinpoint" moniker on-air anymore, even when not throwing it to the WCBS TV weather anchors (confirmation needed). Article explaining this change from TheExaminer.com linked below:

http://www.examiner.com/media-in-new-york/wcbs-tv-weather-forecasters-join-wcbs-am
 
AccuWeather is a private weather forecasting serving based in State College, PA - not simply a promotional catchphrase. WINS has exclusive rights to AccuWeather forecasts (and forecasters) for radio in the New York market. Stations co-owned by CBS are not included.

As the link article points out, CBS Radio is using TV sports broadcasters and TV weather reporters on radio to cross-promote the local CBS2 TV news. They are doing the same in other markets and it has caused some problems with content providers. For example, CBS3 in Philadelphia uses both the co-owned Shadow Traffic and the separately-owned Traffic Pulse services for its traffic reports. Using both services (which are not exclusive to any TV station in the market, in contract to Accu-Weather's exclusive arrangements with one TV and one radio station in a market) gives them more choice of maps, graphics and cameras and occasionally one service beats the other on a big jam. Problem is the local traffic reporter for CBS3 also does drive-time traffic reports for CBS' Philly Oldies station, which subscribes to Shadow but not Traffic Pulse. Reportedly, once in a while he will go on the radio and mention something gleaned from Traffic Pulse.

One has to wonder why TV and radio stations pay for a private weather service when the government gives it all away for free (well, paid for by your taxes). Even private forecasters like AccuWeather get their data from the US Weather Service. For the Boxing Day - Feast of Stephen Blizzard, nobody was getting it right any way.
 
Thanks to everyone for the information. Now that everyone has mentioned it, I now recall that Craig Allen is heard later in the day when I can pick up WCBS, along with Tom Kaminski in the traffic copter, who I think does one heck of a job and sounds perfect as the guy for the sky.
 
MattParker said:
AccuWeather is a private weather forecasting serving based in State College, PA - not simply a promotional catchphrase. WINS has exclusive rights to AccuWeather forecasts (and forecasters) for radio in the New York market. Stations co-owned by CBS are not included.
Click to expand...

Matt, you are wrong. WCBS 880 uses AccuWeather forecasters, too. We just don't reference the Accu brand on our air.

Several familiar weather voices heard on WCBS 880 - including Bob Larson, Joe Lundberg, Brett Anderson and others - are, indeed, AccuWeather meteorologists. When they're on our air, they're part of our WCBS 880 family. But, they work for AccuWx.

I hope this clears up the misinformation you posted.

Steve Scott
WCBS 880
 
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