Given the waves of thunderstorms that have swept the Midwest and Great Lakes the last few weeks, and then our recent heatwave, I have realized that weather is the ultimate reality show. Of course there is a cable channel devoted to it, which would have made us scratch our heads thirty years ago. I shouldn't have been too surprised, however, when I remember my youth in small town Iowa. When we lived in Denison, our first cable TV bundle was the most basic of basic: ABC from Sioux City (KCAU), NBC from Sioux City (KTIV), CBS from Sioux City (KMEG), Iowa Public Broad Cast System, ABC From Omaha ( KETV) NBC from Ohama (then KMTV), CBS from Omaha (then WOWT) and, later, TBS, from Atlanta...but more about that another time.
In addition to the above, we had a channel, which in living black and white, was a closed circuit camera panning back and forth on analog wind gauge, thermometer and clock! All day every day. No talking heads, no commercials--that I can remember--just the constant sweep of the camera at the instruments. And we watched it! not for any great length of time, but it just always showed up as we were channel surfing!
Now, 30 odd years later, in the Detroit Media Market, we have weather, weather everywhere. First, there is the Weather Channel itself, now in addition to forecasts, the programming includes Storm Stories, Wake Up with Al and Storm Riders. The Weather Channel has its own version of instrument weather--but with Radar sweeps and satellite images: Weather Scan.
Local News Stations have two subjects that are reported by all the stations in a given market: Sports and Weather. With weather there seems to be two over riding themes: speed and technology. In the morning, we know to expect the weather on the 2's or 4's, etc. depending on the channel's original analog signal. The reporting of the weather is more predictable than the forecast! In addition, doppler radars, storm trackers, lightning trackers and computer simulations all figure into the technological "arms race" in local weather forecasting and reporting. And then there are the times when weather itself is news: power outtages due to weather events, floods, drought, tornadoes, hurricanes and blizzards.
Stay tuned, hurricane season is upon us....and that unfortunately can be the exemplification of tragedy and a breaking news story.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment