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

[wysiwyg]

I'm what you would call a "weather nut" and would like to give my perspective.

The intrusion to the weather graphics has been evolving since the 1980s. In the beginning, they'd only put on a graphic for a warning. It started out as a simple "T" or "S" in the corner of the screen. Then in the early 90's they put a lightning bolt or tornado next to the letter. A few years later they listed the names of the counties along with the graphics. Then came the map of the counties in addition to everything else, and now they actually roll back the screen to make room for the graphics. Channel 12 is the only one to put the graphics on constantly for  watches, 58/41 also did last year but stopped this year.

I agree that the intrusion is very obnoxious and only hinders their purpose. The advent of new research and technology in weather forecasting is allowing meteorologists to give more advanced warning, but the unforseen downside is the explosion of false alarms, which is developing a serious (and warrented) "crying wolf" situation in the eyes of the layperson. You have to understand that only the National Weather Service (a federal government agency) can issue watches and warnings and hundreds of millions of tax dollars have been invested in radars, etc. So the last thing they want is a storm to kill somebody when there wasn't a warning issued. I think its a flawed logic, as was just shown in southern Indiana when a tornado hit when everyone was asleep. Compounding the problem are the people who run the TV stations and think that because their studies say that weather content is what attracts viewers, more is always better.

All I can say is, maybe if they get enough complaints they will put up less intrusive graphics, but there's not much you can do about the frequency of the intrusions.

[mhz40]

Why can't stations simply put a small icon on the screen indicating a weather statement is available on one of the unused closed-caption channels?  It may not work in the SD world, since some sets may not have caption capability.  But I can't think of a reason not to implement this in the HD arena.

[wysiwyg]

It's simply a matter of choice.  What they are required by law to do is what Channels 18 and 24 currently do - run the EAS scroll message at the top of the screen, and for a tornado warning, sound the tone and the audio message from the National Weather Service. Everything else beyond that which is done by the other local stations is only an attempt to get better ratings during stormy weather. Also, 4, 6, and 12 have always (at least since the 1980's) interrupted programming with the "special report" when a warning was issued and a meteorologist is actually on duty at the time. There are just many more warnings issued today than there were back then.

[kjnorman]

WISN really mashed Surface last monday and that really annoyed me.

The thing that gets me is that weather alerts on TV are totally useless unless the TV is on.  We have a weather alert radio that is in our kitchen and that comes on and alerts when ever there is a watch or warning.  Sometimes it is annoying when it goes off at 1am, only to find that there is a flood watch for Waukasha, but other times its gives us a good comfort level, such as when the tornadoes went through the Madison area.  Days like that we will keep I eye on the computer radar sites and the local TV.

I agree that the TV stations have a role to inform the public about bad weather, however the "cry wolf" (to use a phrase from someone above) hype that stations like WISN do is simply obnoxious.  I think the maximum any station should do, is for watch just scroll the message at the bottom of the screen.  For a thunderstorm warning show the effected areas and radar in the lower corner of the screen and if there is a warning for a tornado or a tornado is actually on the ground, then hell, you can cut into the program with a live person.

Kerry

[SRW1000]

WISN really mashed Surface last monday and that really annoyed me.

Surface is on WTMJ (not that WISN isn't just as obnoxious with their weather alert graphics.   Just wanted to point out that all the stations are way too gonzo over nothing.

Then again, I'm sure they all have to justify the latest Super Doppler Radar 27,000 (and one half).  All that fancy equipment has to be used for something, even if it's just to tell us that there are snow flurries.  Falling from the sky.  Some are sticking to the ground.  The roads are wet and may be slippery in spots.  People could die.

Of course, we could all see the same thing by peaking out the window.

Scott

[12engr]

And then you wonder why we put our "bug" in over shows- Surface is a NBC (WTMJ) show.

[12engr]

OK- so kjnorman beat my post

[12engr]

excuse me- SRW1000 beat my post

[Mark Strube]

And then you wonder why we put our "bug" in over shows- Surface is a NBC (WTMJ) show.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but nobody really cares if it's 4, 12, 543, WTMJ, or WISN bringing us our ABC HD programming. All we care about is that you bring that programming to us as glitchless as possible, without extra annoying logos that the network doesn't require, and without crying wolf on weather alerts that kills that great HD picture for an entire program.

When you do a great job, your station will get credit for that... but at this point, your station has been doing such a horrible job - if I were you guys, I'd be embarrassed to put that 12 in the corner.

Constant HD switching errors, audio dropouts that took forever to fix, annoying weather alerts, horrible-looking upscaled picture quality... and OH! By the way! Just in case you didn't annoy us enough already, a giant logo to remind us that all this QUALITY is brought to us by channel 12!

Feel free to forward this to everyone at channel 12, I'd love to get their thoughts on it.

[AndrewP]

Can somebody from WISN 12 answer two simple questions:
1. Why WLS 7 from Chicago doesn't show their 7 logo (BTW 7 is way better number then 12 ).
2. Why WLS SD PQ is way better the WISN SD PQ after 7 p.m.
3. Why WTMJ SD PQ is way better the WISN SD PQ after 7 p.m.

I think we all here in this thread just do this :bang:

[kjnorman]

Okay, so I got the stations mix up.    

Still, the point is that logo placement is getting more and more obnoxious, be it weather bugs, channel bugs or advertising for other programs.  Come on!  I'm watching a program of your channel, I do not want your advertisement splattered all over my show.  That's what commercial breaks are for!

