When did the Weather Channel go downhill?

[Aric Cylkowski]

The Weather Channel probably won't nail the ratings it'd get for a Louisiana or Florida landfall, thus the probable drop in coverage intensity for Ike in comparison to Gustav.

So yeah Von Castor, its not just you who noticed .

 

[Joel Wright]

Another interesting thing is the relative lack of coverage when hurricane force winds strike the northwest in the winter.

I will say their hurricane coverage is pretty damn good. If they could cover all big storm-systems like that then it would be a huge improvement.

 

[Charley Kelly]

In my opinion , TWC, had its peak in the early 90s, and slowly slipped down hill every since. The introduction of programming Storm Stories, Forecast Earth, etc, ruin the reputation of the channel. The channel seemly shows one side of a perspective, i.e. global warming to the public, which drives me crazy. The severe weather varies from subpar to great depending on the event covered. Just my two cents on the matter.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

I can say that I think TWC is doing a very good job covering Ike's landfall. Dr. Lyons has been honest and shown his expertise (something that some of the on-air mets on cable news certainly can't say), and the mets in the field are doing a very good job of reporting the situation as it is. Unlike some other news networks (Geraldo on Fox, etc), they seem to be rather unsensationalistic, and the winds they are reporting seem to accurately represent what it LOOKS like. Color me somewhat impressed, especially considering (a) some of the questionable coverage of severe events in the past and (b) that some of the other networks interrupted Ike coverage w/ political coverage. For the first time in a long time, I'm actually spending a large portion of my time on TWC compared to the national cable news networks.

 

[Van DeWald]

Well, their stock just went up. They apparently had a streaker on their live coverage. It's already on YouTube.

 

[Dave Gallaher]

After my many criticisms of TWC, I have to concur that they are doing a good job on Ike coverage, and were also focusing well on the supercells in Kansas that were tornado-warned. If they keep up this type of focus, I might start watching more often. I assume they have to sell commercial space based on normal broadcast/feature schedules and events like this throw the book in the dumpster.

Good to see good coverage, and more scientific focus from the experts aboard.

 

[Robert Dewey]

Ever since the acquisition/buy-out, I've been MUCH more impressed with them. Their coverage of Katrina was awful, but their coverage of Ike was impressive.

It was sad when Fox News and CNN had better coverage of Katrina than The Weather Channel did.

 

[Bill Tabor]

My recent take on this is that they didn't actually go downhill it's just we grew up and matured in our tastes regarding weather / severe weather. When we were babies we ate baby food and liked it, now that we are a bit older we have more discerning tastes. Also I have TWC HD and I have to admit their graphics and maps are nice. Last night they were showing graphics on Hurricane Ike produced with GR AE - nice. They really did some nice coverage of this hurricane as well.

Edit: Ok second thought...yeah they did go downhill some with all the focus on programming and non weather topics, but seems things are better now. But I do still think a lot of it is just that are tastes and expectations are higher as we expect more as severe weather enthusiasts.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Ever since the acquisition/buy-out, I've been MUCH more impressed with them. Their coverage of Katrina was awful, but their coverage of Ike was impressive.

It was sad when Fox News and CNN had better coverage of Katrina than The Weather Channel did.

How many of their on-air mets went out into the field for Katrina? I think there were 5 mets in the field for Ike (Mike Bettes, Jorma Duran, Stephanie Abrams, Jim Cantore, and Mike Seidel), which is more than I remember for past landfalls (perhaps it's not, though). I'm just happy that they suspended all regular programming (including the much-less-important Weather on the Eights) LOL. At any rate, how many MSNBC reporters were in the field? I wonder if NBC shuffled some money to newly-acquired TWC instead of sending out their own folks... Regardless, I was pleased with the TWC.

 

[Joel Wright]

I think TWC's coverage of hurricanes has always been really good, but with Ike they were on a higher level. You can't ask for better coverage than what was given.

If they could cover all major events (besides hurricanes) like this, then TWC would be the best it's ever been, hands down.

 

[Terry Tyler]

personally, i think the weather channel is doing alot better then they were when all this weather channel bashing began...there are still times that i see the forecast earth, or lawn garden stuff but really those are just periods of time they need to take a break or something...

id have to say, ive seen a major improvement as far as the overall quality of the weather channel over the past 6 months...its not perfect, and never will be but thats cool, it is what it is...i strongly agree with joel though, you cant get much better then that as far as hurricane coverage...

 

[Andrew Kajfasz]

I will admit, I probably had not watched any of the Weather Channel for at least a couple years. It was so pathetic when we had storms that had been tornado warned since Illinois approaching, and we could not even get a few minutes of the local radar and stuff due to Storm Stories or whatever other crap they were showing at the time. Thank God for the alphabet news channels and GR3.

I also noticed, as some mentioned earlier in this thread, that it seemed in the past like all they cared about was what was happening in Atlanta. You could have multiple tornadoes on the ground at the same time in Oklahoma, but if there was even a sprinkle in Atlanta, that sprinkle was breaking weather news for them.

And I can't remember, but does anybody remember what the coverage of the Super Tuesday outbreak was like? I can't remember how in depth their coverage of it all was.

Though I will give them some credit right now. They are doing a good job with the coverage of Ike. They have definitely advanced far from the horrible coverage of Katrina. I am certainly impressed with their coverage of Ike. This may just get me to give TWC a second chance and maybe check in on the channel now and then in the future.