Hurricane Irma Megathread

[Jess 1110]

Weather Channel has dropped their authentication until Monday morning. Great for me, as I have the one cable system in the country that doesn't carry the f***ing thing.

[Drew 147]

From what I'm looking at the public message website. It says the 6,7,10&11 AM hour of Today are optional. The 8&9 are where Today and MTP usually are.

 

The private and public sites for nbc are you talking about nbcumv and press.nbcnews.com or do they have another site? I used to be able to see the nbc news channel website but that's been gone

[Weeters 1811]

WTSP has indeed partially evacuated to WMOR. It looks like their anchors are at WMOR and feeding video back to the station, which is mixing in graphics and doing weather updates and hits from elsewhere in the building other than the studio.

 

EDIT: guess I spoke too soon... I think they were doing everything out of WMOR and now just lost the signal from WMOR to the studio. Stream is black with the bug and ticker running with pulsating black video behind it

[Big Country News 435]

FOX's Chief Breaking News anchor, Shepard Smith, is planned to come in tomorrow and provide a Level 2 (Optional) Special Report to stations and will likely be on FNC.

 

Worth noting that Shep started his career at WBBH and later went to WKMG and WSVN.

[ColDayNews 437]

might CBS junk NFL entirely for rolling hurricane coverage?

 

Literally one of the dumbest questions I've seen that's been asked on this site. No. The networks didn't even dump NFL the day that the US bombed Afghanistan in '01... CBS ran a split screen, and Fox directed viewers to FNC. So no. If the NFL is airing at a network level, it's gonna get aired one way or another.

[bhratbrat 423]

Atlanta is going to have winds close to or as bad as Miami. They're going to be a lot worse off since they are not prepared.

What does a curfew do when they're telling the public that when winds get to 40 or 45 mph, they're (police, paramedics) not going to be on the road or responding to anyone?

Yes

[Georgie56 3066]

might CBS junk NFL entirely for rolling hurricane coverage?

 

LOL

[TheRolyPoly 1847]

WJXT has been on-air since noon and yes, I have been watching since noon. (Remember, I now live in GNV and have WJXT via Cox Cable 19)

 

Here are the teams that they've been using since 12:00 Noon:

12:00-3:00 p.m. - Kent Justice, Staci Spanos, Richard Nunn and Mark Collins

3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:00 and 11:00 p.m. - Tarik Minor, Joy Purdy, John Gaughan and Rebecca Barry

4:00, 6:00, 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. (maybe midnight too?) - Tom Wills, Mary Baer, John Gaughan and Rebecca Barry

 

Today, it has been TMS from 6-10am, Paid Programming from 10am-12pm and non-stop coverage since noon.

 

I checked the listings and realized that WOGX simulcasted WOFL's special coverage of Irma from 5am-12pm but they also did an extra half-hour at noon before going to FOX Sports.

 

UPDATE:

WCJB did a normal 11pm news at 11:30 due to ESPN before going off air.

 

WOGX just started at 12:05am and according to Stephen Hauck and Kirstin Delgado on Twitter, they will start now its uninterrupted coverage throughout the night and into the morning.

 

WJXT is still on air with yet another hour at midnight with Tarik, Joy, John and Rebecca.

[NEOMatrix 1295]

Like some posters said, CBS and Fox won't drop NFL coverage on a national level over something more regional. I expect at least halftime updates, more or less.

[mrschimpf 2059]

It looks like WFTX in Ft. Myers is definitely getting help from their Scripps sisters; I was just startled to see a "7 Weather" graphic from WXYZ pop up in there during their streaming coverage, which augments their usual weather coverage (Their YouTube channel is streaming a live feed now).

 

They're doing as great a job as they can under the circumstances, but this definitely shows the weaknesses of a virtual set, and it feels like they need a table and desk and a solid background (they have a desk but it seems like a very auxillary and cramped table). Good for their usual newscast load...not so much in an emergency situation (and a possibility of a flee to The Morning Blend set if that chroma-key knocks out).

[TheRolyPoly 1847]

UPDATE:

WCJB did a normal 11pm news at 11:30 due to ESPN before going off air.

 

WOGX just started at 12:05am and according to Stephen Hauck and Kirstin Delgado on Twitter, they will start now its uninterrupted coverage throughout the night and into the morning.

 

WJXT is still on air with yet another hour at midnight with Tarik, Joy, John and Rebecca.

 

After 13 straight hours, WJXT is now throwing it to CNN for the overnight hours. As for WOGX, they will continue.

[bhratbrat 423]

As for the miami stations.. Remember there coverage area does include the Florida keys.

 

Also at least for wplg and possibly other Miami stations they have told all reporters to leave the keys

[Weeters 1811]

WFTX in Fort Myers seems to be in some sort of auxiliary studio facility. They're using a single camera that's getting cropped and blown up or scaled down as they use different parts of a virtual set. The lower thirds are also static with some font oddities.

 

 

It's hard to tell from this screenshot, but the video of the anchors is VERY low quality compared to the virtual set and graphics

[Jess 1110]

WFTX in Fort Myers seems to be in some sort of auxiliary studio facility. They're using a single camera that's getting cropped and blown up or scaled down as they use different parts of a virtual set. The lower thirds are also static with some font oddities.

 

[ATTACH=full]4478[/ATTACH]

 

It's hard to tell from this screenshot, but the video of the anchors is VERY low quality compared to the virtual set and graphics

The whole visual quality is very low, given that it's purportedly at 720p on YouTube. They're clearly running a barebones setup. The ticker even has their legal ID scrolling across so I doubt they can even generate that on a... NameDropper or something? I forget the name of the software that could do that.

 

Regardless, I know we put probably too much priority on the glitz and glamour of local news but god damn does this look like amateur hour. The WTVJ "bunker" from 25 years ago looked more professional than this.

