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There's severe weather with numerous tornadoes happing now in Iowa. Fox Weather is covering it live. TWC is not covering it. Fox Weather is 1000x more attentive to severe weather/tornadic events, while TWC has a massive bias toward tropical systems and winter storms. The execs over at TWC seem to like tropical/winter weather better because they're a "sure bet", and they have multiple days in advance to schedule on-air shifts and send meteorologists out into the field. Severe weather, on the other hand, is more prone to have less days notice in advance, and also a greater chance of being a total bust if the tornado outbreak fails to materialize. TWC seems to have no interest in covering an event that's not a "sure thing". One note about Fox Weather's coverage is that they're not using a control room / main studio / multiple hosts. It's just nonstop solo-hosted "emergency break-in" style coverage with Jane Minar where she stands at the podium near the weather center and controls the broadcast herself using the touchscreen on the podium. I don't know why TWC refuses to do something like this when they're unsure of the potency of a severe weather event. It seems pretty cost effective compared to having a full staff there during off-peak hours, and at least it gives Fox Weather the ability to be live to cover this outbreak, especially when things get a lot more severe than originally forecasted.

Caught a WGNO newscast a couple of days ago. They've tightened up their color scheme by losing the more "purple" shade of blue from their graphics (ticker and bug). Since this is New Orleans, it probably should have been the one they kept and implemented throughout, but at least it's more consistent now.

Okay, so after a little poking around, Laura Bannon lost her voice, and I'm assuming he was the easiest to call in, this morning. The weird part, to me, is that Robb Ellis was in for Mary Kay at 4 o'clock, and yet they didn't let him take all the evening shifts, and give Albert the rest of the day.

There goes our chance to turn it into a store for bootleg news stuff, with dollar store-quality circle 7 pins and still-fat Skilling plushies.

KOIN is about to debut a new set, and some signs point towards new graphics as well, but I'm not sure. They've been using a new look in topical promos and sponsor billboards. Does this look like a current Nexstar package or something new? I feel like I've seen this before, but maybe not. It's a flat design, boxy, blue/teal and gray with a bit of yellow accent. Thanks in advance.