QandO

May 26, 2004

Meteorologist Rob McKenna reporting...
Posted by Jon Henke

James Joyner...

What’s with local stations pre-empting broadcasts of network shows to give me weather reports? I sort of understood it when I lived in Alabama and we had a heavy tornado season, but even then I thought it was assinine. Let me know if there are any new developments but don’t turn the tornado report into a two-hour program wherein you send your idiot junior woodchuck “meterologist” outside to get his hair blown around interviewing morons who are outside in bad weather.
[...]
The idiots running the DC CBS affiliate have this week ruined the only two (non-NFL football) shows I watch on that network with thunderstorm warnings. It’s raining? What precisely am I supposed to do with the information? For one thing, I already know it’s raining. For another, if I’m inside watching television, I’m probably reasonably safe from lightning strikes whereas, conversely, if I’m in a location where I’m in significant danger of being struck by lightning, I’m unlikely to be watching television.

And that seems to hold true for many areas. I think I can offer a bit of insight here. Television stations gets quite a lot of their revenue from their News broadcasts, which depend a great deal of their reputation for being timely and frequent with information. So, relatively inconsequential local news often preempts more (to you) important regularly scheduled shows.

To be more specific, though, research indicates the major reason people give for tuning in to local news is "weather". So, to capitalize on that valuation, consultants generally tell their clients to highlight their weather staff and weather segments, to promote it throughout the day, and - for the meteorologists - to give the weather a sense of "urgency".

So, you end up with long, boring weather segments when there is no inclement weather, because they believe they have to "own the weather image" - and when there is weather news, they hype it to create a sense of urgency in the audience; a feeling that you NEED to keep watching to find out about this Serious Weather Event. Plus, weather forecasts get sponsorships.

In short, the emphasis on weather is simply a marketing (and revenue-enhancing) manuever. Follow the money.

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