Oh sorry, I guess stations want to maximize commercial revenue, so they place their bugs over their programming, then take them all off (and remove any eather alerts) during the commercials so as not to p*ss off the advertisers.

Why take the weather alerts off during the ads?  Think that Tornado is going to go away during the commercial break??

Okay I'm ranting a bit.  I just hate bugs and crap placed over programs I am trying to watch.  Do it too many times and I just give up on the program and I go off and watch or do something else instead.

[gparris]

With all the problems with Channel 12 HD service, no wonder why Milwaukee is viewed by some in my area (close to Chicagoland)
as somewhat backward in the areas of journalism, technology and so on.

My neighbours still watch the Channel 7 news if they want ABC at 10PM as most Milwaukeeland TV stations are just not very professional.

I do feel, IMHO, to be fair, that despite the NBC screwups on a national level, that our own 'TMJ local station is the best of them in terms making me feel that the viewer is not an idiot, but then again, that's me...they at least try.

[Gilbert]

With all the problems with Channel 12 HD service, no wonder why Milwaukee is viewed by some in my area (close to Chicagoland)
as somewhat backward in the areas of journalism, technology and so on.

My neighbours still watch the Channel 7 news if they want ABC at 10PM as most Milwaukeeland TV stations are just not very professional.

I do feel, IMHO, to be fair, that despite the NBC screwups on a national level, that our own 'TMJ local station is the best of them in terms making me feel that the viewer is not an idiot, but then again, that's me...they at least try.

My $.02 on all of this.

First, weather break-ins are a MUST if there is a severe thunderstorm, flash flood, or tornado watch or warning in effect. these are for possible or already occurring life-threatening events. I used to be a weathercaster in Rockford, and I would get angry calls if a tornado was raging on one side of the market, and the other side was sunny. People would say "who cares? *I* am not affected. Screw' em!", in so many words. I politely explained that those people in the path of the storm DO care. As for wind advisories, wind chill advisories, dense fog advisories...an on-air crawl once an hour is fine. No bug needed. Overkill is bad, but remember, if you get mad because an outlying county is getting hit with a nasty storm and they go to an SD and much lower-resolution picture for it, that is community service. Really!

Second, I know several Chicago TV engineers. I can tell you they, and just about every one in every market bust their butts off to give you the best picture possible at all times. I don't care what anyone says...digital TV is bleeding edge technology, and the engineers are still learning it and will be for quite a while. Second, it's usually not making the stations a dime of ad revenue money right now, and so management doesn't likely place the highest priority on that signal, even while the engineers frantically respond to complaints about bad pictures, or what have you.

Finally, the digital broadcasting era promised higher quality pictures, but NOT HD.
Period. Look at the FCC rules and regs, and it says nothing about high-def.
The stations are giving this to you as a bonus, IMO. Granted, I'll take it.  

Finally, instead of screaming, flaming and ranting about the stations, even when they do mess up (and I promise, all of them will at various times), I suggest that no matter how bad the screwup, civility and encouragement is used towards the engineers. From what I can tell, the ones that post on this board take great pride in their work, and always excel to improve the picture as best they can on a continual basis. Badmouthing them or their stations gets them off the boards, and makes them much less accessible when things majorly go wrong, and the public notices it before the engineers do (and yes, that does happen, especially with DTV, due to different types of tuner and cable boxes). Look at the Chicago AVS thread in the last month: we had major problems with 5 channels, including two that were out completely due to PSIP problems whereby most tuners (except for the ones the engineer had) couldn't pick it up. After we contacted each one, all but one got fixed quickly and were better than ever before (the other one is awaiting their HD upgrade to fix it). And, some engineers either joined the forum or monitor it for problems as a result of the nice way we handled it. THAT'S the way to do it!

Yes, I know FOX has had issues with getting to full power that some contend was breaking the rules, etc. Still, that's the management's problem, not those of the engineer, if those were true. In any event, if milwaukeehdtv.org is to grow in monitoring with engineers, I respectively suggest a more civil attitude, even when
something happens that really ticks you off (myself included!)...which also, guaranteed, will happen in this stage of the DTV game.

Just my thoughts.

Gilbert

[Mark Strube]

I see your point, and I don't see how we, or at least I personally, haven't been civil. Constant problems that don't get improved and an annoying unneeded logo... your little example is nice but if you hung around here more you'd see that problem-fixing behavior happens quite a bit at this forum too, but this is different... channel 12's problems hardly ever seem to get fixed, no matter how much we point them out.

We have been quite understanding... but when the engineer comes on here, with the majority of their technical problems unfixed, and then defends their horrible logo... I'm going to call him on it.

Finally, the digital broadcasting era promised higher quality pictures, but NOT HD.
Period. Look at the FCC rules and regs, and it says nothing about high-def.
The stations are giving this to you as a bonus, IMO. Granted, I'll take it.  

That is a completely moot point and I'm tired of hearing it. Who cares what the useless government agencies & worthless beurocrats have "mandated"? Despite the FCC's rules & regulations, in the end the free market determines what programs and what picture resolutions these stations will use (you said it yourself... they're not required to transmit HD). If it was not in their best economic interest to be transmitting HD, believe me, they would not be doing it.

[techguy1975]

If it was not in their best economic interest to be transmitting HD, believe me, they would not be doing it.

Right now...it has NOTHING to do with ecomonic interest, since they arent makin a dime off HD....