When did the Weather Channel go downhill?

[Tim Vasquez]

I have to say that my viewing of the Weather Channel has been pretty spotty, so I'm curious to get an idea of when you all think the Weather Channel reached its peak and when it dropped. I was piqued by the subject after reading this:

http://dewdropinsga.blogspot.com/2008/01/what-happened-to-weather-channel.html

My memory may be unreliable, but chronologically it runs something like this:

1982-1983... it was like a station run by meteorology graduates in a candy store. Lots of radar stops, lots of info on where record temps & precip were broken, and you never knew what they'd toss up... I once saw them put up a map of temperatures over Siberia to make a point about how cold it was going to get soon.

Then it slowly started going downhill through the late 1980s. The comical "Weather & Your Home" segments started with Bill Keneely and Jeanetta Jones showing us how to make hot chocolate, and I'm sure we were all waiting for "Weather And Your Cat". And sleepy elevator music made its home, permanently, in the local forecast by 1987. Before that, they actually used to play stuff like Sheila E. and Ghostbusters!

Then I remember a renaissance around 1994-95 with lots of visible imagery, local radar, severe weather focus, and so forth. Chasers actually took time to see what the TWC was talking about, and TWC even put together that chaser conference in 1996.

Then there was the long slide around 1998-2001. Marketing kids fresh out of college clearly took charge of the ship, and I remember a massive shift towards the lowest common denominator, with a focus on business travelers, the "busy lifestyle", and 18 hours a day (well, maybe not that bad) of Storm Stories.

I have not seen TWC for more than a few minutes since 2003, so I don't even know what's on it anymore. I would like to hear that it's gotten better, but given the bottom-line motives of TV networks I'm not hopeful, and I think with what's on the Internet it's lost relevance among hobbyists.

Is this consistent with what you all remember? How has The Weather Channel changed for you since the 1990s or 1980s? Does anyone have the scoop on any management changes or executives who changed the direction of TWC for better or worse?

Tim

[Dann Cianca]

I just started getting cable again this week and have been putting The Weather Channel on in the background. I'm happy to say that I'm seeing a lot less of "storm stories" type programs.

Just some notes:

-It does seem like a political editorial, however. I think that The Weather Channel is the Fox News of Global Warming, if that makes sense.

-I think Abrams and Bettes is a little over the top. She, while attractive, is annoying and overly dramatic.

-The new HD graphics lose a little luster on non-HD TVs.

-Good to hear ANCIENT local forecast music being played again. It brings me back to those cold mornings in Montana, watching the local forecast before I'd do my paper route.

-I haven't seen Paul Allen Smith yet. I take this to be a good thing.

-Dave Schwartz is still funny.

-As always, the world revolves around Atlanta. ;)



So, I think I'll be a little less of a TWC basher than I have been in the past five years or so.

[Brian Barnes]

One of my favorite past on-air personalities was John Doyle. I heard him say once that during his first tropical weather update on-air he looked over in the corner of the room and in walked John Hope himself and he felt like he was drawing a stick-man for Michaelangelo.

I think the answer your looking for is that once upon a time TWC was owned and operated by meteorologist and "weather people" and over the years more and more CEO types have taken control and now completely control it.

You know when you go to a hospital that is owned by doctors, you'll "usually" get better treatment than from a hospital owned by a board of MBAs. When you watch a weather network owned by "weather people" you'll usually get better information than a weather network operated by a board of MBAs....

[Mike Deep]

From the last TWC thread:
"If you're in rural Nebraska under a tornado warning but it's sprinkling in Atlanta you're screwed".

[Ben Holcomb]

They actually called me for a phoner and had live coverage up on Monday night for the Derecho event in IL/IN. That actually impressed me a lot. I can't imagine severe weather coverage does anything but draw big ratings.

[J Bilak]

Well, Tim. Thanks for the link. I think it's really all just part of the TV cycle. Things start out with a purpose, such as TWC or MTV, and as the ratings goonies get involved, the basic precept for the channel falls away as they try to capture a greater audience, the big bad buck rears its ugly head and the meaning is lost, while ratings equal greater profits for marketing. I am relatively new to chasing and new to TWC, so I don't know the answer to your question, but I know that TWC fails in so many regards. I would love a channel dedicated to actual weather, without the drama.

