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No Storm News
- Thread starter spew
- Start date
On a side note, Arch Kennedy on 17 and the dude at Channel 4 were hysterical to watch and listen to them stumble their way through the storm. I actually TIVO'd them for my wife who is out of town. As far as radio, I had more warning on my Facebook page from friends then was on the box.
Nock
Nock
sorry to burst the bubble on your self-serving rant there spew...
WLAC did an hour of live coverage as soon as the tornado warnings were issued.
when the tornado warning expored...so did the coverage.
sorry you missed it...and you really should use a narrower brush in your attacks.
WLAC did an hour of live coverage as soon as the tornado warnings were issued.
when the tornado warning expored...so did the coverage.
sorry you missed it...and you really should use a narrower brush in your attacks.
Lisa Patton and Davis Nolen did a great job as usual on Channel 2.
I would be very careful NOT to criticize the guys who actually DO provide some coverage. (Remember the subject here was a rant about those who did NOT provide any coverage!) That said, when they run down the list of all the communities to which the storm is heading, I wish they would be very careful about which town names they actually mention when reading off names. The smaller the community is, the more likely there are to be other communities with the same or similar name! After all, how many Pleasant Groves are there out there, anyway?Nock said:
My question is when did everyone who broke into their regular programming return to their network programming? I was in Bellevue, where the storm passed over about 6:00 on Saturday evening, and at 7:30, channel 4 was still covering the storm. At what point do they decide it has moved out of their area, and that the danger is over, and then return to their regularly scheduled programming?
firepoint525 said:
I don't speak for any station in your area, however as a matter of note:
Quite a few radio stations these days (and most TV stations as well) have weather radars in their studios, so it's pretty easy to tell when a storm is "leaving the area". You can tell by watching the path of the storm on radar. When the National Weather Service issues a "cancellation" of a warning (which they do via AP or other means) it means "it's over" for the warned area. It's pretty much a no-brainer.
Now, obviously not all radio stations have such radars (or have a cable hook up to a TV in their studios so they can tune to the local radar) in their studios. And those are the ones I, personally, wouldn't listen to during a dangerous storm.
firepoint525 said:
Just my opinion...for what it's worth...etc...
I agree. Each station has to make the decision how to cover it...From what I could tell..
WKRN - WALL TO WALL about 5:15 ish till 7p / and Nashville Weather Channel for digital viewers
WSMV- WALL TO WALL till after 7p
WTVF- (this was the interesting one.) Continued carrying the Final 4 on the main channel, with numerous cut ins, and a continuous crawl, and used their news 5+ to go wall to wall.
WZTV- WALL TO WALL not sure how long they stayed with it
WNAB / WUXP - No live coverage that I could tell...but kept the crawl up continuously.
WDCN- No live coverage. No Crawl. The EAS activation was the only warning viewers had.
This was a just a bad storm but with the potential to be deadly, and it seemed like most of the television stations had a good handle on it. Kudos to them.
;D
To answer the question about why they stayed with it even after the storms had rolled out of Nashville.
The Nashville DMA is much larger than just the county, or even the bordering counties to Davidson. Both radio and television have a responsibility to act as a megaphone during life threatening hazards, and they have to take in to account folks in the bedroom communities surrounding them.
spew said:
I listen to WSM online nearly every Saturday and last Saturday they indeed had announcments regarding the Tornado Warning and they continued with them until the Weather Service downgraded to a Watch. That was prior to the first Opry Show. I don't listen to other stations from Nashville, I am in Los Angeles but I thought that WSM was keeping their listeners informmed.
I was watching on my digital TV (don't have cable and don't really need it), and I noticed that 2 was indeed simulcasting their coverage over their Nashville WX channel. Good move on their part! I suppose once prime time began, they could have shifted their coverage solely to the WX channel if necessary, but I don't know if they did that or not.RadioBabble said:
I'm not really surprised that 5 had most of their coverage on 5+, but I can barely get even regular 5 on my DTV, but when I could get it, I seem to recall seeing messages on the screen to check the plus for coverage.
But it seems to me that once the storms got past, say, Manchester, that maybe the Chattanooga stations could pick up the coverage from there.
Seems to me that radio is at a disadvantage when covering storms of this nature, except when power goes out. (You can't "see" a radar on the radio.) A few years back, however, Oldies 96.3 did the right thing. They suspended their regular programming, and simulcast with channel 2. Radio stations just don't have the manpower to cover these storms the way they should be covered. (Somehow, I doubt Jack-FM would do that now!)One Who Knows said:
Considering that this storm hit on a weekend, the TV stations did remarkably well. Many of them had their regular weekday people in there assisting the weekend staffers with storm coverage!
firepoint525 said:
I hear ya! Wonder what will happen when the "This time WE REALLY MEAN IT" DTV conversion happens in June. How many people will be forced to cable or dish to get local info?
I must jump in. WSM's news room and control rooms had weather radar in them from back in the 80s. I believe the feed came from the NWS. The bad side, only Hairl Hensley could read it well enough and knew the state well enough to accurately say with any near certainity where the storms were. Because you couldn't see the counties clearly, you took your best shot. One of myy favorites was of a young female joc who said, "there's a large green blob of rain coming in from the left!"
Later, a young fellow. Michael Grogan, who worked in the traffic area and nows works in Kentucky's weather with I think Western, was brought in to the news room anytime storms came, was a lot of help. He knew what he was doing as far as weather was concerned.
