From the local forecast office
On hook echoes, winter driving conditions, and the offense contained inside media layoffs done in the name of "initiative"
When television broadcaster Allen Media Group announced that it would be replacing local TV weather teams with a centralized forecasting hub tied to the Weather Channel, it made the announcement under an avalanche of words like "groundbreaking format", "cutting-edge technology", and "superior weather content". The disquieting reality was that the plan was a move to cut the costs of employing at least 100 local meteorologists. KWWL-TV in Waterloo, Iowa, was among the stations affected.
■ Some changes represent progress. Not all do. The plan to replace local expertise with a centralized weather office represented neither strategy nor initiative. It was fatally flawed judgment rooted strictly in cost-cutting with insulting disregard for the viewing public.
■ Weather coverage isn't just about technical proficiency in reading a Skew-T plot or looking for a hook echo on a radar screen.
■ It's about knowing how to pronounce obscure but meaningful local place names (good luck to someone cold-reading the Eastern Iowa town name "Maquoketa"). It's about recognizing meaningful local patterns, like the impact of a strong westerly wind during an ice storm for drivers traveling over the Iowa River bridge at Steamboat Rock. It's about having a sense for what numerical data doesn't always tell you (yes, there are days when acute observers can smell tornadoes in the air).
■ Authentic experience on the ground matters when you're talking about the intersection of physical science and social science -- that's the essence of weather reporting.
■ Broadcast licensees don't "own" the airwaves; they borrow them. And their products should serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity. That's a matter not of opinion, but of law. Indications are that Allen Media Group has reversed its decision, at least for some individual employees in some markets. That's good, because the plan as announced was anything but a public service.