[Angie Norris]

I think the mid-90s were the peak time for TWC. They did actually cover the weather back then with a minimum of fluff. It was quite cool to see some of the OCMs chasing...Mike Sidell with the deer in the headlights look from the first rumble of thunder and Cantori getting happier as the sky got darker. IIRC, they did cover May 3 with a live feed from OKC. Except for hurricane landfalls, I've pretty much quit watching. They lost me in 2002 with the non-coverage of the Veterans Day Outbreak.

[David Douglas]

I've maybe watched 1 hour or so of the weather channel in the last 5 years (mostly during hurricane coverage), but I did flip by during the Chicago event - and they were covering it. So I flipped by it just a day or so ago and they were covering live storms again.

Has something changed - are they covering weather again, or did I just luck out?

[joel ewing]

A few years back, did some hard convincing to my elderly aunt and uncle on their farm in rural Nebraska to get cable....primarily for the coverage the Wx. Channel could provide them. When I visited them the following June and tornadic wx. broke out..they went right to their local alphabet channel (out of Grand Island). I said to 'em "hey..let's get the Weather Channel on"...and in so many words they told me the equivelant of "the Wx. Channel sucks, and they never watch it anymore." Boy, I felt like a fool.

[Andrew Herron]

I like to fall asleep to Evening Edition and the mets are generally goofy in their presentation. Sometimes though it seems like they're talking to kindergartners. Overall I'm pretty impressed with their new image thus far.

[Jim Saueressig]

I don't remember the year but when there was severe weather in the area or a wide local area and I couldn't get local channels I would turn to the weather channel to find out about it and never find anything but storm stories or some other worthless crap that should be on "the weather story channel" was when it was over for me.

When there was a tornado outbreak near and all you could do was get some people hiking on a mountain covered with snow on the weather channel you knew it was over.

[Brian Barnes]

I just noticed a new channel on my Verizon FIOS lineup "Weatherscan" - which is 100% all local weather and has TWC's logo in the upper-right corner. It also has the same music that TWC plays on the "8s" along with the same voice... "Your local radar," "Your local Forecast", "Your current conditions"... it's all radar loops, sat loops, etc... It's sort of a 70/30 split screen with air temp just below the logo on the left, a 3-hour radar loop under that, the main window on the upper-right side of the screen with bigger graphics of radar, satellite loops, forecast text, etc... and have 3-5 day planner under that along with a few crawlers along the bottom displaying area temps. It's "Local on the 8s" on steroids.

[mrobinett]

Weatherscan is becoming more common on cable systems now, Ive seen it on Cox and Time Warner recently. It works when you hear thunder and want to see on your TV what the radar looks like around you.
Very interesting read, Tim. Im a recent cable subscriber (the last ten years or so) so Ive seen only the decline of TWC in recent years, although I have seen a bit more weather, less stories lately like others have said, so maybe they have listened.
A little OT, the Weather Channel on XM is horrible. Hopefully there will be something better now that the merger has gone through with Sirius.

[Paul Austin]

There was a definite decline from the early '90s to near present. The worst cases involved the aforementioned "Storm Stories", "Epic Conditions", or some Weather & Home type program with few to zero cuts to current severe weather outbreak details. Yes, the metro video clips of a little breezy or drizzly weather always annoyed me when I could see amazing clips of something impressive from the same date on youtube. I haven't watched enough lately to comment on the HD era changes, but I did see Dr. Greg Forbes recently use his latest "toy" to display a decent 3-D reflectivity surface plot similar to the ones generated with GRL2AE. I would also have to agree about the political Global Warming undercurrent evident in a typical days broadcast. I wouldn't say that I'm hopeful, but maybe some improvement is possible.

