johnnya2k6 171 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 The first big story of 2014 is having both newsrooms and weather departments working non-stop as temperatures all over the country have plunged to double digits below zero. As far as local coverage is concerned (New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia should be saved for their separate forums)? Well, here in Atlanta, WSB and WAGA started their morning news at 4:00 am as more and more area-wide school districts have been closed (WXIA and WGCL still hit at 4:30). And during noon, evening, and at 11:00, there were much newscast time devoted to late-breaking developments as well as related stories such as one that I've born with: Preparing for the freeze! As for the weather folks: Glenn Burns (WSB), Mike Francis (WXIA), and Markina Brown (WGCL) were totally on it, but there was no sign of Ken Cook on WAGA until Tuesday. The only thing that's irritating me right now is WSB's Justin Farmer begging us to download their weather app to the point I wanted to say, "SHUT UP!!!" The other stations' touting of their apps were very minimal, but at least we get the point. For Greensboro/Winston-Salem: I've been seeing a little of WXII's and WGHP's coverage on their apps (haven't checked on WFMY yet), and 'XII as always seems to be doing a good job. But let's see how other parts of the country have held up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skbl17 188 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 "Back in my day, we'd brave -20 degree temps to get to school!! Today's kids are too soft!" -Comment on a DeKalb County Schools Facebook page from yesterday. There was a variant of that comment on every Atlanta school district and TV station FB page. There were rolling blackouts in South Carolina due to very high levels of demand last night. Here in northern Atlanta (Chamblee,) we got down to 5 degrees this morning. Back to television, surprisingly, I'm surprised that stations like WSB weren't on air continuously from 11pm to 7am, as it seems like the kind of station that would oversensationalize this kind of historic event. Atlanta stations seemed surprisingly mellow in general, especially compared to January 9-10, 2011, despite the subzero wind chills and single-digit temperatures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mre29 1340 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I'm trying to remember if any of the Boston stations have ever done continuous, 11pm-to-7am coverage during a major weather event. I don't think so. I'm pretty sure a few of the DC stations did continuous overnight coverage during one storm a few years ago, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abric 157 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 That DC storm would be Snowmaggedon in 2010. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bostonmediaguy 123 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I'm trying to remember if any of the Boston stations have ever done continuous, 11pm-to-7am coverage during a major weather event. I don't think so. I'm pretty sure a few of the DC stations did continuous overnight coverage during one storm a few years ago, though. I vaguely recall overnight coverage during Hurricane/Tropical Storm Floyd in '99. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrtraveler01 737 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 The first big story of 2014 is having both newsrooms and weather departments working non-stop as temperatures all over the country have plunged to double digits below zero. As far as local coverage is concerned (New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia should be saved for their separate forums)? Well, here in Atlanta, WSB and WAGA started their morning news at 4:00 am as more and more area-wide school districts have been closed (WXIA and WGCL still hit at 4:30). And during noon, evening, and at 11:00, there were much newscast time devoted to late-breaking developments as well as related stories such as one that I've born with: Preparing for the freeze! As for the weather folks: Glenn Burns (WSB), Mike Francis (WXIA), and Markina Brown (WGCL) were totally on it, but there was no sign of Ken Cook on WAGA until Tuesday. The only thing that's irritating me right now is WSB's Justin Farmer begging us to download their weather app to the point I wanted to say, "SHUT UP!!!" The other stations' touting of their apps were very minimal, but at least we get the point. For Greensboro/Winston-Salem: I've been seeing a little of WXII's and WGHP's coverage on their apps (haven't checked on WFMY yet), and 'XII as always seems to be doing a good job. But let's see how other parts of the country have held up... We had a snow storm in addition to the arctic blast so it's been a mess here in St. Louis. All 3 stations have covered the storm/weather quite extensively. KMOV goes into something they call "Storm Mode" when the weather gets bad and they've been covering it quite extensively the past few days. They were all on the air all morning on Sunday when the worst of the snow came in (until it was time for NFL football). KTVI has been starting their newscasts at 3:30 AM the past few days (they normally start at 4AM) and KMOV and KSDK started their morning news programs earlier as well (either 4AM or 4:30) due to the bad weather. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PelicanGuy 117 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Each station in New Orleans dedicated the first three to five minutes of each newscast (first three to five minutes of each half hours on WWL's morning newscast) to covering the cold weather (New Orleans/Southshore got into the low-mid 20s while the Northshore got into the low-mid teens). They mainly focused on bundling up, the pipes, the homeless and the citrus crop in lower Plaquemines Parish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanewsguy 509 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I'm just glad I live in a city where there has been no measurable snowfall since 1985. Anyways, here the stations just led with the weather like always and then they had some reporter outside to demonstrate how cold it is; basically stereotypical local news at its finest. The coldest it has gotten was in the mid teens. But it'll warm up to 73 degrees by the weekend. So I don't have to worry about this very cold weather for long... And don't forget to protect your plants, pipes, and pets! Every station here has made sure to drill that in during the weather forecast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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