When did the Weather Channel go downhill?

[Wes Carter]

C'mon now, I know you all really enjoy the gardening tips, airport delays, and what the forecast is for the ramp festival in Cosby, TN. I want to know whether or not to water my hostas before I fly to Knoxville to go watch people make fools of themselves for the honor of bitter turnips.

For those of you with TIVO's, record an episode of Storm Stories. Eliminate the commercials AND the rehash of the last segment that follows every set of commercials. The 30 minute show actually has 7 to 8 minutes of material that is not credits, recaps, commercials, or plugs for the next episode.

Here's my prediction: Within two years TWC will join the reality television fray and in the vein of Axemen, the Most Dangerous Catch, and Ice Road Truckers launch a series where they follow competing groups of storm chasers. Mark my words...

 

[Paul Austin]

Here's my prediction: Within two years TWC will join the reality television fray and in the vein of Axemen, the Most Dangerous Catch, and Ice Road Truckers launch a series where they follow competing groups of storm chasers. Mark my words...

While I would welcome such a show if it actually showed some of the weather being chased, I know the real focus would be on the not-so-real human drama and competition factor. I could do without most of that. But if Mike Rowe is contracted to narrate, I'd have to at least check it out.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Within two years TWC will join the reality television fray and in the vein of Axemen, the Most Dangerous Catch, and Ice Road Truckers launch a series where they follow competing groups of storm chasers. Mark my words...

I don't know... from what little I've seen of them lately, they seem to be turning into the Home & Garden channel. I would be more inclined to think we'll be seeing Bob Vila hosting a drywall hanging competition and they'll figure out some way to tie it to weather.

Tim

 

[John Erwin]

I don't know... from what little I've seen of them lately, they seem to be turning into the Home & Garden channel. I would be more inclined to think we'll be seeing Bob Vila hosting a drywall hanging competition and they'll figure out some way to tie it to weather.

They already do that here in Canada with our "Weather Network"; there's a renovation guy named "Jon Eakes" that gives all kinds of tips regarding rain gutters, siding and anything else you can remotely connect to the weather. Real light fluff.

/Not a Bob Vila Fan
//or Jon Eakes for that matter

 

[Joel Wright]

Ahh I can see it now...

Jim Cantore and Dave Schwartz have a competition to see who can turn their vehicles into the best "hyper-miler".

I will say their HD is pretty damn good. If they'd just cut out ALL of their shows, like Storm Stories, etc, I'd be happy. It needs to return back to 24hrs of continuous weather. Not 20hrs with 4hrs of "fluff" crap that most people could give a rats ass about. I could do without everything always being broken down into segments too. Why put a fancy name with a certain time period? Why team up the same people with each other all the time? Are certain segments supposed to be better than other segments?

They just need to have people on there presenting and explaining the weather without all the extra BS. Their HD and much improved graphics compared to years past should be enough to "draw you in" to watch.

 

[Carrie Halliday]

I just noticed a new channel on my Verizon FIOS lineup "Weatherscan" - which is 100% all local weather and has TWC's logo in the upper-right corner. It also has the same music that TWC plays on the "8s" along with the same voice... "Your local radar," "Your local Forecast", "Your current conditions"... it's all radar loops, sat loops, etc... It's sort of a 70/30 split screen with air temp just below the logo on the left, a 3-hour radar loop under that, the main window on the upper-right side of the screen with bigger graphics of radar, satellite loops, forecast text, etc... and have 3-5 day planner under that along with a few crawlers along the bottom displaying area temps. It's "Local on the 8s" on steroids.

We just moved to a small town in SE Texas and I discovered this channel last night on the local provider (took us 14 days to get our cable/Internet/phone looked up in the sticks).
I like it....I like it alot.

 

[Jason Foster]

Frank Batten.

I think it all has to do with the influence and leadership of the originators. Frank Batten has retired from TWC (in 2001 I think) and I'm sure his influence was diminishing a couple of years before that. Frank was the one from Landmark communications that made TWC happen, and made it the great channel it was. But as the entire media business has changed, and profits and other ideals have worked themselves into the fray, we've all see the channel go from an interesting channel gear for weather enthusiast, to a run-of-mill, all about the ratings (and profits) network. As a privately held company (prior to the NBC/Universal buyout), all decisions were made based on the needs of the network. I'm not sure I know what the future holds.

So I'd say the downhill started the same time Frank Batten retired.

BTW: For those who have not read it....there is a great book about the Weather Channel written by Frank Batten. I don't remember the actual name of the book (The Weather Channel, the Rise of a Unprobable Media Phenomenon....I think) but google it, I'm sure you can find a copy around someplace.

 

[David Hoadley]

Just happened to catch parts of two TWC specials this afternoon (August 14), about how "It Could Happen Anytime," and what an F4 or F5 could do to downtown Washington, D.C. or Chicago, IL. One program emphasized how a large tornado could destroy our national monuments (steel-reinforced marble!), including the computer graphic of a tornado decapitating the capitol dome, like it was made of butter. The emphasis was on how the worst possible storm could happen ANY TIME and kill thousands (December? Every other day? Every hour?). Talk about inducing "panic attack." I started to watch the following program about Chicago but couldn't take it any more.

