KXAS drops ball on Dallas tornado coverage, and apologizes for it

[Will_H_69_9]

This Sunday (October 20, 2019) will now go down as another tragic weather day for North Texas as storms hit North Texas as tornadoes touched down all over the area, with North Dallas getting the worst of it with a EF3 tornado that was on the ground for about 32 minutes and at one point may had been a wedge shaped one. this outbreak of tornadoes was covered by all the local channels live except 1. KXAS NBC 5 did not do a great job at covering the storm live on TV as they opted to stay with the Dallas Cowboys/Philadelphia Eagles Sunday Night Football game, which the game was a home game for the Cowboys, and the roof was closed at AT&T Stadium due to the storms, the storms were severe when they hit the Arlington area, but they lucked out and it didn't go tornadic until after it crossed the Dallas/Tarrant county line. KXAS did break in during the breaks and did wall to wall coverage online on their website and the NBC 5 app. and KXAS realized the error in their judgement in not going wall to wall on live TV and stop airing the game and they have apologized for their poor judgement on Sunday.

KXAS NBC 5's apology about the lack of severe weather coverage Sunday Night:
https://www.nbcdfw.com/weather/stories/NBC-5-Dallas-Fort-WorthKXAS-Statement-Regarding-Sunday-Oct-20-2019-Weather-Coverage-563578861.html

The Cowboys were pretty much dominating the Eagles during the game and pretty much had a huge lead when the tornado stuck Dallas.

 

[tested]

KXAS has spent millions on weather equipment over the past few years to build up their reputation as the go to weather station in the area. They have something like 6 meteorologists on staff. They have 2 dopplar radars, a "thunder truck" to chase storms, and even a mobile doppler radar they can deploy. Given all that, it is astounding to me that they didn't cut in when the warning was issued. They could have squeezed the game back into a box on a 3rd of the screen and had the meteorologist up with radar.

They could have used all those fancy gadgets to dominate the night. If they had kept the game on in a box, some football fans would have been mad, but where would they go? It's not like the Cowboys game was on another channel, even if the severe weather coverage was. And they would have probably drawn some folks to them who were not watching the game. It could have been a moment when KXAS grabbed the brass ring and obliterated their competition in the ratings and won praise for doing the right thing. Instead, they are apologizing for blowing it. All that money spent on weather equipment means nothing if they don't use it when it counts. They didn't and it means nothing. This was a disaster for KXAS.