[Damon Poole]

TWC really went to hell in a handbasket when they joined the "Global Warming is totally man's fault", stupidity. If they would get rid of the nonstop enviropolitical grandstanding, and focus on breaking weather, it would be a major improvement. But, that's why I use NOAA Weather Radio for breaking local weather. No enviropolitics, just a continuous flow of local data that's actually relevent to what I need to know.

[Wesley Carter]

C'mon now, I know you all really enjoy the gardening tips, airport delays, and what the forecast is for the ramp festival in Cosby, TN. I want to know whether or not to water my hostas before I fly to Knoxville to go watch people make fools of themselves for the honor of bitter turnips.

For those of you with TIVO's, record an episode of Storm Stories. Eliminate the commercials AND the rehash of the last segment that follows every set of commercials. The 30 minute show actually has 7 to 8 minutes of material that is not credits, recaps, commercials, or plugs for the next episode.

Here's my prediction: Within two years TWC will join the reality television fray and in the vein of Axemen, the Most Dangerous Catch, and Ice Road Truckers launch a series where they follow competing groups of storm chasers. Mark my words...

[Paul Austin]

Here's my prediction: Within two years TWC will join the reality television fray and in the vein of Axemen, the Most Dangerous Catch, and Ice Road Truckers launch a series where they follow competing groups of storm chasers. Mark my words...

While I would welcome such a show if it actually showed some of the weather being chased, I know the real focus would be on the not-so-real human drama and competition factor. I could do without most of that. But if Mike Rowe is contracted to narrate, I'd have to at least check it out. :D

[Tim Vasquez]

Within two years TWC will join the reality television fray and in the vein of Axemen, the Most Dangerous Catch, and Ice Road Truckers launch a series where they follow competing groups of storm chasers. Mark my words...

I don't know... from what little I've seen of them lately, they seem to be turning into the Home & Garden channel. I would be more inclined to think we'll be seeing Bob Vila hosting a drywall hanging competition and they'll figure out some way to tie it to weather.

Tim

[John Erwin]

I don't know... from what little I've seen of them lately, they seem to be turning into the Home & Garden channel. I would be more inclined to think we'll be seeing Bob Vila hosting a drywall hanging competition and they'll figure out some way to tie it to weather.

They already do that here in Canada with our "Weather Network"; there's a renovation guy named "Jon Eakes" that gives all kinds of tips regarding rain gutters, siding and anything else you can remotely connect to the weather. Real light fluff.

/Not a Bob Vila Fan
//or Jon Eakes for that matter

[Joel Wright]

Ahh I can see it now...

Jim Cantore and Dave Schwartz have a competition to see who can turn their vehicles into the best "hyper-miler".

I will say their HD is pretty damn good. If they'd just cut out ALL of their shows, like Storm Stories, etc, I'd be happy. It needs to return back to 24hrs of continuous weather. Not 20hrs with 4hrs of "fluff" crap that most people could give a rats ass about. I could do without everything always being broken down into segments too. Why put a fancy name with a certain time period? Why team up the same people with each other all the time? Are certain segments supposed to be better than other segments?

They just need to have people on there presenting and explaining the weather without all the extra BS. Their HD and much improved graphics compared to years past should be enough to "draw you in" to watch.

[Carrie Halliday]

I just noticed a new channel on my Verizon FIOS lineup "Weatherscan" - which is 100% all local weather and has TWC's logo in the upper-right corner. It also has the same music that TWC plays on the "8s" along with the same voice... "Your local radar," "Your local Forecast", "Your current conditions"... it's all radar loops, sat loops, etc... It's sort of a 70/30 split screen with air temp just below the logo on the left, a 3-hour radar loop under that, the main window on the upper-right side of the screen with bigger graphics of radar, satellite loops, forecast text, etc... and have 3-5 day planner under that along with a few crawlers along the bottom displaying area temps. It's "Local on the 8s" on steroids.
We just moved to a small town in SE Texas and I discovered this channel last night on the local provider (took us 14 days to get our cable/Internet/phone looked up in the sticks).
I like it....I like it alot. :)

[Jason Foster]

I think it all has to do with the influence and leadership of the originators. Frank Batten has retired from TWC (in 2001 I think) and I'm sure his influence was diminishing a couple of years before that. Frank was the one from Landmark communications that made TWC happen, and made it the great channel it was. But as the entire media business has changed, and profits and other ideals have worked themselves into the fray, we've all see the channel go from an interesting channel gear for weather enthusiast, to a run-of-mill, all about the ratings (and profits) network. As a privately held company (prior to the NBC/Universal buyout), all decisions were made based on the needs of the network. I'm not sure I know what the future holds.

