Top story is snow, but why?

Here's the photo I took this morning when snow flurries at my house were heaviest. Can you see all that snow? A veritable blizzard! Sound the snow sirens. Here we go.

Yes, it's true that it's unusual for us to get a trace or an inch or two of snow in October. And it's true that it cancelled school in Mitchell County and forced other school systems to start late. But why, o why, is this the lead story on WLOS? The tiny snow flurries (which Sheraldo described as "cat-paw sized snow flakes) in no way affected my life today. OK, I wore a scarf. But why is this news? Why go to Madison County and Barnardsville and Burnsville and talk to people who said, over and over, "Yep, it usually don't snow this much in the fall." It's as if none of these folks ever saw a frackin' snow flake before in their entire lives.

Please lead the news with news, with something of import, rather than chasing after a few fluttering snow flakes.

Comments

[Soni]

Heh...a tv news cameraman friend of mine got sent all the way from the flatlands to the Tenn border last year to get live footage of a snowstorm...for the *Greensboro* news. Apparently, there just wasn't enough snow to get good film anywhere closer, but it was enough for the station to send him several hours each way to the ass end of nowhere for a 10-second background shot.

What is it with news media and insane (the media, not the weather) weather reporting?

[joey flash]

consultant after consultant have convinced news directors everywhere that weather coverage drives ratings. their theory - the most reliable viewers tune in, sit through the news (which they don't really care about) to get their weather, then they go to bed. weather is the "cash cow" if you will...

i used to work in greensboro at a weather-obsessed station. if it rained, every photographer was required to get rain footage for the show. if it snowed, fuggetaboutit - every story was weather. i never got sent to tennessee for snowflakes (like your previous commenter's unlucky friend), but it sounds about right. in milwaukee, they even wanted weather video on sunny days.

leading the noon newscast with a "snowy morning in the mountains" story would have made more sense, since any trace of those cat-paws were long gone by the evening news. that said, in my opinion, wlos keeps weather coverage in perspective better than stations in a lot, and probably most other markets in the country.

[Ricky]

Hope you noticed we actually starting using a new SkyWatch "snow" open instead of the normal one. My favorite WLOS snow moment was several years ago when we didn't have a live Saturday AM show at the time. There was a threat of snow so the news director thought it would be nice to drag everybody back in on Saturday AM for special snow coverage. Of course it didn't snow a lick. Jay Silter was standing outside for his live shot holding a ruler and then used it to show there was no measurable amount of snow on the ground. Almost made the early wake-up call worth it.

[nick]

in some parts of wnc (jackson co.), we got quite a bit more. here's a photo i took when we had 7", which two hours later was still snowing hard and we had 9". we're by no means along the Tennessee border, yet we were all surprised we got this much.

http://flickr.com/photos/nbphotog/2983183713/in/set-72157608470813466/

[PBnJ]

I agree with Joey...not to mention there wasn't anything much else in the newscast that should have taken precedence...although the story of Bill Pullman's son being arrested in Asheville was quite amusing.

[Kasey Shopping4Groceries]

And the schools didn't even close? :-) I remember getting out of school one year just because it was forecasted. (Of course, it did end up snowing!)

On topic... Why do the new channels go on and on about the same thing so much anyway? I remember living in Washington and having a few earthquake tremors. For days none of the regular programming was on. It wasn't like they were getting information out to someone to help them. It was totally over the top, constant coverage about a minor tremor. A week later, and it is OLD... not new(s).

[Ash]

joey, good points.

Ricky, i didn't notice! my favorite snow coverage bit was former WLOSer Suzanne Hudson, decked out like a snow bunny, slowly sliding down a giant pile of sand inside a DOT work shed as she talked about their preparations. Her slide left a perfect little butt-track.

nick, awesome -- but it appears the photo has been deleted.

[greenashevilleblogspot.com]

What better way to gear up for the Nov. sweeps than to crank up the snow sirens and get the team coverage going! I was disappointed that there was now video of milk, bread, Ingles!

[nick]

no clue how they got deleted, but here they are reposted:

http://flickr.com/photos/nbphotog/sets/72157608486021816/

:-)
nick