It was a mistake.
I just thought allowing it to go on and on for several minutes was ridiculous.
Nitpicking? Perhaps. But the other poster is trying to defend airing a 4-day old weather report ON PURPOSE! lol
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Live and Local
- Thread starter Rusty Bridges
- Start date
I just thought allowing it to go on and on for several minutes was ridiculous.
Nitpicking? Perhaps. But the other poster is trying to defend airing a 4-day old weather report ON PURPOSE! lol
Pointing out a mistake that was not corrected at any point, is all I was doing.
You are defending the intentional airing of a 4-day old TV weather report.
Both absurd and bush league.
Either way, whatever the scenario, how is you seeing a recorded weather hit any indicative that broadcasting is not good? People make mistakes, files get lost, stations go off the air because of technical problems. As I said; in your example, did anyone die? Were many viewers inconvenienced to the point of your level of concern? Doubtful. Life will go on. Someone will make sure Christmas week that all the recorded weather hits are in and on time. Life goes on.
What I'm saying is depending on the situation, especially around the Holidays, priorities can change. Whatever the reason for what you saw, someone maybe had to make the call, that's assuming that anyone caught the issue before you saw it. I assume someone eventually caught the issue, and corrected it. Again, nobody died.
It's your strawman that you built, and so far you're the only one trying to argue it was somehow intentional.
WKBW's master control is in Atlanta, last I checked. I'm not going to bother them just to find out that a file that should have had a kill date played out during automation for whatever reason.
I doubt there was anyone in Buffalo at WKBW watching air whenever it happened, and if they were, by the time they reached anyone at Encompass, what would they have done about it?
I assume it only aired once, correct? Most stations are automated, so no one could have dumped out of it. There was likely no Board Operator in a control room. Mistakes happen. I knew a guy who passed out while doing the overnight shift. The news guy came in at 5am and found him with a bottle of Peppermint Schnapps in his hand while slumped over the console. Good times - Live & Local indeed...😑
And since I'm a moderator here now (how did THAT happen?), I am going to head to dinner with two final thoughts:
1. This is a broadcasting message board site. We're not normal viewers or listeners here, and of course we consume what's on the air more critically, especially since many of us also produce that content. That's the meat and potatoes of what we do here.
2. If you're bothered by those sorts of observations and discussions, it's a big Internet. Nobody's forcing you to be here or to respond, you're free to block or ignore anyone you'd like... BUT it's going to be a more pleasant place for all of us if you don't make a big deal out of it.
1. This is a broadcasting message board site. We're not normal viewers or listeners here, and of course we consume what's on the air more critically, especially since many of us also produce that content. That's the meat and potatoes of what we do here.
2. If you're bothered by those sorts of observations and discussions, it's a big Internet. Nobody's forcing you to be here or to respond, you're free to block or ignore anyone you'd like... BUT it's going to be a more pleasant place for all of us if you don't make a big deal out of it.
Who was "allowing it to go on?" That is an assumption.
Look at it this way: The forecast is a file. It has a filename. The computer grabs the file as scheduled, and it runs.
That's the practicality of it. It's not a cart in a cart machine that someone physically loads, and hits the green play button. There most likely isn't a board operator sitting there watching everything that airs, especially on a holiday. So who would stop it?
Sometimes, the filename is generic. The reporter loads the new file in the same location. The content is revised, but the name stays the same. The previous file is replaced with new content, but to the computer, it's just another file. I'm not saying that's what happened, but that it's a possibility. If so, they have no way internally of knowing the mistake happened unless it gets reported. You posting on a message board isn't reporting it. However, reporting it to the station is.
I'm saying it may have been allowed to happen because there was nothing else in it's place during a holiday when there wasn't enough time to reach someone to fix it. It may have aired before someone caught it. I'm well aware of how Centralcasting MC works, considering I implemented the first ones in the country. One operator watching several stations on a holiday may not have been able to make the substitution in time. Big deal.
I'm sure someone over in the newsroom at WKBW likely heard there was an issue. What, you can't call over there to your contacts who likely knows what happened?
That's exactly my point as a potential reason. Someone determined there was an issue about the time it happened but there may have not been enough time to correct it by the next hit(s), assuming it aired more than once. When you have a tech running multiple stations in a hub, their eyes are bouncing around screens verifying things are all on the air. Audio consists of bouncing vertical VU meters. They're not paying attention to what some local weather person is saying about what days. WKBW is on the air, all is well.