So I'd say the downhill started the same time Frank Batten retired.

BTW: For those who have not read it....there is a great book about the Weather Channel written by Frank Batten. I don't remember the actual name of the book (The Weather Channel, the Rise of a Unprobable Media Phenomenon....I think) but google it, I'm sure you can find a copy around someplace.

[David Hoadley]

Just happened to catch parts of two TWC specials this afternoon (August 14), about how "It Could Happen Anytime," and what an F4 or F5 could do to downtown Washington, D.C. or Chicago, IL. One program emphasized how a large tornado could destroy our national monuments (steel-reinforced marble!), including the computer graphic of a tornado decapitating the capitol dome, like it was made of butter. The emphasis was on how the worst possible storm could happen ANY TIME and kill thousands (December? Every other day? Every hour?). Talk about inducing "panic attack." I started to watch the following program about Chicago but couldn't take it any more.

What possible public interest is served by dramatic over-kill? Like crying "Wolf! Wolf!" until the message becomes a hollow echo or parody of itself. Is such fare what this generation of videoheads needs? Do we have to see the very worst that can happen to act sensibly, when a real threat occurs? The next time a tornado brushes a local neighborhood but doesn't flatten the city (98% of the time?), will the locals pay attention or will they quickly lose interest, when expectations aren't met? Thus goes The Weather Channel on this August afternoon.

[Jeff Miller]

Simple answer. The Weather channel entered it's "Dissipating" stage when it choked "Weather" from it's ratings.

Until it can uniquely present weather in a way that is altogether different from what can be presented from any other source, it will struggle. Business success is found in uniqueness. People need a reason to turn in. Why turn in the Weather Channel when the internet gives you the same information but faster? Pointless, right? Why turn in the Weather Channel if it simply provides the same information as your local news - but even more less? Why turn it in at all if all you will find is home and garden snippets or doomsday weather scenarios only weather geeks may have remote interest in?

For TWC to succeed they need to develop a unique, interesting, friendly presentation of the weather that is different from anything observable today.

Good luck.

[Brian Barnes]

Perhaps the best guy to answer this question is the very man that started the animal...and he touches on this subject in the last few minutes of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vyo_eTD30U

[Jim Zandonai]

Well I remember when TWC was first out..Man I was excited I would watch it all the time..esp for local radar. Then it seemed to go downhill for me later on when they added all the stories and 'HGTV' stuff. When I first got a computer in the late 90s I used that mostly. They always did have great Hurricane coverage and even covering severe weather events. Now the only time I watch is when I catch DR.Lyons or Forbes on there discussing something in great detail. Jim Cantore probably the most known there but I still like him when he's discussing something in detail..he still shows excitement in his work and he's one of the best.
TWC is using grlevelx and weathertap images as seen in their Blog on their website which is good. I Havent seen the HD stuff yet..we don't have that feed yet here.
TWC to keep viewership growing had to cater to the larger crowd..business travelers and the General public. Most people dont want to turn it on and hear them discussing radial velocity or other stuff we find fascinating. The majority just want to turn it,see their forecast and whats going on here n there across the country or when its storming outside their home and the garden stuff was to attract more wide range of viewers.
For me now I tune in now n then during hurricane coverage or severe WX events but I am on the computer so much now its almost worthless to me except during hurricane or perhaps a severe event coverage . For the general person at work or someone at home when warnings are issued its a good source.
The more scientific group like Jim C, Dr Lyons and Forbes ,Stu Ostro are great to listen to..

Just my 2cents..

