Weather Scares - Local TV News Needs To Fix Its Act
Bob Brady’s entrance into the Mayor’s race was real news this week. Then there was the fake news, further evidence of the decllining fortunes of local television news. The hype surrounding the temperature change was appropriate but to hear the forecasts of snow on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, you would think that the world as we know it was about to come to an end.
This over-hype continues to be a dangerous trend for local newscasts, whose audiences are not getting bigger, and who have major competition and serious problems, namely exaggerating and distorting reality so badly that viewers tend to lose their faith in these stations.
Let me make it clear. As a longtime veteran of the TV News wars, I never had a problem “teasing” viewers in hopes of getting them to watch the 11 o’clock news. That is all part of the arena of competition. But when you go too far by hyping weather that’s really not going to happen, you are playing a treacherous game with viewer loyalty.
All in all, Philadelphia stations are a little better than most other TV markets, but the weather scares are getting a bit much. The horrible deep freeze that we experienced today was worth alerting people to, but the unnecessary hype of the snow squalls yesterday was a joke, plain and simple.
Add to this the sense that local TV News doesn’t care about really big stories, and you have a prescription for lower audience growth in the years ahead.
Last Sunday night was a great example. I was watching Channel 6, the market leader. While the prime time show was airing, WPVI TV showed one of its graphics that promotes the 11 o’clock news. On a day when 27 Americans died in Iraq, the visual graphic said, “Duck Stuck in Fridge, Action News at 11.”
Did the duck get out?
I never watched. Like so many others, I browsed the internet to get the news of what happened in Iraq.
Larry,
I can relate to weather-hype. We don’t get lots of winter weather down here in Southeastern Arizona, but once in a while … Case in point: We had a cold front move through last week, and with it, dire predictions of frozen pipes, huge snowfalls, and, as you so eloquently put it, the world as we know it coming to an end, or at least a stop. Yeah, it got a little cold (I didn’t personally have any pipes burst or even know of anybody that did) and, yeah - a little snow fell (about 2-3 inches or so). This episode paralyzed the region. Schools were mostly closed, though a few offered delayed starts. I work on a major military installation, and as I was preparing to leave for work, the installation commander announced that work call would be delayed until 10:00 a.m. (vice 8:00 a.m.). Upon arrival to my office around 9 or so, a follow-up message was released that the installation qwas shutting down for the day!! Now, I know that we don’t get stuff like this very often, and I happened to traverse a goodpart of the installation on my way to work with no major problems, butapparently local news outlets (Tucson) were making dire predictions about the degradingof weather conditions for the rest of that day so… The plus side was, I got tospend a week day with my wife and do a few things together, and still get paid for it! The down side, in this case for the American Taxpayer, hundreds/thousands of Military and Civil Service personnel were non-productive for an entire day over alittle snow. By the way, most of the day the sun shone brightly, and any threat of ice on the roads was gone by 10 or 11 that morning. Things that make you go, “Hmmmmmm…”.
Have a great weekend!
With the new trend in local news, forget “if it bleeds, it leads”. Now it’s “if it flurries, it leads”. The weather situation keeps getting worse with severe over hype. Or how about, “if it’s a network plug, it leads”. I’m getting fed up of heavy coverage of network shows (i.e. Dancing With the Stars, American Idol). It’s worse when there is a participant who is from the area.
Channel 10 when purchased by NBC took a real turn for the worse with overhype and breaking news. They have mellowed out a little bit, they now have more traditional newscasts in the evening. Fox 29 however unveiled its new look this week, and I’m really not thrilled. They adopted a look comparible to the Fox News Channel. They use a massive set, flashy and quick cut graphics. However, I will still watch if they continue their heavy coverage of local and community events. Eyewitness News continues to be a top quality newscast, but I noticed that it has been developing a harder edge lately. The tabloid feel doesn’t bother me that much. Action News is always Action News. While it certainally doesn’t look the way it did ten years ago; the feel is still the same. If they one day were to rebrand as say, “6 ABC NEWS”, I bet every viewer would desert.