I guess this entire forum should be shuttered....because people are pointing out mistakes and/or complaining about things....yet nobody died.
Nice. When I was 20, I had dead air once because I was chasing down a cricket in the prod room.
Kelly has spent decades in the business, and even owned a group of stations in the NW.
Half of all US stations are not profitable. Most don't have the budget for "a few more minutes".
Agreed, but we are talking about budget issues in the two worst quarters in radio in recent memory.
If you want, blame the FCC for not using a bit of "Canadian Intelligence" in limiting the station licences in a city or market to that market's ability to sustain viable operations. Docket 80-90 ruined radio in many small or medium markets by granting new FMs or allowing others to move in, making it unprofitable for everyone.
Well there's a different response.
It's an improvement over your vacillating between "who cares, nobody that matters gets weather from TV" or your "who cares, nobody died' or my favorite: "they did it on purpose so the weather guy could have some time off".
A friend was PD at a station in Little Rock. At a few minutes before 6 AM he got a call from the morning guy:
"It's Frank. When I was driving in, there was dead air. When I got here I found Billy in the chair and he was dead. Not sleeping, I mean really dead. No pulse, nothing. I called 911 and they are coming. What should I do?"
The PD said, "Then roll the chair out of the way and play a song! Then do the show, but DON'T talk about it".
I've had many radio jobs in different cities going back to the early 80's. I never punched a clock and I doubt anyone is now. You're paid to do the job. If you need to cut a few more custom reports so the station doesn't sound ridiculous, you do it. And you don't charge for the extra 14 minutes.
Not sure why we are even discussing this angle, since the other poster's assertion that this was done on purpose was ridiculous to begin with. Ch. 7 didn't air this to save money.
I knew a GM so cheap he would've wanted an estimate of exactly when the guy died so he wouldn't have to pay the estate for those unworked hours.
I just said that scenario might have been an option. You clearly have no intention of asking your contacts, so we'll never know. And I never said nobody gets their weather from TV. Maybe nobody under 55+, but even you would likely admit that less and less people rely on TV for weather. There obviously are still viewers or there wouldn't be a reason for it. For that matter, in the future who knows whether there will be a need for multiple local newscasts with weather in 50+ markets. The advertising vs. viewer base for local TV news is dwindling. Just look at some station groups that have eliminated local news and either fill with a national newscast including weather hits.
While I was simply addressing a careless error by WKBW-TV/Centralcasting MC, I have actually believed for a long time that TV weather is often a huge waste of time---and that was well before smartphones. Weather forecast should be 10 seconds long and that's it. For some reason weather-people all like to show their work. They take 10 minutes explaining warm fronts and cold fronts and the satellite pic from space. ALL of it, unnecessary.
Unless exceptional weather conditions call for it, a weather forecast should be along the lines of: Partly cloudy tonight, low of 50. Mostly cloudy tomorrow, high of 65. Currently 53. Then throw up a slide with the 5-day forecast. Drop mic.
But I'm sure a consultant somewhere once told a station that the audience likes the weather explained to them in detail.
About the only reason why I keep cable is to get the one good local TV operator's local newscasts. They cover news much better than the ultra-degraded newspaper, and the weather is very well done.
The reason weather is important in the desert (I am in Palm Spring market) is that detailed long range forecasts are important for planning and deep current data needed to plan anything from a walk around the block to a long hike: humidity, temperature, pollen, dust, wind velocity, etc.
In particular, we need to know if dust events, wind events, haboobs and storms are coming as they can be vastly more important than in other locations. Road closings allow for route planning, even if just going to a favorite restaurant, for example.
And yet when one of the stations has, for whatever reason, an issue that's why radio and TV isn't any good? Which is it?
There used to be an old saying in the local TV news biz: 'weather wins'. Frequent stories about shootings, car crashes and porch fires, become almost background noise to the audience. It's hard to justify paying a relatively high paid meteorologist, depending on market size, for a ten or fifteen second graphic blast and walk through.
Much depends on the market and climate conditions. A meteorologist in Phoenix is going to focus on topics different than one in Buffalo. Lake effect show comes to mind.
Not me. The ONLY thing I care about in local TV news is weather. Everything else is a waste of time.
Most stations I watch do a few brief headlines, and go right to weather. They revisit the weather continuously through the cast.