[Paul Austin]

Perhaps there is hope, yet? (My brief post from the VERY impressive colorado landspout video thread)

I actually saw some of the footage (a lot of nice zoomed in views) LIVE on THE WEATHER CHANNEL! Can you believe it? They actually interrupted the usual "Weather & Your Gardening Health Changed History Could Happen Tomorrow" programming to cut to an unfolding news story! I was a bit shocked, and this during the waning days of a tropical event. 24 hours of Tropical Fay flood coverage wasn't captivating enough, like it normally is? ;)

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=17799

[Jeff Richardson]

Tim Vasquez and David Hoadley took the words right out of my mouth with their posts. I started watching TWC back in 1982 when they first went on the air. It was amazing to see a channel devoted 24/7 to weather. Like so many others have mentioned in their posts, when the HGTV theme and "reality" catastrophe shows crept in to the point of even overriding significant weather events, the quality declined. Many of their on-camera "meteorologists" have no formal education in the atmospheric sciences (or so I'm told from someone who works at the National Weather Center). Their new digital format leaves a lot to be desired but I suppose every new venture has it's growing pains. Lately, I've noticed a slight increase in the time spent on severe weather events, but maybe it was just a lark. I don't have much hope that they'll reorganize into what they were in years past. It's also been interesting to watch the rather high turnover of the OCMs, especially since about 2000 or 2001.

[Dave Gallaher]

TWC has been roping out for a long, long time. I never turn it on nowadays. When it was new, the whole concept of actual scientific data gathering, collation and interpretation for the sake of however many viewers might be interested was a novel idea for commercial television.

However, it wasn't long before the degeneration set in. The factor Dave Hoadley mentions, pumping and pimping fear as a hook, was probably the only thing they could come up with, and it had worked so well for the Discovery Channel family of stations. Thankfully, it's hard to make the weather into a sexual story, or they'd have done that.

[Damon Scott Hynes]

TWC has been roping out for a long, long time.

Beautiful turn of phrase. I watch it for the ladies, and I don't apologize for that.

if you want a good, snarky, non-weather discussion about TWC, head here:
http://kaptured.netfreehost.com/viewforum.php?f=1&mforum=kaptured

[John Gnuechtel]

Back when TWC first started in '82, I would have been about 5. :) I still remember it quite well from when I was a kid though. I grew up just northwest of Chicago in a family that was kinda paranoid about tornadoes. Our cable system had two channels devoted to weather: TWC and the Marseilles radar channel (direct radar feed with audio provided by KWO39 "broadcasting from the top of the Sears Tower"). My family would always switch to the radar channel when there was bad local stuff, but that got me started watching regular TWC broadcasts.

I loved the segments where they taught veiwers about weather stuff like fronts and seabreezes. The forecasters were also kinda goofy in the early morning hours. Being that young, having a channel where you could tune in to find out the weather was really a novelty on its own. I often tuned in for the local forecasts with their flat purple backgrounds, simple scrolling text, and wacky pop music. I seem to remember that they ran NWS discussions in them. I miss the old warnings where they would break into normal programming with noisy beeps, make the whole screen eyeball-melting red, and run a scrolling discussion-style warning text directly from the NWS. That got your attention!

I distinctly remember it losing its luster the day Jeanneta Jones taught me that I could save on energy bills by using ceiling fans. For a young kid, that was pretty suck-tacular television.

Nowadays, I still turn it on in the morning right before I head out to work to catch a glimpse at the local forecast for radar, a quick update on the tropics (or winter weather), and Nicole Mitchell. I thought she was just TWC eye candy until I recognized her in an IMAX movie that ran on Discovery HD Theater. The movie showed footage of a hurricane hunter collecting data, and sure enough I recognized one of those people in the back of the plane. She wins my 10 minutes of morning TV viewing.

[Damon Scott Hynes]

I distinctly remember it losing its luster the day Jeanneta Jones taught me that I could save on energy bills by using ceiling fans. For a young kid, that was pretty suck-tacular television.

That was Marvelous Marny Stanier. Jeanetta made sandwiches or something like that :p.

