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Not Radio Related But TV News Related

B

bamatide

Guest
What is up with the TV news here in Nashville? Every weather forecast for snow has been completely wrong. Channel 4 news said that we would be getting 2-5" of snow today... it has not snowed at all today. Also, what in the world is up with Channel 4 News backdrop???... that has to be the ugliest and tackiest news set I have ever seen in my life.

/rant over.. thanks for listening.
 
It always irks me when I see Channel 4 say anything about "Working for you". A few short years ago, one Saturday morning, for Ch 2 & 5 were talking about a tornado warning that started around 7:30 that morning, and lasted until 8:15 am. With 2 minutes before the warning expired, WSMV jumped on it. Just enough time for a mention, and it was over. I lost respect for them and their work ethics after that. I want to mention who was on, but I don't know if it was their fault or the station's fault, so I won't tarnish their already worthless reputation.
 
firepoint525 said:
Everything I have seen and heard suggests that the snow is coming tonight or tomorrow. It hasn't reached us yet.

Thursday night they said Late Sat Night all day Sunday...

Therefore we cancelled plans that we had with family, etc.
 
Lot of it has to do with our weather forecasting coming from computers. This was a cutback by NOAA several years back when they laid off local weather forecasters. There used to be live forecasters at a Weather Station at the Nashville Airport. Now there is just an observation station here and the forecasts all come from computer programs in another state.
 
What's the use of ANY NASHVILLE station having their OWN STAFF METEOROLOGISTS if they are getting their weather forecast from computers in other states? Why not just go back to the days of having a pretty girl or a quircky man just reading the weather reports off the computer based in another state???
 
bamatide said:
firepoint525 said:
Everything I have seen and heard suggests that the snow is coming tonight or tomorrow. It hasn't reached us yet.
Thursday night they said Late Sat Night all day Sunday...
Therefore we cancelled plans that we had with family, etc.
I would never make or cancel plans based on a weather forecast several days out, unless those plans involved a LONG trip, or doing something outside.
 
spew said:
There used to be live forecasters at a Weather Station at the Nashville Airport.

The Weather Station / Weather Service has never been at the airport. It is off of Saunders Ferry in Old Hickory up on the lake and last time I drove by there were still plenty of cars in the parking lot.

Nock
 
firepoint525 said:
bamatide said:
firepoint525 said:
Everything I have seen and heard suggests that the snow is coming tonight or tomorrow. It hasn't reached us yet.
Thursday night they said Late Sat Night all day Sunday...
Therefore we cancelled plans that we had with family, etc.
I would never make or cancel plans based on a weather forecast several days out, unless those plans involved a LONG trip, or doing something outside.

EXACTLY.. Family was coming in from Atlanta and they kept saying 5" of snow and ice so we did not want them traveling in that crap.. 100% FAIL on their part.
 
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ohx/?n=nwshistory

On April 1, 1970, the U.S. Weather Bureau became known as the National Weather Service. The office moved into the Government Services Building at Metropolitan Airport on June 23, 1975.6 Another move would take the office off the airport and into the GENESCO Building on September 29, 1985. This would mark the first time since 1937 that a weather office was not physically on airport property.

Weather Service Office Moves to Old Hickory Lake

On June 15, 1990 the National Weather Service Office in Nashville, which had been located in the GENESCO Building, was moved to the Shutes Branch Camp Ground on Old Hickory Lake in West Wilson County and merged with the existing Weather Service Meteorological Observatory (WSMO).7
 
bamatide said:
firepoint525 said:
bamatide said:
firepoint525 said:
Everything I have seen and heard suggests that the snow is coming tonight or tomorrow. It hasn't reached us yet.
Thursday night they said Late Sat Night all day Sunday...
Therefore we cancelled plans that we had with family, etc.
I would never make or cancel plans based on a weather forecast several days out, unless those plans involved a LONG trip, or doing something outside.
EXACTLY.. Family was coming in from Atlanta and they kept saying 5" of snow and ice so we did not want them traveling in that crap.. 100% FAIL on their part.
Monteagle Mountain is never fun, even in good weather.

Didn't Atlanta get hit with several inches of snow over the weekend? I know that there was a snow storm that passed mainly south of middle Tennessee.
 
How do the local TV stations decide what counties to include on their Snow Watch/Snowbird maps? Channel 4 does not include, for example, Weakley County, on their Snowbird map, but yet they listed Weakley County among the counties that cancelled classes, on their crawls at the bottom of the screen. Meanwhile, channel 5 has another whole tier of counties in west Tennessee on their map that channel 4 does not have on theirs. Counties like Weakley, Carroll, Henderson, and Hardin are on the channel 5 map, but not on 4. None of the local channels have anything south of the Tennessee/Alabama state line, and nothing far enough east to be on the eastern time zone.

