ThunderJay27 27 Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 I live in Philly and I was watching the Cubs/Astros game on ESPN last night and saw what happened. Tornado sirens went off around downtown and Wrigley Field while extremely severe weather moved in. I'm pretty sure every station broke in and covered the wicked weather. So who had the best coverage (live & post) of this weather? And if WGN was showing the game nationally, would we have been able to see WGN 9's coverage of the weather? (Whether it would've been crawls, live break-in, etc.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spring Rubber 612 Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 I saw every station except WBBM (CBS 2) break in; I'm not sure if they ever did, but I'm hope they did. WFLD, as has been the case recently, had the most frequent break-ins and in-depth coverage; WGN probably came in second in this department. WLS (ABC 7) probably came in third with the live coverage, and I'm pretty sure they even used their old Weather Center for the break-ins. One thing that irked me was that there were periods of time during the worst of the storm where no stations had live break-ins because of the crappy network primetime agenda taking priority, but what I liked is that I could always count on a live update from WFLD never being more than 3-4 minutes away. At that rate, they should have just stayed with live coverage since the network programming would've been unwatchable anyway with all the interruptions, but hey, they did a good job anyway. I didn't watch all of the networks' post-storm coverage, but I did see WGN, and they seemed to do a good job covering it. Nationally, The Weather Channel was surprising all over the storm, covering it as well as a local channel, but since I have satellite, the ability to watch them dropped out fairly quickly. That was the first storm in a long time that I actually found myself seeking cover down in the basement - scary stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChicagosNewsChannel 0 Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 The EAS actually cut off my comcast box several times during the night. My power went off around 8:15pm last night and is still off. Tornado sirens went off and it looked like all hell was breaking loose. I attached some pics of a car near my house that doesn't look so good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lpzml09 0 Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 Yes !! Fox had the best weather coverage Amy was also streaming live on foxchicagoweatherwatch.com even when off air with steve baron. They had over 1900 people in there chat last night at around 8pm. They also added the new mobile website you can use on your phone its pretty sweet can even see there live cams. http://m.foxweatherwatch.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
News24/7 3 Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 Yeah i saw the radar, it was BLACK!!! I will have a CNC update soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weeters 1811 Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 Yeah i saw the radar' date=' it was BLACK!!! I will have a CNC update soon[/quote'] But.... Isn't CNC Dylan Oakes' newscast? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChicagosNewsChannel 0 Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 But.... Isn't CNC Dylan Oakes' newscast? He's going to fill in for me cause of my power issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazynetjunkie 34 Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 I saw every station except WBBM (CBS 2) break in; I'm not sure if they ever did, but I'm hope they did. WFLD, as has been the case recently, had the most frequent break-ins and in-depth coverage; WGN probably came in second in this department. WLS (ABC 7) probably came in third with the live coverage, and I'm pretty sure they even used their old Weather Center for the break-ins. CBS 2 broke in quite a few times.. I know they broke in more than NBC 5 did. Yes, ABC 7 used their "old" Weather Center (which still matches their old set too) for the break-ins.. Actually, it's not old, it's where they do much of their work. The weather center downstairs at the window studio is more for show and is mainly just used during newscast time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spring Rubber 612 Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 The weather center downstairs at the window studio is more for show and is mainly just used during newscast time. Yeah, I could tell from the fact that it's pretty basic in appearance and not really an office. I figured they might have taken down all of the decoration in the "old" Weather Center or even moved it to a different location in the building after these few years, but I guess they've just kept things the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazynetjunkie 34 Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 Yeah' date=' I could tell from the fact that it's pretty basic in appearance and not really an office. I figured they might have taken down all of the decoration in the "old" Weather Center or even moved it to a different location in the building after these few years, but I guess they've just kept things the same.[/quote'] The weather office was completely renovated (which included a new weather set) in late 2003. When the new State Street window studio was built, I know they considered modifying the old weather center to match the new set but decided not to bother since it would only been seen during emergency/break-in situations and it still looks good too. Plus, I know Jerry hates when things he's used to get messed around with. It took him a while to get used to actually sitting down on a chair at new the anchor desk in the window studio although he likes just being able to walk right out the front door to have a cigarette around newscast time. If anything, the most I see them doing is changing the background wall graphic in the old weather center. The last time I was on the floor of their old studio (about a couple years ago), the old news set was still intact and covered with dust covers. I was told it was being left just incase there was an emergency situation where they couldn't broadcast from downstairs. I don't know if the old set is still up today, but I'd imagine it is since "190 North"/"Chicagoing" and "At the Movies" have their own studios and there are no other shows being produced at WLS needing another TV studio in the building.. It's going to be pretty much the same deal with WBBM's new studio. There's going to be a weather set in the studio but there's going to be an actual weather center/office in the building. Right now in WBBM's current (630 N McClurg Ct.) studio, their "Weather Control" set in the studio IS the actual weather center. You can't see it on-air but that chunky wall dividing Weather Control from the rest of the set actually has a hanger bar with the Meteorologists' coats/jackets/shirts hanging on it and it's also a nook where they stick their personal items to hide from camera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NBC 5 Chicago 164 Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 I was there a year ago and got to see the old studio. Everything was dismanteled but it was still sitting against the walls with covers over it. I dont know if thats what you ment or not. All the backgrounds where there just not where they use to be. They were all stacked together leaning against a wall. I dont remember seeing the anchor desk there either.. could be wrong. Its been awhile since iv seen the old weather set. I couldnt remeber what it was when it came on then i was like OOOO its the old one! It was quite interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleSeven 1944 Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 I've seen them using the old weather center numerous times. My first occurance was during the weeks after they moved downstairs to their new street-level studio. On a first weather segment, Jerry Taft was shown on the weather center downstairs and on the same segment, he tossed it to Mike Caplan at the old weather center upstairs. On that day, we had severe thunderstorm warnings thoughout the area. Just several weeks ago and I dunno what was the reason but during one of the GMA Weather brake-ins, I've saw Tracy doing the weather from the old weather set. A nice addition was a big plasma TV behind her on the right (where you would see it on TV). I dunno if they had it prior to the downstair move or they had aftewards. I witness another occurance in June, during the time ABC had their coverage of this year's NBA finals, Oprah was on an hour later since those games obviously ended later. So it was after 12:30am and here I saw Jerry Taft with just his shirt no tie on the old weather set and report a severe thunderstorm warning in the SW suburbs of Chicago. When I first saw them breaking into the repeat of Oprah and showed him, I was like "he's still there"? I could've thought that they would leave at least around midnight, but damn. They don't always use the old weather center for breakins of programming. Take the day of the Belmont Stakes for example. On June 7th, Phil Schwarz used the weather set downstairs during those breakins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NBC 5 Chicago 164 Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 Very interesting! I have to admit I do not watch WLS that much but everytime I have I'v always seen them do weather break ins downstairs. But that is very interesting that they are at least still utilizing the old one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChicagosNewsChannel 0 Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 The old WLS set is gone. If you watch 190 N their little crappy set is where the old newsdesk used to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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