[Damon Poole]

Another thing that comes to mind is that with the approach of Gustav to the Louisiana coast, TWC is also doing its part to drive gas prices through the roof by showing the locations of the gas and oil rigs in relation to the storm. Nice job, TWC, give the speculators and profiteers more ammo. Thanks! NOT!!!

[Rob Wadsworth]

Another thing that comes to mind is that with the approach of Gustav to the Louisiana coast, TWC is also doing its part to drive gas prices through the roof by showing the locations of the gas and oil rigs in relation to the storm. Nice job, TWC, give the speculators and profiteers more ammo. Thanks! NOT!!!

I couldn't agree with you more. Oil speculators hunt for reasons to raise the price up - and TWC just handed them exactly what they wanted on a gold plattter.

Hey, who owns TWC - now that I think about it...
Hmmmmm.....

[Matthew E. Engelbrecht]

When I think of my experience with The Weather Channel, Tim, it sounds strikingly like yours. Not having The Weather Channel at home until the early 1990s, I can't comment on the 1980s except for a day or two that I watched it while visiting relatives in Pennsylvania. That aside, I thought (and still think) that the coverage was great through the early- and mid-1990s and lost its' luster sometime beginning in 1998. Back in the day, some of the broadcasters would do excellent work describing what was going on from a meteorological perspective and explain various meteorological phenomenon (technical, scientific stuff as I recall) in terms I could understand when I was only an early teenager. It got me really excited about the weather! I can still remember when it was a treat during a severe weather outbreak to get a glimpse of a WSR-88D radar site's reflectivity (remember it...with the grey background?), which was way better than the older WSR-57 radar and the red blobs that they would routinely show. If I got to see that, my fingers were certainly crossed to see the velocity mode! :) And back in those days, three letter airport identifiers were used instead of city names and needless to say, I learned a LOT of airport IDs!

When I left home in Wisconsin and moved to Norman for college, I didn't really watch The Weather Channel for the first year and I only turned it on after then to see what chaser video would make the cut for the day after storm chasing. These days I hardly turn it on because there is such a host of quality data available on the internet that I tend to determine what is going on and what will happen on my own instead of listening to it on TV.

The Weather Channel really was great back in the day, but I don't find it to be routinely useful anymore. It's good to see what chase video is out there on chase days, but even that is being phased out for me with folks posting their videos on YouTube or their web sites, and of course - putting links to them on this site!

[Robert Dewey]

I must say, their coverage has been getting better since the acquisition.

As for their coverage of the oil rigs - what agency WASN'T covering that? It's news.

FYI - I had Fox News, CNN, and TWC on; all were covering the oil situation.

[Brian Barnes]

I think anyone who is heavily vested in the energy market knows exactly the location of those production platforms. I could be wrong on that though, some investors may be pretty loose with their money., but I doubt the most of them needed any news source to tell them what they already knew. If the market goes up it's going to happen news stations or not...however the average person might like to know why they have to pay more. But as long as were blaming sources for informing the oil investors... "Darn you ExxonMobil website!"

[Dann Cianca]

I'm just going to throw this out there, but do you think The Weather Channel got worse as we learned more? I can remember being younger and being enthralled by what I was seeing ... most of it for the first time. I did a lot of learning via The Weather Channel as a child in the 80's and early 90's. As my level of meteorological knowledge increased, my interested in The Weather Channel seemed to peak and then wane. I'm not going to argue that the quality of the programming suffered ... garden forcast? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

This of course would not apply to those of you who were already storm chasin' a-dults during the 80's.

I d'know, opinions?

[Scott Taylor]

I'm just going to throw this out there, but do you think The Weather Channel got worse as we learned more?

Both, I think. It's gotten worse, without a doubt. But as I've learned more over the years its only made watching TWC even more unbearable.

