How many other examples do you have? If all you have is once, and that once is over a holiday weekend, that falls into the nitpicking category, as far as I'm concerned.
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- Thread starter Rusty Bridges
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How many other examples do you have? If all you have is once, and that once is over a holiday weekend, that falls into the nitpicking category, as far as I'm concerned.
Wanna start tracking the nitpicking on here?
Just calling it as I see it. Everybody makes mistakes. If it becomes a regular thing, then I understand. Until then, I don't.
This is silly, even by the low standards of RD.
Buffalo is a large TV market, #54 at last check, with a million or so potential viewers on the US side.
It has three sizable TV newsrooms, all of them staffed and producing shows on holidays.
It's ridiculous to suggest that it was somehow intentional that a stale weather forecast aired four days after it was recorded. They don't even do that in Watertown or Erie, never mind Buffalo.
Especially with winter weather incoming, anything that's intentionally going to air will be either live or recorded within the last few hours. Period.
For something four days old to go to air, it's an automation foul-up. Those happen, sometimes more often than they should.
Jumping from that to "it's fine that a seven-day forecast from four days ago went to air, because..." is nonsense.
Buffalo is a large TV market, #54 at last check, with a million or so potential viewers on the US side.
It has three sizable TV newsrooms, all of them staffed and producing shows on holidays.
It's ridiculous to suggest that it was somehow intentional that a stale weather forecast aired four days after it was recorded. They don't even do that in Watertown or Erie, never mind Buffalo.
Especially with winter weather incoming, anything that's intentionally going to air will be either live or recorded within the last few hours. Period.
For something four days old to go to air, it's an automation foul-up. Those happen, sometimes more often than they should.
Jumping from that to "it's fine that a seven-day forecast from four days ago went to air, because..." is nonsense.
Consumers under 60, get their weather reports from other sources like their smartphones. One needs to look no further than local TV ratings/demos. So, given that reality, how important is it for a local TV weather person to provide timely weather reports during a holiday week? Answer; it isn't.
Research shows that most AM and PM weather reports are watched weekdays when getting ready for work or kids ready for school, or prior to bed in the evening not on a holiday week when folks are traveling or having guests over. That means recording the week forecast is enough. I can't think of a modern situation where consumers don't have options when it comes to checking the weather forecast pretty much anywhere. No need to be in front of a TV. That's just modern life reality.
Actually I've worked in radio and TV my entire working life. And over that time, much has changed including the way consumers get their news and weather.
Nope, I open the weather app on my phone. In fact I can get alerts anywhere if the weather changes. TV can't do that, but their apps can.
Only to someone like you. As I said; your opinion is in a tiny minority.
Most local TV stations have one of their weather folks on standby in case a major change is expected. Since COVID, many still have equipment at home, and remote access to weather computers at work. Stations that I work with have a meteorologist in Chicago that could go live from their home for any of the group stations if needed during holidays. But, knowing most consumers have access to weather apps and go to their phones for quick information, not TV, chances are going live is likely unnecessary.
Having worked with stations in Buffalo, Watertown, Syracuse, and Utica, it isn't nonsense.
It's nonsense.
You cannot tell me with a straight face that any of those stations are deliberately running weather forecasts that were recorded more than a few hours ago, because they don't do that. And you know that.
Maybe it's an automation foul-up or not. It's a holiday. Things happen. Like flybynight or other viewers are so irate that they'll never watch that station again. Give me a break.
So whether intentional or an accident, what difference does it make? Was the forecast so out of date that viewers were caught off guard or put in a difficult situation? Especially considering most people get their forecasts from their smartphone? Would you shun the local news in Buffalo because the weather report was out of date? Of course not. Feigned outrage.
I don't know what makes you so argumentative, Kelly, but it's not a great look for someone with your level of experience and status in the building.
You know it was an automation foul-up, and you and I both know that those happen (and you know extremely well HOW those happen.)
No newsroom in western New York in late November is doing what you seem to be suggesting - not staffing for live or near-live weather (whether locally or remotely) and deliberately running stale content.
Yes, the audience is mostly old. Yes, it's more likely to draw complaints here than anywhere else in the real world. The people who produce the newscasts are still trying to do the best they can under reduced circumstances. Maybe you've become so sour and cynical you can't give them credit for that. I refuse to do that.
You know it was an automation foul-up, and you and I both know that those happen (and you know extremely well HOW those happen.)
No newsroom in western New York in late November is doing what you seem to be suggesting - not staffing for live or near-live weather (whether locally or remotely) and deliberately running stale content.
Yes, the audience is mostly old. Yes, it's more likely to draw complaints here than anywhere else in the real world. The people who produce the newscasts are still trying to do the best they can under reduced circumstances. Maybe you've become so sour and cynical you can't give them credit for that. I refuse to do that.
