STORM2K

Hi,
I know TWC is kind of a dirty three-letter word around here. I wanted to ask you what you thought about TWC's coverage of this weekend's severe weather. I found last night's coverage disappointing to say the least. I tuned into my local KC stations on Saturday night. They covered the storms from 6 to 10:30 and later for our friends in northern MO. What's more important??? Giving people information about the severe weather or Storm Stories. What has happened to TWC???? I can remember the focus purely on weather. I've been watching TWC since 1983 and it has gone form great coverage to lousy coverage. Now it is on house, garden, and Kelsa's road trips. I would like to hear your opinions about TWC please.

Kristi

TWC has gone downhill in a steady way.The tropical updates since John Hope passed the way is not the same although Steve Lyons trys to do something but IMO is not sufficient.And I saw the coverage about the severe weather this weekend and found a not around the clock coverage as they have to do in big outbreaks.

I agree.. Not bashing.. BUT.. If your going to call yourself the "weather Channel" then you need to cover severe weather events like this.. Forget storm stories. Thats big storms from the past.. How about showing some Live weather when severe weather threatens.. TWC is a great concept gone bad

TWC is lousy now IMHO. They are more or less too many talking heads like Kelsa. I have given up on TWC almost entirely. The only reason I watch now is when the tropics get bad and to occasionally see a radar pic.

I use to think, "wow, let's turn on TWC and see what is going on." Nowdays I just rely on NOAA Weatheradio and the Internet for weather info.

I benefit because I don't have to watch some fixit guy insulating air ducts, water heaters or windows. I avoid watching some doctor talk about sun exposure and exercise. Finally, I don't have to sit through a bunch of commercials waiting for the information that is important to me.

To tell you the truth, it has been a LONG time since I have watched TWC more than 30 SECONDS at one time. It is just not the information avenue for me or many other people at the present.

chadtm80 wrote:I agree.. Not bashing.. BUT.. If your going to call yourself the "weather Channel" then you need to cover severe weather events like this.. Forget storm stories. Thats big storms from the past.. How about showing some Live weather when severe weather threatens.. TWC is a great concept gone bad

I recall when Fort Worth got hit with that tornado back in March 2000, TWC had a local TV station's feed broadcasting for a good length of time. That is coverage. Unfortunately, this was before things started to go downhill.

I was up around 12:30-1 this morning when they were covering the tornadoes in Tennessee and VA.. {or at least warnings} They did OK..

But other than that.. TWC has gone down the tubes.. I remember years ago whenever a severe weather alert came out.. they'd make your entire screen red and post the text of the warning.. and not even take it off till the threat had passed. That I must say.. I liked..

Plus without John Hope, there tropical coverage stinks..

Could I take everything that is going on with me now (job, education, girls) and hop in my TWC time machine and go back to, oh, 1990?!?!?!?!

I can't watch it anymore; too much fluff. :evil:

I use to LIVE off of TWC, but prolly in the last year have RARELY tuned to it. As alot have said, coverage can be spotty and for me, way too many commercials. If I want live weather, I get on here. Interesting to see how their hurricane season coverage will shape up once things start popping.

Their coverage of Isabel said it all last season. I believe they aired storm stories every 30 minutes. And then they had P.Allen Smith tell everyone how to replace their flowerbeds after the threat had passed. Derecho said that last night in chat. LMAO!!!

I couldn't believe last night's coverage. 2 seconds on "numerous warnings" and then cut to somebody harping about how good the weather was going to be somewhere else. I seriously think they don't care about the weather until it hits Atlanta. However, I'm sure we will all hear a "Storm Stories" about this weekend or something in the near future.

About the only guy I can stand on TWC is Jim Cantore. Simply because he actually gets out there. And I do agree that the tropical weather coverage since Hope died has been lacking.

--snoopj

Lindaloo wrote:Their coverage of Isabel said it all last season. I believe they aired storm stories every 30 minutes. And then they had P.Allen Smith tell everyone how to replace their flowerbeds after the threat had passed. Derecho said that last night in chat. LMAO!!!

Now that's one guy i could definately do without seeing, and for OBVIOUS reasons. LOL

I rarely watch TWC anymore. Seems that their OCN's talk and talk but never really say anything. Ditto for Steve Lyons. He obviously didnt learn anything from his time with the late John Hope.

local on the 8's is all i use anymore if that because there too, it has gone downhill with the addition of voice and the ever shrinking text. we have a new weatherstar that shows a few seconds of regional radar then zooms in on the county. great disservice as you can't determine storm development/movement without the regional perspective not to mention poor graphic quality...

I'm trying not to bash...

I rarely turn on TWC... ironically, I grew up watching TWC (as did many others). Now its basically human interest stories.... nothing to the name of the channel (maybe 5 minutes talking about the HUGE metro cities... nothing about other states) Everything is about Atlanta, LA, Seattle, and NYC/DC/Philly/Boston. There are other locations in the US that have decent populations IMHO. Its like the OCMs do not know their geography... maybe they should take a lesson from Bill Keneely.

My favorites are Bill and Jim. TWC is nothing like it used to be.

Kristi

chadtm80 wrote:I agree.. Not bashing.. BUT.. If your going to call yourself the "weather Channel" then you need to cover severe weather events like this.. Forget storm stories. Thats big storms from the past.. How about showing some Live weather when severe weather threatens.. TWC is a great concept gone bad

I was about to say the same thing.

Lindaloo wrote:Their coverage of Isabel said it all last season. I believe they aired storm stories every 30 minutes. And then they had P.Allen Smith tell everyone how to replace their flowerbeds after the threat had passed. Derecho said that last night in chat. LMAO!!!

The P. Allen Smith segments are so stupid.

I love those segments. Makes me all nice and warm and fuzzy after seeing radar images that make me think certain counties just got blown off the map. At least when my house is gone, the garden will look great. </sarcasm>

Seriously, when you have an outbreak, screw my garden, screw the allergy forecast, and I certainly don't want to see kids playing in fountains in NYC, while my backyard is filled with softball sized hail.

It appears TWC has sold out to the west and east coast major metropolitan areas and screw the Midwest. Tornadoes in the midwest? Screw that, we got a SPRINKLE in Atlanta! *sigh*

And is it me, or do most of the on air personalities lack any sort of weather knowledge? "We don't know what this means, but here, talk to our expert."



--snoopj

Here is what I think TWC needs to do, to keep viewers happy:

Create two Weather Channels:

TWC1 - weather only. The way TWC used to be.

TWC2 - fluff pieces, storm stories, allergy info, gardening tips, survival tips for specific storms/seasons, etc.

Think MTV here. I can clearly remember when MTV started and how nearly ~everyone~ but my parent's generation was talking about this new cable channel. The song - I want my MTV - comes to mind. Everyone wanted this channel when signing up for cable. Somewhere along the line I didn't watch it as much, had kids, I don't know, just got busy or grew up. LOL So I never noticed how MTV1 greatly deviated from it's original format, much the same way TWC has done. Then my teen girls would say - we hate MTV, it's all shows now, very few videos. Next we got Satellite TV and voila, both MTV channels are offered on our tier. My oldest daughter is so happy! She loves MTV2 and has asked me at least 10 times to share early MTV stories.

So the two channels come to mind when I read about this debate (I've read this on other boards too).

Trouble is TWC isn't listening to viewers at all. They don't even seem to encourage feedback. It's as if a robot is running the station. Or Hal the Computer (2001 Space Odyssey).

Mary