Weather cut-ins

[10Viewer 333]

 

So I observed a weather cut-in for my local Nexstar station, WCMH, a few weekends ago. After the meteorologist was done giving the weather warning, you could hear him off camera apparently calling up the 'hub' (Indianapolis, I think?) and verbally say "I'm done with the cut-in" or something to that effect. 

 

Is that the common procedure now, where the meteorologist has to call the hub and have them cue the graphics and all that? I'm sure all the station groups have policies on when to cut in and how often. It was a Sunday and it appeared the met was the only one at the station. 

Edited Sunday at 07:53 AM by 10Viewer

[Recovering Producer 204]

A lot of stations have installed in weather centers the abiility to interrupt for a cut-in and a mini switcher for meteorologists so they can control what makes air during  a cut-in without a director or a crew.

 

Because hub operators are running multiple stations at once, it is a lot easier for a station to call up and say "hey, we're at a risk of severe weather, activate the interrupt switch in the weather center at (call letters) so we can get on air immediately if we get a warning" and they will - so it isn't a game of telephone for the meteorologist to get on air quickly.

 

After the cut-in, the call likely serves a couple purposes. On the technical side, they likely have to reset the switch if there's a chance of another cut-in, or deactivate it if the risk is over so a rogue elbow bump doesn't disrupt programming.

 

Operationally, it is likely standard operating procedure to call so the hub operator can make sure the discrepancy report is accurate for the times of the cut-in and what ads were missed and need to either be made good or have billing adjsuted. 

Edited Sunday at 09:38 PM by Recovering Producer

[MidwestTV 1228]

A meteorologist shouldn't be calling the hub to tell them to get on or off the air at all. If there's severe weather their focus needs to be on the weather. A producer, manager, or director should be the ones calling the hub (and frankly there should be a producer in the booth during extended severe weather coverage anyway). However, given how poorly staffed and inexperienced many newsrooms are nowadays I wouldn't be surprised if some mets in some markets have had to take up that responsibility as well.

[10Viewer 333]

2 hours ago, MidwestTV said:

A meteorologist shouldn't be calling the hub to tell them to get on or off the air at all. If there's severe weather their focus needs to be on the weather. A producer, manager, or director should be the ones calling the hub (and frankly there should be a producer in the booth during extended severe weather coverage anyway). However, given how poorly staffed and inexperienced many newsrooms are nowadays I wouldn't be surprised if some mets in some markets have had to take up that responsibility as well.

 

Yeah, it was a Sunday afternoon, and from the sound of it, the met was the only person in the building, LOL. I was surprised he had to pick up the phone, from what I was hearing, to talk to somebody. 

You would think the folks at the hub would be working in tandem? Can't they see the met is done and just switch and go back to programming?