Weather Bozos at the Wiz pissing away sweeps ratings at our expense

[Joseph S]

Another disgrace from the Weather Bozos tonight. No rain and not a single WARNING EVER ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE for WI, yet WIzzzzzzzzzn pissed away a supposed great night of ratings. :mad:

Although, I disagree with what 58 did with showing the warning during SD programming, they at least had the foresight not to ruin their HD show at 7pm and to get the info up and off the screen ASAP during the 8 to 10 hour

The even bigger issue is their decision to do anything for a Thunderstorm. It's about time this garbage is pulled off our screens for two snowflakes, tonight's non-existent rain, and other nonsense.  This is something that should be nothing more than a blip on a commercial break.

Tonight's issue with WISN and Saturday's with TMJ4 and WIzzn do nothing to serve Milwaukee. On Saturday, TMJ4 and WISN ran this nonsense about Thunder storms. Yet not once did they provide the information from the National Weather Service which was to clear out the leaves from your local sewer grates.

[techguy1975]

Yes...it may be a little over the top at times...  As for why they dont do it during breaks, well, I'm sure that has to do with contractual obligations to the advertisers.    From my understanding of radio/tv advertising you pay for ads to run at specific times (or at the very least, ranges of times).  If those ads are cut, the station either has to give the advertiser additional space at another time, or may even require them to refund some of their money.

During the tranisional time from analong to digital, there may be a few bumps on the road during events like this.  Once the stations get the necissary equipment to add effects to the screen without affecting the network feed, or once they have the proper equipment necissary to to multi-casting, maybe they will have something setup where you can tune to a sub-channel to see weather info/radar.

There are many people who are very interested in that type of information, it will not go away.  Does it need to be toned down? maybe....  Will it be elimiated? No..   It will probably take outcry from more than the still small majority of people with HD to effect any sort of real change as well...

[Joseph S]

contractual obligations to the advertisers.

That's nothing but a misdirect. They have plenty of spots reserved for their own news lead in to relay this info.

The fact that they
1) Didn't post the proper information on Saturday
2) Failed to do so again tonight in all 3 hours shows they are doing nothing to serve  Milwaukee

Once the stations get the necissary equipment to add effects to the screen without affecting the network feed, or once they have the proper equipment necissary to to multi-casti

There was zero need for those graphics on either night and never has been. They neither convey proper information nor serve any other purpose.

[ButtonPuncher]

It was completely out of hand tonight.  It was a W-A-T-C-H for rain.  You have got to be kidding me!

I was watching Boston Legal on SD, saw the banner, went into my living room to see... SD ON MY HDTV WITH A BANNER COVERING 1/4 OF THE SCREEN!!!  :mad:

If you are too cheap to buy a HD CG, don't take off your HD programming completely!  :bang:

And why do we need a whole banner?!?  Why can't you just super a friggin map?  Or here's a novel idea...  Run a crawl when an actual WARNING happens.


This stuff needs to end.

[Steve Mann]

...As for why they don't do it during breaks, well, I'm sure that has to do with contractual obligations to the advertisers. From my understanding of radio/tv advertising you pay for ads to run at specific times (or at the very least, ranges of times).  If those ads are cut, the station either has to give the advertiser additional space at another time, or may even require them to refund some of their money.

Don't cut the ads. Just put the damn banner on the commercials and scrunch the ads to three quarters of the screen.

This situation is absolutely ridiculous. Way out of hand. During the weather on WISN 12 at 10:00 they mentioned they were receiving calls about the weather banner. Well, I for one will be calling today to bitch. I think the more they hear from people directly, the more effect it may have. I would suggest to everyone here that they call and let their frustration be known. Ask all your friends to call. Ask everyone you know to call. I'm going to.

[Steve Mann]

After I called and registered my complaints verbally, just for giggles, I emailed WISN this morning with the following:

I have never been so disgusted and frustrated as I was last night,
Tuesday November 8th, to find that two of my favorite ABC programs that
I watch in High Definition every week, were broadcast in standard
definition only so that a completely unnecessary weather banner could
take up 1/4 of my screen. How ludicrous. A crawler at the bottom of the
screen (which would have still be unnecessary as this was nothing more
than a 'rain' watch) would have been a bit more tolerable. And what's
with the standard definition? Is the station doing that poorly that it
can't afford HD graphics generation for it's HD programing?

I know you think that this type of weather fear mongering is a 'public
service', but in last night's case, it was nothing more than an abuse of
the airwaves. Totally uncalled for and completely unprofessional. Your
station should be embarrassed at it's meager attempt to deem itself
important to the public.

