Sadly I don't even watch the Weather Channel much anymore. The end for me was when they started airing all of those storm stories and other non-sense programming. I'm not against this kind of stuff per se, but I think it belongs on something like a Weather Channel 2.
It's pretty bad when you can't get weather on the Weather Channel anymore. This spring/summer has been the worst so far. In the past, you could count on a forecast at least every 10 minutes. Now, it's more like a half an hour. The last round of severe weather we had I put on the Weather Channel looking for the local radar and forecast. It never came, not for at least 25 minutes. To me, this makes the Weather Channel completely unreliable.
The Weather Channel used to be the best place for weather on TV. You could count on them for the local forecast and radar every 10 minutes, in addition to the scroll of local conditions below - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! In comparison, most local TV stations didn't even have people in the weather office on weekends before 6 p.m. or at night past 11:30 p.m. So if there were severe storms, the Weather Channel was where you tuned in. Today it's the total opposite. Now, almost every station in my market is tied into the National Weather Service, so that once the storms roll in, you see the area map, with the counties and weather zones shaded for the appropriate watches/warnings, 24/7. The CBS and NBC affiliates actually go as far to add the local radar at the bottom of the screen too, which I think is GREAT! (and why can't TWC do this?) Meanwhile, the Weather Channel is airing storm stories for 25 minutes with no break for forecasts, no current conditions, no radar, nothing.
But it doesn't matter really, since local stations are now filling this void. It's also faster to forget the Weather Channel altogether and just go online now for local radar and conditions (as long as it's not lightning badly - don't wanna get shocked
) So in essence, things have totally flipped in the last 5-10 years thanks to technology and the internet. And with stations airing live and local weather information on their digital subchannels, the Weather Channel better change its tune, or they're going to end up irrelevant, kind of like how MTV is with music now. Meanwhile, they spend their time bragging about their new digital studios. Seriously, do they think people really care?
I don't know if the acquisition by NBC will hurt them or actually help them. I guess only time will tell, we'll see.
