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

[Joseph S]

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".

You're not alone, I've been in hurricanes and blizzards that got less coverage than last night's non rain storms. This is not something that has been going on for 20 years. It's fairly new and rapidly accelerated to nonsense level in about 4 years. Usually the only people watching this garbage from the "Weather bozos" were kids who saw it after they already heard school was cancelled for snow from their parents. And their parents got that news from the radio. If you can't figure out when it's likely to rain you must have been living on another planet. It's pretty easy to figure out when the weather is changing. Even if you can't we have clothes, roofs, windshield wipers, all weather tires... Do they run this every night in FL that "there's a rain watch" every day at about 5pm? I think not. You can't be warned early enough, right?

[jd91]

Thank you... glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks that way.  I'm all for advanced warnings in case of a serious problem... but tell me the same thing over and over when there is no valid reason to and I'll stop listening to your warnings....

Regardless of how people feel on this particular issue... if we go back to the main thread topic, i think we all agree -- it was overboard coverage, completely unnecessary, and ruined the broadcast they were presenting.  And it happens consistently and is getting worse.

[Doug Mohr]

Regardless of how people feel on this particular issue... if we go back to the main thread topic, i think we all agree -- it was overboard coverage, completely unnecessary, and ruined the broadcast they were presenting.  And it happens consistently and is getting worse.

There were no wind warnings interrupting Lost last night. Perhaps all our calls actually made a difference??

Doug

[AndrewP]

There were no wind warnings interrupting Lost last night. Perhaps all our calls actually made a difference??

Doug

Yeah, Lost broadcast was fine.
But I recorded Invasion in SD which was next Lost. Could not record it in HD because was watching prerecorded CSI NY. In SD broadcast I noticed one more disturbing thing, they put WISN floating banner for 1/3 screen for several seconds after commercial breaks. So if they put it in HD next to their GIANT "12" sign it will one more disaster.  :guitar:

[gparris]

While we HDTV owners/watchers were being stuck with wacky channel 12 logos, rain maps...I got hit with themilwaukeechannel.com emails to my cell phone - too many of them...you have to sign up for this nightmare that is supposedly to be helpful...but it wasn't...just stupid.

[mequonuser]

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

Since you got the advanced warning this week, did you head for shelter? I seriously doubt it. How many poeple, in your opinion, would have gone for the shelters? Its these stupid warnings which have cause most people to simply ignore them. If there is ever a serious tornado, I bet 90% of the people would ignore it as "another one of those". Of course, I am sure you would say that you would head for safety.

[mequonuser]

My email to wisn. I hope you will encourage your friends to write or call them.
This is absolutely ridiculous!

I am writing to urge you to re-evaluate your weather warning policies. You have ruined our Wednesday night TV viewing and two great shows with your weather banner.

While I cannot argue with the necessity of severe weather alerts - the weather alert of Wednesday - might be - a bit over done, don't you think? Perhaps you can come up with a balance rather than ruin the entire night for the HDTV viewers?

[Mark Strube]

Just started watching my DVR recording of this week's Boston Legal. Unbelievable. One little thunderstorm WATCH with scattered rain and they have to screw up the whole picture?!!

It appears they squeezed the picture quite a bit with that big stripe on the left side, so using the STRETCH feature on the DVR seemed to help a lot, restoring the proper aspect ratio and almost filling the screen, except for the stripe. But still in WISN's crappy upconverted video.

Unacceptable.

[jpfieber]

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.

This is why their are tornado 'Watches' and tornado 'Warnings'. A watch used to mean that conditions are favorable. A warning meant that one has actually been sighted. Now, watch appears to mean that it's cloudy out, and warning means that they are dark clouds.  I agree completely about the weather guys getting out of hand. Reducing my 52" screen to the equivalent of a 19" screen so they can show a 3" square map of SE Wisc that is all one color, and it's not even explained what this color means. Reducing the picture by only 5%, 10% tops (retaining the original aspect ratio as well) would leave enough room for a scroll at the bottom, if they insist that rain will kill us all, do it through a scroll...

[Steve Mann]

... It appears they squeezed the picture quite a bit with that big stripe on the left side, so using the STRETCH feature on the DVR seemed to help a lot, restoring the proper aspect ratio and almost filling the screen, except for the stripe.

I took a piece of duvetyne I had left over from my Mits tweak and draped it over the left side of my screen. While it was still a bitch that the picture was relatively small, I didn't see one glimpse of a weather banner. The duvetyne masked the picture perfectly.

[Chris G]

I vented about this over on another forum. The fact that they take up 1/4 of the screen for a vertical banner that is completely useless (other than to toot their own horn) is bad enough... but to drop the HD feed down to SD just to show the stupid banner is completely uncalled for.

I'd be fine with a scrolling message across the bottom - so long as the HD shows are left in HD. Yes, I know, this would involve the broadcasters actually investing in something that will overlay graphics on an HD feed... well, guess what, you'll need it eventually, get over it and spend some money and do it.

[Mark Strube]

Well, they seem to have no issues overlaying a giant 12 in the corner, but they can't seem to do it for something that might actually matter and make a difference. :rolleyes:

[Chris G]

Well, they seem to have no issues overlaying a giant 12 in the corner, but they can't seem to do it for something that might actually matter and make a difference. :rolleyes:

Well, to 12's defense, it's not just them... remember the PowerBall debacle over on WITI during the world series? Dropping down to SD and shrinking the screen just to show the powerball numbers, during the pivotal last moments of the game? I don't watch WTMJ or WDJT at all, but I'd wager that they have the same problem.

I think they're good with graphics they have pre-made... but they either can't or won't get "ad-hoc" graphic overlays working in HD.

(Granted, I'd be OK with absolutely no graphic overlays at all, but that's an unreasonable goal, I suppose.)

[GBK]

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

Warning is good.  but this is bs.  let's run this in February that a tornado is coming in july.. enough of a warning?  There is no reason to keep this crap on the screen basically saying we don't know anything and we'll keep you up to date with as much "NON INFO" as we can find to show everyone how important our job is.

[Doug Mohr]

I did not watch all night, but were there any warnings about the couple of snowflakes that were falling?

If not, hopefully the locals got the message and are going to wait for a serious situation.

Doug