At that time, WSM was the EAS station for all of Middle TN from the Ky to the Alabama borders. We would usually keep coverage going until it cleared a particular area and went into another. Had to use a little discretion. The county next to Chattanooga was in our area but there was no way they were listening to WSM,
And yes....if the Opry was on and a storm hit, we notified them we were breaking away and gave them the info and went into wall to wall coverage. All news people were on call 24/7, and yes, I do have several funny stories on excuses we got when someone couldn't make it in.
The advantage or radio....few people have televisions in their cars if storms hit during drive time. Can't tell you how many calls we got during the tornadoes of 98 and other storms to thank us. Am sure other stations also got them too because we weren't the only station in town with news people....just the largest. An WLAC is still on top of it when it happens. Try them....they are about all that's left, unfortunately.
Later, a young fellow. Michael Grogan, who worked in the traffic area and nows works in Kentucky's weather with I think Western, was brought in to the news room anytime storms came, was a lot of help. He knew what he was doing as far as weather was concerned.
At that time, WSM was the EAS station for all of Middle TN from the Ky to the Alabama borders. We would usually keep coverage going until it cleared a particular area and went into another. Had to use a little discretion. The county next to Chattanooga was in our area but there was no way they were listening to WSM,
And yes....if the Opry was on and a storm hit, we notified them we were breaking away and gave them the info and went into wall to wall coverage. All news people were on call 24/7, and yes, I do have several funny stories on excuses we got when someone couldn't make it in.
The advantage or radio....few people have televisions in their cars if storms hit during drive time. Can't tell you how many calls we got during the tornadoes of 98 and other storms to thank us. Am sure other stations also got them too because we weren't the only station in town with news people....just the largest. An WLAC is still on top of it when it happens. Try them....they are about all that's left, unfortunately.
I agree with romer975fm. I was also listening to WLAC. News Director Dan Eidam came in and they did a great job of dedicated coverage until the storm passed. I would think that coverage would have been available to the other Clear Channel stations as well.
firepoint525 said:Considering that this storm hit on a weekend, the TV stations did remarkably well. Many of them had their regular weekday people in there assisting the weekend staffers with storm coverage!
Storms like this aren't really breaking news -- we know they're coming, and our meteorologists know in advance they're going to be working extra hours. (likewise, us behind-the-scenes folks take extra steps to make sure everything is ready for them)
There are online radar tools available -- if nothing else, the radar loop on the NWS website -- I would think radio wouldn't have any problems finding weather pictures at least as good as what channels 2 and 5 have. (I'd like to think ours at ch. 4 are quite a bit better!)
Of course, the problem radio has is that their audience can't see the radar -- the announcer has to visualize it for them...
Did WTVF put 5+ back up on their DTV? I haven't scanned their channel for a few weeks... did notice 2-1 and 2-2 simulcasting.
From W9wi
While I appreciate your passion for t-v, I must disagree and say it really is breaking news. You THINK they're coming. We had metrologists too and they also said there was a chance, a good chance, whatever. Think back to the times you had all those weather folks standing by for snow/storms/etc and it never happened...like the second line of storms just a few days ago that swung south of metro and was no big deal for t=v. If they happened, then it became 'breaking' news. We had the 'forecasts and 'advances' too for the extra hours, and there were a number of times we awoke on a morning to clear skies when predictions were for several inches of snow. Weather is an imperfect science. Why else would you have reporters out at 4 o'clock pointing to where the snow may fall yet if it doesn't miss us completely and the person at the salt hill (I think in West Nashville) for reports. Radio and t-v have been doing it for years. You guys have the staff. You have more people concentrating on weather than there are radio news people in town........with a job.
We had the loops, and for a long time shared ch. 4's radar because they liked using info from our news people (Don Aaron, Scott Couch, Annette Nole and Dorenda Carter to name a few)and we used some of theirs. It was a pretty good trade until they began taking our folks.
While I appreciate your passion for t-v, I must disagree and say it really is breaking news. You THINK they're coming. We had metrologists too and they also said there was a chance, a good chance, whatever. Think back to the times you had all those weather folks standing by for snow/storms/etc and it never happened...like the second line of storms just a few days ago that swung south of metro and was no big deal for t=v. If they happened, then it became 'breaking' news. We had the 'forecasts and 'advances' too for the extra hours, and there were a number of times we awoke on a morning to clear skies when predictions were for several inches of snow. Weather is an imperfect science. Why else would you have reporters out at 4 o'clock pointing to where the snow may fall yet if it doesn't miss us completely and the person at the salt hill (I think in West Nashville) for reports. Radio and t-v have been doing it for years. You guys have the staff. You have more people concentrating on weather than there are radio news people in town........with a job.
We had the loops, and for a long time shared ch. 4's radar because they liked using info from our news people (Don Aaron, Scott Couch, Annette Nole and Dorenda Carter to name a few)and we used some of theirs. It was a pretty good trade until they began taking our folks.
wsm was not on air through storm and no tornado warning thursday are they still eas primary station or another station now/ or no one there at that time.
radionekkid said:
throw some of these in next time, kidd . . . , , , ; ; ; ? !
they're called punctuaion marks, and they help your posts make sense.
however, they obviously help with spelling (punctuation)
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