Dennis Hart has worked at TV stations in Fresno, Buffalo, Phoenix, Atlanta, Detroit, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Well, that didn’t take long, did it?
Just a few days ago, word came out that the Allen Media Group—which owns more than two dozen stations, including KIMT in Mason City and KWWL in Waterloo—was getting rid of its on-air weather people.
All of them.
But now, the Allen Group has backed off, after what is said to have been negative reactions from both viewers and advertisers.
I have to admit, Allen’s plan was a new one on me.
I’ve spent much of the past half-century working in broadcasting, mostly television news. I’ve been almost everything—anchor, reporter, assignment manager, producer, executive producer, assistant news director and news director.
I’ve worked in both medium-sized and major markets and gotten to see and experience many things. Yes, I’ve been at stations that downsized. Not many of those, thankfully.
But I’ve never—until now—heard of a group of TV stations doing what Allen planned to do.
Forecasts for the Allen stations would have been produced from the Weather Channel’s headquarters in Atlanta. Allen owns the Weather Channel.
Now, I’ve heard about—but never been part of—a few groups experimenting with having a forecaster from a sister station fill in.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m fully aware that, with modern technology, a “local” weather cast can be produced from almost anywhere.
And I recognize the need, in the current media climate, to cut corners and save money while, at the same time, trying to produce a decent on-air product.
By “decent,” I mean a newscast that induces at least a few viewers to tune in at the lowest possible cost.
But I would have thought that weather forecasters, of all people, would be among the last to be axed.
After all, in every station I was ever at—major-market or mid-market—our researchers showed that local weather was the most important product we could present for our viewers. It was the biggest audience-grabber, even in markets that rarely had serious weather.
And in the Midwest, weather is far more important than it is, say, in Los Angeles or San Francisco (yes, I worked in both cities).
Other newscast elements, including sports, were far less important to most viewers than the weather.
Think about how often the weather leads both local and national broadcasts. Think about how often weather forecasts show up each hour on morning TV newscasts.
And think about how often, here in the Midwest, we’ve seen local weather forecasters spend hour after hour, continuously, on the air during major storm events.
Most of these weather folks have been around here for years or even decades. They know the area. They know the neighborhoods. They know the weather patterns like the backs of their hands.
I had some questions about Allen’s plan. What would happen when tornadoes blew into the area—any area—that has an Allen station? Would the Weather Channel folks in Atlanta “take the air” on Local Station X and keep it for four or five hours of continuous coverage?
Would they know enough about the area they’re broadcasting about to be able to talk about the neighborhoods that are threatened or being impacted?
And would the audience see a stark difference between the local weather person who has been on Channel Y for years—who has established trust in the community over that time—and the weather person who is on an Allen station but who is 1,000 miles away?
The Allen Group said it would create a “centralized, cutting edge” weather reporting system—one that would provide viewers with “enhanced forecasting, immersive mixed reality presentations, and improved severe weather reporting.”
It also said the Weather Channel would select meteorologists “transitioning” from its local stations.
Well, so much for all that. Allen confirmed on January 23 that the company “has decided to pause and reconsider the strategy of providing local weather from the Weather Channel in Atlanta.”
No doubt, cutting weather people would have saved money for the group. The question was, at what cost to public safety, and perhaps, to stations’ ratings?
Like everything else in what’s turned into a crazy media environment—only time would have given us the answer.
In this case, the audience and advertisers spoke, and Allen’s time ran out.
Top image is by DeshaCAM, available via Shutterstock.