Stormarmageddon 2009!

[bschlafer]

Here we go again.

Non-stop banners, crawlers, annoying graphics and live reports from the street all messing up programming tonight.

However, kudos to CBS-58 for not giving into temptation.

Funny how PBS-10/36 seems to get by just fine without any of this overkill.

Oh well.  Tuesday nights are pretty lame anyway (with the exception of NCIS).  Time to pop in a DVD.


*Bill in Milwaukee

Update... as I was writing this, ABC-12 lost their network feed, apparently due to high winds.  So now they are in non-stop storm coverage mode.  Sigh.

[uwgrad]

It's actually CBS 58 that lost their network feed.  

WISN 12 is still hard at work destroying network programming by running the stupid snow closing banners.

Great kudos to Fox 6 (and CBS 58 before they lost the feed) for showing their network programming in HD with no banners.

[Jack 1000]

Who needs The Weather Channel when you have WTMJ!!!!! LOL!!!!

Actually, thus might be justifiable to an extent that there is actually a bad storm coming with around 8-12 inches of snow.  But my problem is when they do this weather stuff for 2-4 inches of snow.  That's the overkill part.

Jack

[mrschimpf]

Here we go again.

Non-stop banners, crawlers, annoying graphics and live reports from the street all messing up programming tonight.

However, kudos to CBS-58 for not giving into temptation.

Well, they had to roll in and give in because the bird and the snow is fuzzing out the transmissions from CBS New York. Thankfully though they're the only network affiliate tonight with an all-repeat schedule so it's not much of a loss.

I'm not pleased at all I had to watch Charlie Brown with all the clutter, and pretty much shrugged off "Prep & Landing" because a 2009 Christmas special designed to be watched in HD should not be watched in SD pillar and letter-boxed to death with Bingo club closings :rolleyes:!

And yet again Channel 4; your viewers are not preschoolers who watch Dora on Nick Jr. We don't need 36-point text in screaming all-caps that "LIVING LAMBS PRESCHOOL" is closed tomorrow. Shrink the text and knock it off with the Squish-o-Vision which pretty much adds 20 lbs. to the "Biggest Loser" finalists.

However, kudos to 6 for just throwing off the snow warnings until 9 and letting us watch in full HD. Even though you have the ability to now air the network in 16:9 with warnings, it's appreciated.

[bschlafer]

Yep, it was channel 58 with the lost feed, not 12.  My mistake.  It sounded like it was a problem at the network, not locally.  Seems to be fixed now.

I see that channel 6 at least has the ability to run those crawlers and banners in HD widescreen.  An improvement over the squished screen thing I guess.   Sure would be nice if TMJ-4 would just dump all that storm coverage stuff over to their sub-channel and leave the network feed untouched.  At least during prime time.


*Bill

[WITI6fan]

Yep, it was channel 58 with the lost feed, not 12.  My mistake.  It sounded like it was a problem at the network, not locally.  Seems to be fixed now.

Of course they made it sound like it was the networks fault. Saying "Our crappy satellites can't pick up a signal when a cloud gets in the way" doesn't sound very good, especially when people are missing their shows.

[LoadStar]

Of course they made it sound like it was the networks fault. Saying "Our crappy satellites can't pick up a signal when a cloud gets in the way" doesn't sound very good, especially when people are missing their shows.

That was an impressive job of passing the buck. Truly award winning.

Yeah... every other station in the entire US can get the network feed but us... so, yeah, it's the network's fault, not us. Riiiiiiight....

[Stanley Kritzik]

This storm business reminds me that I'm getting old.  That is, I used to walk to school -- up to four blocks -- with rubber galoshes (4 buckles), a hat, gloves, etc.  Rarely, on WTMJ AM, we'd hear about a school closing, but, usually, we wouldn't even listen.

Fast forward to last night.  One or more TV stations had weather ALL NIGHT LONG.  Of course, the photo ops had people thrashing around in two inches of snow, with weather in the 30s.  And the closings -- yikes!  I heard that Doyle closed ALL State of Wisconsin offices today.  Meanwhile, I'm looking at green grass outside my downtown Milwaukee office window.

Yes, I know that the counties around Milwaukee got hit worse than we did, but Milwaukee, and the communities along the lakeshore had very little to deal with -- except we had to put up with Storm Team 4 and the like.  Where is Bill Carlson now that we need him?

I remember paying a business call on an office in Los Angeles a few years ago.  I flew in, went to the office, and there was only a receptionist.  "Where is everyone?" said I.  "Oh," she responded, "it was raining pretty hard, so the Manager sent everyone home."  Well, at least we work when it rains -- usually.


Stan

[Jack 1000]

I remember paying a business call on an office in Los Angeles a few years ago. I flew in, went to the office, and there was only a receptionist. "Where is everyone?" said I. "Oh," she responded, "it was raining pretty hard, so the Manager sent everyone home."

LOL!!!!  Sounds like this could be a new policy for the WTMJ Storm Track people!  They could do 8x10 graphics of school and business closings on account of RAIN!!!!!! LOL!!!!

Jack

[oz]

Shrink the text and knock it off with the Squish-o-Vision which pretty much adds 20 lbs. to the "Biggest Loser" finalists.

I wasn't sure why the decided to stretch their screen like that. Isn't there a way to simply shrink the entire picture so you can maintain the 16:9 resolution?

[uwgrad]

I wasn't sure why the decided to stretch their screen like that. Isn't there a way to simply shrink the entire picture so you can maintain the 16:9 resolution?

There definitely is and that is the way Fox 6 is running their snow closings.

[WITI6fan]

I wasn't sure why the decided to stretch their screen like that. Isn't there a way to simply shrink the entire picture so you can maintain the 16:9 resolution?

WITI does that now. I'm glad they figured out how to do it, because I'm tired of the squish-o-vision that has become popular around here.

Heck, in other markets (like Chicago, in the rare instance they run any...) closings and weather alerts run in a space no larger than a standard news ticker and they don't even have to squish or scale anything.

[Jack 1000]

How does Green Bay's NBC affiliate deal with Storm Information or Madison?  Is Milwaukee the only city that goes overkill on weather and school closing graphics?

Jack

[bschlafer]

How does Green Bay's NBC affiliate deal with Storm Information or Madison?  Is Milwaukee the only city that goes overkill on weather and school closing graphics?

Jack

It seems like whenever I'm in Chicago during bad weather, the local channels don't seem to make a big deal out of it.  I'm guessing that stuff like weather overkill may be a small market thing.  The bigger market stations may be more afraid of viewers switching channels if you cover up the screen with banners and crawlers.


*Bill in Milwaukee

[bschlafer]

One of JSOnline's current polls:

Does the news media overhype snowstorms?

Yes, I don't need wall-to-wall coverage. Just treat 'em like a normal news story (79%)
No, it's important and I can't get enough of the coverage (7%)
They're overhyped but I can't stay away from it (14%)
Total Responses: 7948

(responses as of 12:30AM 12/10/2009)


Maybe the local stations will take the hint.  


*Bill in Milwaukee