During my vacation last week, I spent a little time reflecting on the rapid changes going on in the television industry. Things are changing at light speed, and I am not sure everyone in our business understands this. We have to change with the times, or we will become an dinosaur in no time at all.
Change is not really a bad thing; I have experienced plenty of it over the years in my career. When I started playing top 40 music on the radio as a teenager in the 1970s, I was working for an AM station in Tuscaloosa (WTBC) that had a huge share of the young audience in town. I was very thankful to catch the end of the top 40 AM radio era, because just as I left for the world of television, FM took over and AM music stations were falling hard and fast. WTBC is still alive and well today, but with a news/talk format. The days of playing the BeeGees, Earth Wind and Fire, and the Allman Brothers are long gone.
I have also had the fortune of being on television during the “glory days” of local news in the 80s and 90s, when ratings were soaring and resources were almost unlimited. During that time we grew from the days of drawing fronts on a map with a magic marker, to high tech computerized weather operations complete with Doppler radar and in-house computer modeling.
Television stations are now making the change from being “broadcasters” to content providers. Today, you can watch our weather products not only on television, but at your convenience on the Internet with our webcasts and map discussion videos. You can listen to our forecasts not only on the radio, but with our podcasts which can be played on any computer or MP3 player. And, you can read our thoughts on the “blog” or web log. And, this is only the tip of the iceberg. More thoughts tomorrow…
Change is not really a bad thing; I have experienced plenty of it over the years in my career. When I started playing top 40 music on the radio as a teenager in the 1970s, I was working for an AM station in Tuscaloosa (WTBC) that had a huge share of the young audience in town. I was very thankful to catch the end of the top 40 AM radio era, because just as I left for the world of television, FM took over and AM music stations were falling hard and fast. WTBC is still alive and well today, but with a news/talk format. The days of playing the BeeGees, Earth Wind and Fire, and the Allman Brothers are long gone.
I have also had the fortune of being on television during the “glory days” of local news in the 80s and 90s, when ratings were soaring and resources were almost unlimited. During that time we grew from the days of drawing fronts on a map with a magic marker, to high tech computerized weather operations complete with Doppler radar and in-house computer modeling.
Television stations are now making the change from being “broadcasters” to content providers. Today, you can watch our weather products not only on television, but at your convenience on the Internet with our webcasts and map discussion videos. You can listen to our forecasts not only on the radio, but with our podcasts which can be played on any computer or MP3 player. And, you can read our thoughts on the “blog” or web log. And, this is only the tip of the iceberg. More thoughts tomorrow…