If you feel you must show a weather banner, how about showing in only
during the commercials? You don't need to interrupt the ads, just
scrunch them down like you currently do to Network programing. Or is
your relationship with your sponsors more important than your viewers?

I'm involved with local HD enthusiast group that is completely amazed at
the lack of professionalism shown buy your station (read: national
conglomerate). We are excited to bring this matter to the attention of
everyone we can. Hopefully, you'll be hearing from other concerned
viewers who find this weather banner practice inappropriate.

Please reconsider your policies on this matter.

Regards,

Steve M. Mann
WISN Channel 12 Viewer
Pewaukee, WI

[Tom Snyder]

Mark Belling is devoting an entire segment to this on WISN radio!  People are TICKED... even the standard definition people!

Go Mark!!!! :OnAir:

[klwillis45]

I saw this last night when the wife was watching Commander in Chief *shudder*
WTF were they thinking?? "O teh noes, itz teh rainzzorzs! Must.Use.Obnoxious.Graphics"

[Tom Snyder]

Commander in Chief

Or as The Onion calls it:  "Judging Amy, but She's the President." :rofl:

[gb4fan92]

People are TICKED...  

! :OnAir:

I WAS ONE OF THEM!!   :bang:  :bang:

[GBK]

I hope that WISN changes its practice.. If they don't I'll just wait to see the shows on DVD without any of their ads and without watching the station period.

[Joseph S]

Unfortunately, there have been no releases of Boston Legal, which was one of the affected shows last night. It is probably my favorite show right now thanks to Spader and Shatner. Whenever this stuff happens to Alias, Boston Legal, or Gray's Anatomy there's really no hope unless they make syndication or Mark Cuban coughs up some cash. Technically, Boston Legal hasn't run a season since they cut last year's short and the old "The Practice' episodes don't count. Need another couple years for syndication. Same for Gray's Anatomy.

WISN's failure to come online a few years ago and their history of failures is the reaon I kept cable for the meantime. TNTHD is running Alias in HD every weekday with the episodes running in order. So maybe, by the time this season is done I'll have them on D-VHS. I have them on DVD for the extras, but prefer HD when possible.

I noticed NBC also disturbed Office/Earl as well during the second segments. Those probably will be repeated though.

[GBK]

I agree those are one of the best shows.. it really annoys me that I can't enjoy them because of incompetent idiots.  But there is no way I'm going to watch that channel unless this gets resolved. between this and the audio issues WISN is the most incompetent station on the air right now in the Milwaukee area.  

This morning the wind affected their stories... oooh it's windy how come you didn't have the stupid weather warning on in the morning to tell people to put extra weights in their pockets so they don't fall down?  Idiots.

[jd91]

I'm LMAO reading this thread -- only because i'm so disgusted and upset that if I didn't laugh I'd have to cry... my wife and i were complaining about this the whole time last night watching Boston Legal.  I told her I would have to check this forum to see how many other people thought it was b.s.  I'm happy I'm not alone with my disgust.

I couldn't agree more with what everyone has said.  However, my frustration with the weather zealots runs deep.  Is it just me, or when I was growing up didn't we have things like t-storm watches, t-storm warnings, etc... Now everything is "Severe".  Whatever happened to just a regular t-storm?  Also, I remember when a "tornado warning" was reserved for situations where a tornado or funnel cloud had actually been sighted... not when "conditions are favorable"... which is what it seems to be used for today.  I suppose they think they are saving people by being more conservative and giving people more heads up, but it's my belief they simply desensitize people to these warnings.  I barely flinch anymore when I see these because they are so often baseless.

However, if the problem were limited to the weather zealots insatiable egos and their desire to see themselves in high-profile "storm team coverage" I could probably let it go... but when they consistently ruin their programming by taking up so much screen space, SD or HD, it's inexcusable.  What makes it worse is that this is one of the situations where it's actually worse to watch on HD than SD.  

Thanks for letting me vent and know I'm not alone.  I'll be contacting them directly as well.

[techguy1975]

Is it just me, or when I was growing up didn't we have things like t-storm watches, t-storm warnings, etc... Now everything is "Severe".  Whatever happened to just a regular t-storm?  Also, I remember when a "tornado warning" was reserved for situations where a tornado or funnel cloud had actually been sighted... not when "conditions are favorable"...

Well....I dont know about you, but this has been the case for as long as I can remember, and I'm 30..  As for the tornados, I'd rather have the advanced warning..  Usually when a funnel is sighted, its kinda too late, dont'cha think?   If we can get a heads up that a storm is capable of doing such things, we can be more aware and take appropiate percautions.  If the funnel is on the ground and heading your way, not too much you can do...If you're lucky, you can get maybe a few mins to get to shelter..  Now, there is far more advanced warning, which...is a good thing