On a side note... I checked TWC a few times during the day on Monday to see how their coverage of Gustav was going. I guess it was alright for the most part, but the thing that aggravated me the most was, TWC, the self-proclaimed "Hurricane Authority", never once reported the last observed pressure of Gustav... at least not the 10 times or so I checked in (top of the hour many times, :30 minute mark... :50 minute mark... nothing). I know Joe Blow probably doesn't care about how many millibars of pressure hurricane X has, but TWC used to always report that and other recon results years ago. When did they stop with this?

[Jeff Richardson]

It's gotten worse, without a doubt. But as I've learned more over the years its only made watching TWC even more unbearable.

I couldn't agree more. TWC has not aged well. The lack of detailed obs data (millibars, et al.) is irritating in spite of the fact it would take oh say...three seconds...to say it on air.

Just out of curiosity I dug up some old and relatively new "scandals" from TWC closet of skeletons. I'd been wondering where Bob Stokes disappeared to. Turns out he got the sack in Feb. '08 for sexual harassment of Hillary Andrews, among others. Marnie Stanier, one of my favorites from years ago, left in '03 after filing and winning an age discrimination suit. The soap opera wasn't confined to the OCM's but the ivory tower brass too. No telling what else has gone on behind cameras while viewers are subjected to the bane of "Locals On The 8's". Of course, unprofessional/unethical behavior takes place in countless workplaces which is really sad. :mad:

[Dan Nichols]

I think that the radars have improved, and to me the Local Radar is the core of the whole channel. Though much maligned, the cell phone radar is also surprisingly accurate, if not up to the minute. This is important to me as I prefer getting to an intercept before the storm does. But please, PLEASE do not suspend the radar during Storm Stories, Full Force Nature, or Forecast Earth!!! I was late in arrival to a couple of storms, due to their blasted programs and no radar. But the programs are generally good, even though we could really use some NEW Storm Stories.

[Dan Nichols]

BTW -- Speaking of missing persons on TWC, whatever happened to Liza Moser? She vanished from TWC around 2003 or so......

[Damon Scott Hynes]

BTW -- Speaking of missing persons on TWC, whatever happened to Liza Moser? She vanished from TWC around 2003 or so......

Fired due to non-performance. Surprisingly, she was one of the few who departed that didn't have a harassment beef going with TWC/Landmark.

Her last few months, she had a lousy appearance and was always low-key and grumpy. She has a site (http://www.lisamozer.com/), for what that's worth...

[Jay Barnes]

To me it really hit home that TWC had lost it when during the 5-3-99 OKC tornado outbreak, they were busy showing "Weather on Mount Everest". The OCM's barely had time to announce the warnings for the OKC area before they cut back to "Everest". I will say that I've noticed during Gustav they dropped the canned programs to stay with live coverage of the storm, so at least that's an improvement.

[Von Castor]

Is it just me or has the intensity of coverage of Ike decreased since a Texas landfall is likely?

[Aric Cylkowski]

The Weather Channel probably won't nail the ratings it'd get for a Louisiana or Florida landfall, thus the probable drop in coverage intensity for Ike in comparison to Gustav.

So yeah Von Castor, its not just you who noticed ;).

[Joel Wright]

Another interesting thing is the relative lack of coverage when hurricane force winds strike the northwest in the winter.

I will say their hurricane coverage is pretty damn good. If they could cover all big storm-systems like that then it would be a huge improvement.

[Charley Kelly]

In my opinion , TWC, had its peak in the early 90s, and slowly slipped down hill every since. The introduction of programming Storm Stories, Forecast Earth, etc, ruin the reputation of the channel. The channel seemly shows one side of a perspective, i.e. global warming to the public, which drives me crazy. The severe weather varies from subpar to great depending on the event covered. Just my two cents on the matter.

[Jeff Snyder]

I can say that I think TWC is doing a very good job covering Ike's landfall. Dr. Lyons has been honest and shown his expertise (something that some of the on-air mets on cable news certainly can't say), and the mets in the field are doing a very good job of reporting the situation as it is. Unlike some other news networks (Geraldo on Fox, etc), they seem to be rather unsensationalistic, and the winds they are reporting seem to accurately represent what it LOOKS like. Color me somewhat impressed, especially considering (a) some of the questionable coverage of severe events in the past and (b) that some of the other networks interrupted Ike coverage w/ political coverage. For the first time in a long time, I'm actually spending a large portion of my time on TWC compared to the national cable news networks.

