All Points(less) AccuWeather?
A few of you didn't see the point behind WBRE's much-promoted All Points AccuWeather Wednesday night...
Lightning forces Josh Hodell off the roof and into the Wilkes-Barre studio
Dave Skutnick, who mans the Scranton studio, is in Wilkes-Barre
Jeffrey Jumper gets a quick live hit from Williamsport before weather axes the live shots
You can't do much about severe weather introducing Murphy's Law into your newscast. But when severe weather hits, why not keep Hodell in Wilkes-Barre to man the ship, and send the other three out to look for any weather damage?
Personally, I think it's a much-better use of WBRE's "field meteorologists." Otherwise, you've got four people standing in a studio, waiting for lightning to kill their live shots.
You can't do much about severe weather introducing Murphy's Law into your newscast. But when severe weather hits, why not keep Hodell in Wilkes-Barre to man the ship, and send the other three out to look for any weather damage?
Personally, I think it's a much-better use of WBRE's "field meteorologists." Otherwise, you've got four people standing in a studio, waiting for lightning to kill their live shots.
posted by Howard Beale at 8:43 PM
20 Comments:
The first big test for "All Promotion AccuWeather"--the first time having four meteorologists out in the elements might be of interest/service--and what happens?
TAKE COVER!
Up until Wednesday night I had a "wait and see" attitude. I was giving WBRE the benefit of the doubt. I waited. I saw. And I have no doubt. It's a gimmick.
"PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE METEOROLOGIST BEHIND THE CURTAIN!"
Are you kidding me. The foursome meteorologist are fed their work by Accuweather in State College. Do you actually believe they put in a hard day's work looking at radar. All they do is repeat what's written adding a a little gimmick and point.
Oh no, lighting killed Walker in Williamsport.
It was very generous of you to wait and see. Anyone who's worked for that outfit could've easily told you that it would fall flat on its face. Gimmicks can be good, they are not necessarily bad. This one, however, was diseased from its inception. Third-grade thinking practiced by adults; if a little of something is good, more must be better. How long will "Weather From Everywhere" last?
Judging by its debut, it should've been gone by the next morning.
WBRE sucks period. They have The Feces Touch - everything they get near turns to turds. And this did at the first available opportunity. On a related note, did they get rid of Gonzalez?
Here are some things for consideration...
At a liveshot, if there's lightning, there's no mast up... a serious rule for good reason. If there's lightning and you can still hit your receiver with the mast stowed, then there should be no problem... other than keeping watch out like any other pedestrian on the street at that point. But the shot stays as is.
Now I hear those remote shots from Williamsport and Stroudsburg are by way of some out-fitted car, meaning no mast to deal with.
If this is true, there should never be any question: the weather guessers have to be outside.
Wasn't that the point of the promo? What's it doing in wherever? NOT, we're inside because things got a little scary.
There's no point to a system that relies on boring, moderate weather for a complete stretch of the legs.
Bad weather=part of the job?
Let the boys go...they will be ok in the field!!
Ahem. Did I or did I not call it?
http://bealesbites.blogspot.com/2006/09/more-weather-more-mehalshick.html#115872056613083745
Perhaps as the next experimental news format, someone should go with what works: Fires and car crashes! Imagine, an entire half-hour - hour - hell, a whole day of just images of burning buildings and twisted metal! Then they could package the greatest hits and sell them on DVD! It would outsell "Girls Gone Wild"!
NEWSFLASH: Hodeli is sporting a mustashe.
The best weather show on cable these days is PCN's, starring (Dr.) Jon Nese, the former W-B/Scranton market part-timer, and other (real) Penn State meteorologists. Another class act.
9:01 said: NEWSFLASH: Hodell is sporting a mustashe.
You mean he's old enough to shave? It has to be a bought 'stashe from Buzzy's Bazaar.
I've been reading the posts and watching the weather show. It's not bad, if they will stick with it. You get a little bit of light news, feature stuff, to highlight each area, plus the weather. They may not be proud to serve Wherever (and I think Noreen got the wrong county last night), but they *do* have nightly live shots from three venues.
Maybe they can get an intern with a camera to cover Hazleton, as well, as the people down there feel they are the forgotten part of Luzerne county.
So they use AccuWeather; so what? All we want to know is whether we should close the windows before we go to work tomorrow. Nobody gives a merde if it's Nexrad or Noxrud, exclusive this or taken from the newspaper like most of their stuff.
"They may not be proud to serve Wherever (and I think Noreen got the wrong county last night), but they *do* have nightly live shots from three venues."
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It's a measure of just how dominant WNEP is that Tom Carten confuses Noreen Clark and "Proud to Serve" with WBRE's "All-Points AccuWeather."
This is NOT a slap at Tom: just recognition that Ch. 16 has defined news for so many people for so long that they're Teflon-coated. They'll get credit for all that's good--and escape blame for all that's bad--regardless of who does what.
I don't think anyone cares about street-corner weather, or associates it with WBRE.
I wonder at what point the management at Nexstar is going to decide that it is not cost effective for AccuWeather. Right now, you see two of the mets. for 30 seconds every half hour. For a station that likes to penny pinch, its certainly not going to last long. In fact, its all fluff, no content. The guy in Williamsport gave a forecast for CERT Training. I wonder how many average people are going to take part in that??? Probably no one. I'd rather see the cars used for live shots on stories that matter. Right now, there is so much wasted resources around that building it's unbelievable.
Right now, there is so much wasted resources around that building it's unbelievable.
NEXSTAR: Standard Operating Procedure
7:38 said: It's a measure of just how dominant WNEP is that Tom Carten confuses Noreen Clark and "Proud to Serve" with WBRE's "All-Points AccuWeather."
Actually, it's a measure of just how sloppy I can write when I am tired. Wow! I really screwed it up! (A little afternoon nappy time, woke up and started posting; very bad idea.) Let's try again, this time with a little more precision and fewer pronouns:
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I've been reading the posts and watching 28's weather show. It's not bad, if they will stick with it. You get a little bit of light news, feature stuff, to highlight each area, plus the weather. They may not be "proud to serve Wherever" (and, speaking of 16, I think Noreen got the wrong county last night), but 28 *does* have nightly live shots from three venues.
Maybe 28 can get an intern with a camera to cover Hazleton, as well, as the people down there feel they are the forgotten part of Luzerne county.
So 28 uses AccuWeather; so what? All we want to know is whether we should close the windows before we go to work tomorrow. Nobody gives a merde if it's Nexrad or Noxrud, exclusive this or taken from the newspaper like most of their stuff.
(By that slap, I mean that what I read in the morning CV ends up (ok, not word-for-word) on the 11:00 that night, thus being a day old and several dollars short.)
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This has gotta be the worst post I made anywhere; too many pronouns, and I used to beat on my students for that. Oh well; as mentioned in the Book of Job, **** happens.
I wonder at what point the management at Nexstar is going to decide that it is not cost effective for AccuWeather.
Nexstar struck a deal with AccuWeather that essentially gives them forecasting, hardware, and software for free. They signed a long-term contract for data acquisition(satellite, radar, observations, etc.)and in return AccuWeather GAVE them everything else.
WBRE(and by association WYOU)has a ton of research in-house that proves what viewers want and don't want when it comes to weather. One thing they don't want is geeky science. No one is impressed by credentials, degrees, seals, whatever. Slick graphics, nope, they do nothing to attract viewers, not in this market, not in most others. In fact, you'll often find the best graphics in any market at the #2, 3, or 4 station, because they think hot graphics will catapault them into first place. It doesn't work that way. A lot of NDs buy time through the long process of claiming to be working on winning the weather war, and most of them don't win any such thing.
I really think this All-Points Accu-weather is a good idea...they just need to make a few little changes and a lot of bigger changes and the All-Points Accu-weather will go far.
...they just need to make a few little changes and a lot of bigger changes and the All-Points Accu-weather will go far.
Right. Maybe they could start running Who's The Boss at 6, which would be an enormous step in the right direction of those bigger changes you mentioned. Wait, just wait for that November book. I say 3s and 4s for WBRE on their early evening shows.
"Nexstar struck a deal with AccuWeather that essentially gives them forecasting, hardware, and software for free. They signed a long-term contract for data acquisition(satellite, radar, observations, etc.)and in return AccuWeather GAVE them everything else."
12:41 PM
Your point being?????
It's been a long time since your local "weatherman" ripped the forecast off the AP wire and drew high-pressure systems on his map with a grease pencil.
Everyone wants state-of-the-art data acquisition and fancy display systems. AccuWeather is one of several major suppliers out there. So WBRE/WYOU negotiated a favorable deal with AccuWeather. This comes as a surprise to you? Why are you shocked?
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