Neither channel has Calloway County, Kentucky, on their maps, but they still occasionally include the temperature in Murray, Kentucky, in their reports. At one time, channel 4's weather maps stretched as far west as Madison County, but obviously not anymore.

I didn't really include much about channel 2, because I have rarely, if ever, seen a map on their channel similar to what I've seen on 4 or 5, but I am also aware that their coverage area might be a bit less than that of 4 and 5, due to the existence of ABC affiliates in Bowling Green and Jackson.
 
I have to say that in the 70's, Boyce Hawkins and I think the other stations weathermen did a decent job of predicting the weather using the telephone to call the Nashville NOAA weather center and magic markers on
a map. All the computers and technology have yet to fix the diverging weather zone west of the Miss. River
that often pushes the systems around, etc. Used to be if the Low Pressure System came through the Texas Panhandle we'd get some snow. If it came down through Missouri northwest of Ohio Valley, etc., something in or near the Gulf always seemed to back it up, push if to far north or dry it out. We'd wake up knowing it was expected to be a six inch snow and knowing it rarely came true, even then. I don't know why they waste our time with more than a two minute weather report because the five day forecast is never right. Damned El Nino. I still blame that Weather Wizard in the Bible Belt.
 
Tibbs2 said:
I have to say that in the 70's, Boyce Hawkins and I think the other stations weathermen .......ETC....


[size=10pt]
BOB LOBERTINI was Nashville's HIGHEST rated TV (WLAC-TV...now WTVF-TV/NewsChannel 5) personality in the late 60s & early 70s.
He was soooo popular he actually would begin the NEWSCAST & then introduce the anchors.

RE: WEATHER computers...all stations use them & they provide high tech, sophisticated "models" of what likely will be our local weather in the next 24/48/72 etc.,etc.,etc hours ....the meteorologists job is to then determine which "model" will come true & relate that to the public with fancy graphics & forecasts.
[/size]
 
Channel 5 in Nashville's News + channel is back on Charter Cable in Jackson. That may be why there is more mention of school closings in West TN. I hope this is the first step in getting 5 annd possibly 4 back on Charter.
 
anotherguy said:
Channel 5 in Nashville's News + channel is back on Charter Cable in Jackson. That may be why there is more mention of school closings in West TN. I hope this is the first step in getting 5 annd possibly 4 back on Charter.
5 was on in Obion County back 20 years ago when I lived there. They were the only Nashville station on the cable system there. Not sure if they still are on there because it has been so long since I have lived there.
 
firepoint525 said:
How do the local TV stations decide what counties to include on their Snow Watch/Snowbird maps? Channel 4 does not include, for example, Weakley County, on their Snowbird map, but yet they listed Weakley County among the counties that cancelled classes, on their crawls at the bottom of the screen. Meanwhile, channel 5 has another whole tier of counties in west Tennessee on their map that channel 4 does not have on theirs. Counties like Weakley, Carroll, Henderson, and Hardin are on the channel 5 map, but not on 4. None of the local channels have anything south of the Tennessee/Alabama state line, and nothing far enough east to be on the eastern time zone.

Neither channel has Calloway County, Kentucky, on their maps, but they still occasionally include the temperature in Murray, Kentucky, in their reports. At one time, channel 4's weather maps stretched as far west as Madison County, but obviously not anymore.

I didn't really include much about channel 2, because I have rarely, if ever, seen a map on their channel similar to what I've seen on 4 or 5, but I am also aware that their coverage area might be a bit less than that of 4 and 5, due to the existence of ABC affiliates in Bowling Green and Jackson.

The maps are supposed to reflect the Nashville DMA. (speaking only for ch. 4, haven't watched 5's map, sorry Sgt. Preston!) I will admit to not having double-checked it against Nielsen.

Of course there is plenty of out-of-market viewing in the Jackson and Bowling Green DMAs, as neither market had local affiliates of all the major networks. (as you note above)

On ch. 4, the computer that generates the maps is not connected to the one that generates the text displays. So it's possible to add a county/institution to the text display without adding it to the maps. Why & how such a decision is made is beyond my pay grade...
 
As I noted above, channel 5 is (or at least was) on the cable system in Obion County, so I could probably fairly safely assume that they are on in Weakley County, too. Channel 5 also seems to have one additional tier of counties in Kentucky on their Snow Watch map over what is shown on channel 4, while channel 4 only has one tier of Kentucky counties, mainly the ones right along the state line with Tennessee.

Ever since channel 5 changed their graphics a couple of weeks ago, they've been giving the temp in Murray, KY, even though Calloway County does not show up on their Snow Watch map. They even gave the temp in Martin, Tennessee, this week!
 
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