jonblaze said:
Keep this in mind... even if the stations had a "live" radar, they'll still have to wait for the sweep to make a complete scan, and that can take anywhere from 1 minute up to 6 minutes to complete a sweep. Channel 2 still has that radar along I-20, but they hardly use it, as it may be out of date, and the software they use for the 3-D stuff rely on information from the NWS.
11's radar is awful in my opinion, same as 46. I was also laughing at 46 yesterday... A Tornado warning was in effect for an Atlanta Metro County before 6pm. 2 & 5 were already in "Severe Weather Mode", 11 interrupted Dr. Phil, but 46 kept with regular programming... even when they went into their 6pm news, they went to their top story of the police officer trial. No lower thirds on the Tornado Warning, nothing... this went on for a few minutes. I almost think they were trying to get Chris Smith to the studio since Dagmar has no clue on what she is doing. Having worked and became good friends with Gene Norman, he wouldn't of stood for it. He would of been on-air moments after the warning was issued... even if they we're showing "Ellen".
I am surprised that jal41 hasn't commented that they need to shut down the news operation over this one... ;D I'll say they need to close the weather department, and get Accu-Weather to record local inserts for them, since they do not care for their weather department.
They need to shut down the news department.
I was not near a TV yesterday, but I understand JokeChannel 46 was just that...a joke. From what I am hearing, it sounded like Dagmar was their by herself, and Chris Smith had to get their quickly. I commented how horrible a job Laura Huckabee did a couple of Sundays ago when we had that tornado outbreak at 4 AM in the morning. I hope people are taping this so that when license renewal comes up in 2013, it will come back to haunt WGCL.
Meanwhile, the big 3 do an excellent job. It seems like after that tornado hit downtown Atlanta in March, all of them are more on the ball then they have been in the past.
WSB and WXIA have the ability to use two radar systems. WSB's is in Haralson County, and WXIA's is near Six Flags. All of them can also use NWS data as well. WSB and WAGA have two radar systems each. WSB has Vipir HD and their older Titan SD (which is hardly used on-air, WAGA has Titan SD and another radar. WXIA has Titan SD (in widescreen), and WGCL has Vipir SD (WGCL was the first in Atlanta with the newer generation radar during Gene Norman's tenure). WSB also has that $200 3D program that anyone can get.
The NWS radars are not live, they are refreshed every few minutes. The on-screen sweep effect is just that...a visual effect. I suspect the local station radars work the same way (since they got to send the data for miles, but I don't know how they are configured.
WSB's radar has been their for about 10 years or so. WXIA's is only a couple of years old. It is much cheaper to use NWS data (I believe it is free since it is public domain information, unless the stations are obtaining the data through a third party). Radar sites cost money to maintain, which is why WAGA and WGCL (as far as I know) don't have one. WAGA had one on their studio property at one point, but I don't know if it is still in use.
It also needs to be pointed out that the stations are doing a better job of covering Cleburne and Randolph Counities in Alabama, which are in the Atlanta DMA. The Atlanta stations completely ignored these counties until about a year or so ago, when residents were petitioning to be placed in the Birmingham DMA as a result.
With the exception of WGCL, the stations are doing a better job of things.