What possible public interest is served by dramatic over-kill? Like crying "Wolf! Wolf!" until the message becomes a hollow echo or parody of itself. Is such fare what this generation of videoheads needs? Do we have to see the very worst that can happen to act sensibly, when a real threat occurs? The next time a tornado brushes a local neighborhood but doesn't flatten the city (98% of the time?), will the locals pay attention or will they quickly lose interest, when expectations aren't met? Thus goes The Weather Channel on this August afternoon.

 

[Jeff Miller]

Simple answer. The Weather channel entered it's "Dissipating" stage when it choked "Weather" from it's ratings.

Until it can uniquely present weather in a way that is altogether different from what can be presented from any other source, it will struggle. Business success is found in uniqueness. People need a reason to turn in. Why turn in the Weather Channel when the internet gives you the same information but faster? Pointless, right? Why turn in the Weather Channel if it simply provides the same information as your local news - but even more less? Why turn it in at all if all you will find is home and garden snippets or doomsday weather scenarios only weather geeks may have remote interest in?

For TWC to succeed they need to develop a unique, interesting, friendly presentation of the weather that is different from anything observable today.

Good luck.

 

[Brian Barnes]

Perhaps the best guy to answer this question is the very man that started the animal...and he touches on this subject in the last few minutes of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vyo_eTD30U

 

[Jim Zandonai]

Well I remember when TWC was first out..Man I was excited I would watch it all the time..esp for local radar. Then it seemed to go downhill for me later on when they added all the stories and 'HGTV' stuff. When I first got a computer in the late 90s I used that mostly. They always did have great Hurricane coverage and even covering severe weather events. Now the only time I watch is when I catch DR.Lyons or Forbes on there discussing something in great detail. Jim Cantore probably the most known there but I still like him when he's discussing something in detail..he still shows excitement in his work and he's one of the best.
TWC is using grlevelx and weathertap images as seen in their Blog on their website which is good. I Havent seen the HD stuff yet..we don't have that feed yet here.
TWC to keep viewership growing had to cater to the larger crowd..business travelers and the General public. Most people dont want to turn it on and hear them discussing radial velocity or other stuff we find fascinating. The majority just want to turn it,see their forecast and whats going on here n there across the country or when its storming outside their home and the garden stuff was to attract more wide range of viewers.
For me now I tune in now n then during hurricane coverage or severe WX events but I am on the computer so much now its almost worthless to me except during hurricane or perhaps a severe event coverage . For the general person at work or someone at home when warnings are issued its a good source.
The more scientific group like Jim C, Dr Lyons and Forbes ,Stu Ostro are great to listen to..

Just my 2cents..

 

[Paul Austin]

Perhaps there is hope, yet? (My brief post from the VERY impressive colorado landspout video thread)

I actually saw some of the footage (a lot of nice zoomed in views) LIVE on THE WEATHER CHANNEL! Can you believe it? They actually interrupted the usual "Weather & Your Gardening Health Changed History Could Happen Tomorrow" programming to cut to an unfolding news story! I was a bit shocked, and this during the waning days of a tropical event. 24 hours of Tropical Fay flood coverage wasn't captivating enough, like it normally is?

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=17799

 

[Jeff Richardson]

Tim Vasquez and David Hoadley took the words right out of my mouth with their posts. I started watching TWC back in 1982 when they first went on the air. It was amazing to see a channel devoted 24/7 to weather. Like so many others have mentioned in their posts, when the HGTV theme and "reality" catastrophe shows crept in to the point of even overriding significant weather events, the quality declined. Many of their on-camera "meteorologists" have no formal education in the atmospheric sciences (or so I'm told from someone who works at the National Weather Center). Their new digital format leaves a lot to be desired but I suppose every new venture has it's growing pains. Lately, I've noticed a slight increase in the time spent on severe weather events, but maybe it was just a lark. I don't have much hope that they'll reorganize into what they were in years past. It's also been interesting to watch the rather high turnover of the OCMs, especially since about 2000 or 2001.

 

[Dave Gallaher]

TWC has been roping out for a long, long time. I never turn it on nowadays. When it was new, the whole concept of actual scientific data gathering, collation and interpretation for the sake of however many viewers might be interested was a novel idea for commercial television.

However, it wasn't long before the degeneration set in. The factor Dave Hoadley mentions, pumping and pimping fear as a hook, was probably the only thing they could come up with, and it had worked so well for the Discovery Channel family of stations. Thankfully, it's hard to make the weather into a sexual story, or they'd have done that.

 

[Damon Scott Hynes]

TWC has been roping out for a long, long time.

Beautiful turn of phrase. I watch it for the ladies, and I don't apologize for that.

if you want a good, snarky, non-weather discussion about TWC, head here:
http://kaptured.netfreehost.com/viewforum.php?f=1&mforum=kaptured