A lot of newsrooms have had cutbacks, especially in economically depressed markets like in Upstate NY. Some don't have more than one or two weather folks. Maybe they recorded a five day and someone forgot to record a fresh one, so the decision to keep what was there is made because the only weather folks are on leave? Again, nobody dies.
I happen to know this particular newsroom quite well because one of their weather folks (there are at least four) also does the radio forecasts for my station here in Rochester.
The scenario you're inventing didn't happen. The station didn't have anyone "on leave." It was staffed with a live meteorologist for every newscast over the holiday, as it always is.
What's your investment in trying to make everything out to be even worse than it really is? No, it's not life or death if a stale forecast airs, but it's lousy broadcasting, and the people still in the trenches at these stations are, by and large, still dedicated broadcasters who want to do better than that for their audiences. Why not show them a little respect for what they do?
Really Scott? Because I don't agree with the rants and accusations of someone who's only knowledge of TV is as a viewer?
I get it, the whole back in my day Les Nessman was at the station 24/7 to go live-thinking. But we all know that's not the case.
I don't know any such thing about this particular situation. I doubt you do either.
Really? Tell me how many staff cuts at stations in Upstate have happened in the past five years. Especially since COVID. It takes people to cover the weather casts. People get sick, go on vacation, or on holiday. If nobody is around, who's recording an update? What runs in the weather slot if no new one has been recorded?
And on that we agree. See my comment above. I wouldn't assume it's just an automation glitch.
Read my posts. I've given them more credit than those who chose to bitch about an instance of one outdated weather report.
From the way it was described, there was no decision. It just ran by mistake. Nobody decides to make a mistake. It just happens.
I heard a 24-hour old stale forecast run on WCBS 880 yesterday morning at 10 a.m. with a well respected live and local anchor on the air. Someone clearly left a stale forecast in the system. Mistakes can happen even during peak weekday midday staffed hours in Market #1.
That's the thing. Has the upset viewer called or E-mailed to ask why an outdated forecast ran? Likely not. Instead, they get on a radio discussion forum and point to that one instance of why broadcasting is (to paraphrase) SO messed up today.
Staff cuts? Yes, plenty - but at least here in western NY, weather staffs are the last thing to get cut. While the news reporters in the field churn every two years when contracts are up (and are lucky if they're making $22k along the way), the three chief meteorologists here in Rochester are all among the longest-tenured air talent at each shop, and I would bet they're paid better than most of the anchors.
I work holidays and sometimes weekends, and have literally never seen an example here in Rochester (market 80-ish) where any of the three stations hasn't had a live meteorologist during a show. There's always backup for vacation or illness. The Nexstar station, WROC, sometimes brings someone in from another market when staffing is short, but there's not a scenario where there's "nothing to fill the weather hole."
For what remains of the aging TV news audience here, weather is still incredibly important in these markets. It's been less than a year since the last mammoth storm that brought Buffalo to a halt. My guy at WKBW slept at the station during the worst of it, when it wasn't even possible to get to a nearby hotel on foot. If a WKBW (or WIVB or WGRZ) deliberately ran days-old forecasts the way you're suggesting, viewers in Buffalo absolutely would be voting with their remotes and going elsewhere.
I work holidays and sometimes weekends, and have literally never seen an example here in Rochester (market 80-ish) where any of the three stations hasn't had a live meteorologist during a show. There's always backup for vacation or illness. The Nexstar station, WROC, sometimes brings someone in from another market when staffing is short, but there's not a scenario where there's "nothing to fill the weather hole."
For what remains of the aging TV news audience here, weather is still incredibly important in these markets. It's been less than a year since the last mammoth storm that brought Buffalo to a halt. My guy at WKBW slept at the station during the worst of it, when it wasn't even possible to get to a nearby hotel on foot. If a WKBW (or WIVB or WGRZ) deliberately ran days-old forecasts the way you're suggesting, viewers in Buffalo absolutely would be voting with their remotes and going elsewhere.
You continue to miss the point.
If they are airing it, they are intending for people to SEE IT. The fact that you think it may have been intentional---and are defending that, is absurd.
And if it was normal for the stations you worked at to be this sloppy and unprofessional, then I feel bad for you, having such habits instilled in your thinking as acceptable.
Well then tell you what Scott, why not reach out to some of your contacts there Upstate and find out for the outraged viewer here what happened? That way there's no speculation.
This, exactly.
There are plenty of ways stale content can run by accident (and plenty of ways careful operations people can put precautions into place to prevent it from happening), but no reason anyone's going to intentionally put stale content to air.
If for some reason we didn't have an updated forecast in our system at WXXI, we'll throw an extra promo or whatever in there, rather than deliberately airing something outdated.
And if for some reason we knew a day or two out that some emergency situation was going to make our regular forecasts unavailable? I still don't think we'd pre-record, but if we did it would be custom for each day, so nothing from previous days is airing. That's just bad broadcasting... which is why it doesn't happen deliberately.