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KING

No joke—the only reporter I recognized on the 5:00 show was Natalie Swaby. I still don’t get the whole Chief meteorologist thing. Shannon and Morgan are consistently on during the evening shows. KING is just a revolving door; it’s jarring. But, maybe it’s just me.
 
No, it's not just you. Most of the reporters are beyond green. Stumbling over words, terrible writing, etc. Even so, it's the least worst option in Seattle local news.
 
KING's weather situation is kinda weird. Have you noticed that the weekend morning guy, Christopher Nunley, has PhD after his name on the screen. Granted, getting a PhD in anything is impressive, and he lists it in his bio, but I've never seen anybody have their education credentials listed on the screen. Any graduate degree is impressive, and if you read the station bios, quite a few reporters/anchors have Masters degrees, but they don't put MA after their names on the screen. Maybe I'm the only one that finds this unusual.
 
Back "in the day" you couldn't land a gig at KING without a college degree, and in most cases the news dir wanted something OTHER than communications (or, at least, a double-major). They wanted people who could analyze politics, economics, sociology, etc. And NO ONE had credentials on the screen!! But they were clearly ahead of their time in seeking that kind of well-rounded background.
 
Some folks who earn a doctorate emerge from the process with an inflated ego, insisting they be called "Doctor" even if their degree isn't in medicine and adding their abbreviated credential after their names. To be fair, it's a long, hard grind getting one's doctorate, but for a weatherman to flaunt his Ph.D. is a bit much. It would be interesting to compare "Doctor" Nunley's forecast accuracy with that of his colleagues who went to work after getting their bachelor's or master's instead of staying in college.
 
I can think of at least 2 instances where meteorologists were called "Dr." so-and-so. Most recently, in Phoenix at KPNX, they had Meteorologist Dr. Matt Pace. Years ago, in New York City, there was Dr. Frank Field with the weather.

I wonder if it's Nunley's decision or if it's a KING management's decision.
 
Nunley was forecasting on the 5pm last night, and only his name appeared, not his credential. It will be interesting to see if that was a "prime time" decision, and if it continues on the weekend morning gig--
 
I can think of at least 2 instances where meteorologists were called "Dr." so-and-so. Most recently, in Phoenix at KPNX, they had Meteorologist Dr. Matt Pace. Years ago, in New York City, there was Dr. Frank Field with the weather.

I wonder if it's Nunley's decision or if it's a KING management's decision.
The Ph.D. was in his name title when he was at sister station KVUE. So likely it was his decision and not the station.
 
The Ph.D. was in his name title when he was at sister station KVUE. So likely it was his decision and not the station.
I wouldn't necessarily come to that conclusion. Perhaps KVUE management thought it gave them a competitive edge. Having lived in Texas for 10 years, I found that there was a lot of respect for those with doctoratess, perhaps more so than the Pacific Northwest.

Years ago, in the 80's, KING made a relatively big deal out of Jeff Renner going back to school to get meteorology certification at UW. Jean Enersen exclaimed one day that "Jeff even had to take Calculus!"
 
I can think of at least 2 instances where meteorologists were called "Dr." so-and-so. Most recently, in Phoenix at KPNX, they had Meteorologist Dr. Matt Pace. Years ago, in New York City, there was Dr. Frank Field with the weather.
And they tossed to "Dr. Matt" on air, which I didn't care for.
 
Years ago, in the 80's, KING made a relatively big deal out of Jeff Renner going back to school to get meteorology certification at UW. Jean Enersen exclaimed one day that "Jeff even had to take Calculus!"
Better than Steve Pool, always had a degreed weather producer.
 
Granted, getting a PhD in anything is impressive, and he lists it in his bio, but I've never seen anybody have their education credentials listed on the screen. Any graduate degree is impressive, and if you read the station bios, quite a few reporters/anchors have Masters degrees, but they don't put MA after their names on the screen.
Many on air meteorologists turn up at a small market station after getting a B.A in Journalism from somewhere and get tossed in front of the green screen because "someone has to do it tonight."

This occasionally happens in larger markets too - Meeghan Black was a reporter who was asked to fill in doing weather at KIRO and made a career out of it. Nick Walker had the same thing happen to him (again, at KIRO) and did 20 years at the Weather Channel.

They find they like it, and to rapidly advance their skills they end up in Mississippi State's M.S. Geosciences program which has a concentration in Broadcast Meteorology. That program has been pumping out great tv meteorologists for decades. M.S. Concentrations | Department of Geosciences at Mississippi State University (msstate.edu)
 
Anyone notice almost all local stations use the same format for weather. Half hour newscasts tend to be a 20-35 second tease between :00 and :07 sometimes a bit further if a lot of breaking news occurs. Then the main segment between about :16 and :21. Some do a 3rd quick hit at the end of ‘cast. I understand this has going on for years but it seems more stations follow it today. I would think this came from tv news consultants.
 
Anyone notice almost all local stations use the same format for weather. Half hour newscasts tend to be a 20-35 second tease between :00 and :07 sometimes a bit further if a lot of breaking news occurs. Then the main segment between about :16 and :21. Some do a 3rd quick hit at the end of ‘cast. I understand this has going on for years but it seems more stations follow it today. I would think this came from TV news consultants.
Go back in your memory banks to 'quarter hour maintenance' used by radio. In a normal weather day, you tease to keep the audience through at least one quarter hour. Special weather features like a seasonal predictions are teased through the hour, and ultimately placed somewhere in the last quarter of each evening news block hour.
 
I remember this concept with certain stations as far back as the 80's. In Providence, WLNE lured the very-popular chief met from WJAR. At WLNE, they had the chief met doing a "first forecast" at the end of the A block, then his full forecast, and ended the newscast with his "quickie cast".

And who can forget KIRO's "Weather at 11:05" with Aaron Brown ripping through the top stores and getting to Harry at "11:05 and 39 seconds"? LOL!
 
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