 

EDIT: It's not just the look that's amateur. I had to turn it off when the anchors participated in some of the most inane banter I've seen in a newscast, breaking news or otherwise. Now is not the time, folks.

[TheRolyPoly 1847]

After 13 straight hours, WJXT is now throwing it to CNN for the overnight hours. As for WOGX, they will continue.

 

UPDATE: Welcome to Good Day Orlando on FOX 51... at 2:00am. This is probably the earliest the program's ever started. Now, its Ryan Elijah, Danielle Knox (hey there! Former WFOR/WSVN worker) and yes, one of my current crushes, Kristin Giannas. Not only that, Andrea Jackson (yes that Andrea Jackson, formerly from The Daily Buzz).

 

Meanwhile, WJXT is still rolling with CNN. And now, WNBW has started simulcasting sister station WPEC from West Palm Beach. Its Chris Farrell and Lauren Olesky handling weather duties at this hour and at the anchor desk, just as I thought, Eric Roby and Suzanne Boyd.

 

EDIT: WJXT just added its own bug at the lower-right corner to cover the CNN bug.

[rkolsen 1678]

Do they still do the condom over the microphone trick to protect it from the rain?

[CalItalian2 163]

As for the miami stations.. Remember there coverage area does include the Florida keys.

 

Also at least for wplg and possibly other Miami stations they have told all reporters to leave the keys

Miami Herald reporter David Ovalle stayed. Also, AccuWeather's Reed Timmer. But power has been out since 11:05 PM EDT in Key West and cell service appears to be have been gone for two hours now, too.

[Weeters 1811]

The whole visual quality is very low, given that it's purportedly at 720p on YouTube. They're clearly running a barebones setup. The ticker even has their legal ID scrolling across so I doubt they can even generate that on a... NameDropper or something? I forget the name of the software that could do that.

 

Regardless, I know we put probably too much priority on the glitz and glamour of local news but god damn does this look like amateur hour. The WTVJ "bunker" from 25 years ago looked more professional than this.

 

Given how much Scripps likes to centralize, I'm kind of surprised they didn't just do one statewide simulcast from WFTS using the field crews from WPTV and WFTX. All three are covering the same storm and all three are using the reporters and video from each other's markets to fill time anyways. If it's so dangerous that WFTX has to broadcast from some bunker studio then maybe you should just scrap the whole idea, let the studio crew stay home, and let another station better equipped to handle the legwork of running through weather maps over and over.

 

Also the legal ID in this case would come from the FOX "Splicer" system.

 

Do they still do the condom over the microphone trick to protect it from the rain?

They were doing this in Houston during Harvey.

[CalItalian2 163]

Track has changed a bit west per ECMWF. Will scrape entire west coast all the way to the Panhandle. Cat 4 winds the entire way. No landfall until then.

[rkolsen 1678]

As a side note I remember from Friday aerial footage that aired on the network and cable shows from Miami was courtesy " Total Traffic and Weather Network". Is that the company that operates the helicopter for WPLG, WFOR, WTVJ/WSCV, WLVI?

 

Miami Herald reporter David Ovalle stayed. Also, AccuWeather's Reed Timmer. But power has been out since 11:05 PM EDT in Key West and cell service appears to be have been gone for two hours now, too.

 

Surprisingly Reed appeared on MSNBC a few times Friday.

[Rusty Muck 4167]

As a side note I remember from Friday aerial footage that aired on the network and cable shows from Miami was courtesy " Total Traffic and Weather Network". Is that the company that operates the helicopter for WPLG, WFOR, WTVJ/WSCV, WLVI?

iHeartMedia operates Total Traffic. Had no idea that they still ran any helicopters.

[doublejman69 105]

WFTX is not in its normal set-up, the virtual set and weather graphics are very different. This summer KMTV, another Scripps station that has a virtual studio had severe weather and the station had to go to backup power, all they could show was the talent in front of a outdated weather map. Many of these former Journal stations are in severe weather markets, so it seem like Scripps made another mistake giving all of these stations virtual sets, management at KMTV were not happy after what they had to go through.

 

WFTX is in Cape Coral in which literally everyone south of the road the studio is on are in mandatory evacuation (I believe the other stations are in downtown Fort Myers which is higher up). There was a extensive remodel when Journal owned the station. In the past when Journal owned the station WFTX was first one on/last on off in the Fort Myers market during Hurricane/severe weather coverage and every time the station used its regular studio/setup (in 2004 when Emmis owned WFTX the station was criticize for running regular programming with sporadic weather updates when Hurricane Charlie hit South Florida).

 

WFTX has a news bureau in Collier County thats very close to the coast but its on the second or third floor of a building.

[rkolsen 1678]

I asked in the shout box about power outages. I saw a few power surges that appeared quite frequently on WTVJ / WSCV with their lights going out.

 

Out of curiousity what's the most common source of generator fuel for stations diesel or natural gas? I'm trying to remember if natural gas service gets cut off during hurricanes.

 

Edit: It was just mentioned that WTVJ lost power.

[David Salter JR 66]

FOX's Chief Breaking News anchor, Shepard Smith, is planned to come in tomorrow and provide a Level 2 (Optional) Special Report to stations and will likely be on FNC.

 

Worth noting that Shep started his career at WBBH and later went to WKMG and WSVN.

Is fox news Sunday going to be extended by an hour?

[MetroCity 247]

iHeartMedia operates Total Traffic. Had no idea that they still ran any helicopters.

 

Aren't they part of a three-way deal with the helicopters leased through Helicopters, Inc.? Total Traffic (iHeart) provides traffic data and employs the helicopter pilot and possibly the talent. Then iHeart actually leases the helicopter from Heli Inc and bundles it into the station deal.