[Van DeWald]

Well, their stock just went up. They apparently had a streaker on their live coverage. It's already on YouTube.

[Dave Gallaher]

After my many criticisms of TWC, I have to concur that they are doing a good job on Ike coverage, and were also focusing well on the supercells in Kansas that were tornado-warned. If they keep up this type of focus, I might start watching more often. I assume they have to sell commercial space based on normal broadcast/feature schedules and events like this throw the book in the dumpster.

Good to see good coverage, and more scientific focus from the experts aboard.

[Robert Dewey]

Ever since the acquisition/buy-out, I've been MUCH more impressed with them. Their coverage of Katrina was awful, but their coverage of Ike was impressive.

It was sad when Fox News and CNN had better coverage of Katrina than The Weather Channel did.

[Bill Tabor]

My recent take on this is that they didn't actually go downhill it's just we grew up and matured in our tastes regarding weather / severe weather. When we were babies we ate baby food and liked it, now that we are a bit older we have more discerning tastes. Also I have TWC HD and I have to admit their graphics and maps are nice. Last night they were showing graphics on Hurricane Ike produced with GR AE - nice. They really did some nice coverage of this hurricane as well.

Edit: Ok second thought...yeah they did go downhill some with all the focus on programming and non weather topics, but seems things are better now. But I do still think a lot of it is just that are tastes and expectations are higher as we expect more as severe weather enthusiasts.

[Jeff Snyder]

Ever since the acquisition/buy-out, I've been MUCH more impressed with them. Their coverage of Katrina was awful, but their coverage of Ike was impressive.

It was sad when Fox News and CNN had better coverage of Katrina than The Weather Channel did.

How many of their on-air mets went out into the field for Katrina? I think there were 5 mets in the field for Ike (Mike Bettes, Jorma Duran, Stephanie Abrams, Jim Cantore, and Mike Seidel), which is more than I remember for past landfalls (perhaps it's not, though). I'm just happy that they suspended all regular programming (including the much-less-important Weather on the Eights) LOL. At any rate, how many MSNBC reporters were in the field? I wonder if NBC shuffled some money to newly-acquired TWC instead of sending out their own folks... Regardless, I was pleased with the TWC.

[Joel Wright]

I think TWC's coverage of hurricanes has always been really good, but with Ike they were on a higher level. You can't ask for better coverage than what was given.

If they could cover all major events (besides hurricanes) like this, then TWC would be the best it's ever been, hands down.

[Terry Tyler]

personally, i think the weather channel is doing alot better then they were when all this weather channel bashing began...there are still times that i see the forecast earth, or lawn garden stuff but really those are just periods of time they need to take a break or something...

id have to say, ive seen a major improvement as far as the overall quality of the weather channel over the past 6 months...its not perfect, and never will be but thats cool, it is what it is...i strongly agree with joel though, you cant get much better then that as far as hurricane coverage...

[Andrew Kajfasz]

I will admit, I probably had not watched any of the Weather Channel for at least a couple years. It was so pathetic when we had storms that had been tornado warned since Illinois approaching, and we could not even get a few minutes of the local radar and stuff due to Storm Stories or whatever other crap they were showing at the time. Thank God for the alphabet news channels and GR3.

I also noticed, as some mentioned earlier in this thread, that it seemed in the past like all they cared about was what was happening in Atlanta. You could have multiple tornadoes on the ground at the same time in Oklahoma, but if there was even a sprinkle in Atlanta, that sprinkle was breaking weather news for them.

And I can't remember, but does anybody remember what the coverage of the Super Tuesday outbreak was like? I can't remember how in depth their coverage of it all was.

Though I will give them some credit right now. They are doing a good job with the coverage of Ike. They have definitely advanced far from the horrible coverage of Katrina. I am certainly impressed with their coverage of Ike. This may just get me to give TWC a second chance and maybe check in on the channel now and then in the future.