Watching From The Sidelines

March 14, 2005, 9:50 pm
Posted by James Spann in General Thoughts
Rating: 0/5   Votes : 0
I had a rare opportunity to view severe weather coverage on Birmingham television from home. Sunday night, when severe thunderstorms developed over north-central Alabama, I was home with our 8 year old. With my wife out of town, I was pretty much in the baby-stting mode, watching everything unfold with my laptop and the home television while John Oldshue, Brian Peters, and J.B. Elliott staffed the weather office. I must admit it was great being able to see our live Pinpoint Doppler Radar on our new digital signal, WJSU-DT 9.2 from Bald Rock mountain just east of Leeds. This is also available on WCFT-DT 5.2 on our 2,000 foot tower in Tuscaloosa county. The radar is on those channels 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

When southern Pickens county and northern Sumter counties in west Alabama went under a tornado warning at 7:14 p.m., we went into “wall to wall” coverage. This is a promise we made 9 years ago when ABC 33/40 signed on the air; anytime any county in the Birmingham market is under a tornado warning, we provide long form coverage.

Sure, this will generate a few nasty e-mail messages and phone calls, but a overwhelming majority of our viewers have responded positively. In fact, overnight ratings from Sunday night show the audience increased from a 12.7 at 7:00 during regular programming to a 14.5 rating at 8:00 during weather coverage. And, ABC 33/40 was first place in the market at that time by far. We thank you for your trust.

I will be the first to say I understand frustrations when you are trying to watch a program and it is interrupted by weather coverage, but soon in the new digital TV era will be able to put the regular program on one of our multicast channels and you won’t miss anything if you choose not to watch tornado coverage. We will probably go to this plan at some point during the middle of this year. Bring on the digital TV era!

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Posted by Clay  
on March 14, 2005, 10:15 pm
The fact that tornado coverage would be pseudo-optional is a great plan! I can't tell you how much less tiring that would make a severe weather event, being able to switch channels, while actually staying with abc. The only problem I can see with it would be most of our ability to see it, or lack thereof. I am on charter expanded cable here in Birmingham. How would I get to see this type of double-broadcast? I guess it means switching to a much more expensive digital plan with those hundreds of channels. That's the price you pay for such luxuries. Oh well, the coverage is very interesting to watch, so I will just enjoy!

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Posted by Clay  
on March 14, 2005, 10:15 pm
The fact that tornado coverage would be pseudo-optional is a great plan! I can't tell you how much less tiring that would make a severe weather event, being able to switch channels, while actually staying with abc. The only problem I can see with it would be most of our ability to see it, or lack thereof. I am on charter expanded cable here in Birmingham. How would I get to see this type of double-broadcast? I guess it means switching to a much more expensive digital plan with those hundreds of channels. That's the price you pay for such luxuries. Oh well, the coverage is very interesting to watch, so I will just enjoy!

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Posted by   www
on March 15, 2005, 12:24 am
I learned a few years back I got into the wrong job field out of college. I find myself checking the models as they come out, checking the weather hourly as well as conditions. I find myself watching outside during incoming weather and trying to pinpoint when I might get to see a couple of snowflakes in the winter. I knew it was bad when I watched wall to wall coverage the whole time it was on when I here in Birmingham missed out on most all of the weather Sunday night. You guys do a great job!!! I definitely wanna become on online weather watcher and try and help as much as I can. I graduated in business school in management which is not where near what I need to get even a minor in meteorology but maybe between being an online weather watcher, making posts here and promoting this site and station I can help just a little bit. Thanks for all the information you share with us!!!!

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Posted by  
on March 15, 2005, 9:55 am
I dont watch ABC 33/40 news much, I most of thier stories dont intrest me, I usally watch Fox news channel, their best thing is their waether staff. I usaly tune to 33/40 when my weather radio goes off.

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Posted by  
on March 15, 2005, 1:09 pm
I heard just this morning some people on talk radio upset because they missed their show due to the weather coverage. If you are in an unaffected area at that time I can kind of understand a little of your frustration, but we need to remember it is very helpful for those who are being affected. And their turn will come - others will be unaffected and those who complain now will be grateful for the information provided in the continuous coverage. When it is you in the storm, the last thing on your mind is wondering what you are missing on the show.
I live out in Pickens County; we don't have many options for local weather information. We depend on ACB33/40 for any reliable weather information we get. Their E-Warn and/or our weather radio alerts us that we are under a warning but to get the details of where exactly the suspected tornado is, direction and speed of travel, duration of warning, ect., we depend on being able to turn on channel 33 and see James Spann. Thankfully a local radio station also carries the full coverage of ABC33/40 during any severe weather; this allows us to know what is going on if we loose power or are away from a TV. Sunday night, the 911 dispatcher stated that there had been a tornado spotted on the ground in the McShan area – just a few miles from where I live. While I was already in the basement, I went on to our safe place, but turned up the TV so we could still hear it. I kept thinking “Come on, John – tell us something! Why is it just regular news?” I wanted more information that I was able to get – and was somewhat unsure of the reliability of the information we had received. During those times information so helpful; knowing exactly were the storm is and its direction of travel allows us to know when the storm has passed and we are ‘in the clear’ and start checking on neighbors and relatives to ensure that they are ok. I don’t know how things work in other areas, but out here we have to rely on and look out for one another.
Those who are upset about missing a TV program need to realize that there are more important things going on - besides a missed episode gives you something to look forward to during the dreaded reruns!
Thanks Weather Team and keep up the good work!


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Posted by  
on March 17, 2005, 7:50 am
I fully agree with you, K.T. I moved from Birmingham to Atlanta 10 years ago, and the TV weather personalities over here are clueless in comparison to James and his staff. When I tell people about how the 33-40 crew can track a tornado on a street-to-street basis, they look at me like I'm crazy.

Of course, what happens here in Atlanta borders on the absurd; I can't tell you how many times I've seen various weather personalities (no way am I going to gve them credit for being meteorologists) pointing to an ancient-looking radar image and saying, "That pink blob right there might be a tornado, and it's moved a little bit since the last time we showed you this screen..."

Those people are seriously dropping the ball, and people are endangered because of it. When my parents, who still live in Birmingham, tell me about how James was on doing the "wall-to-wall" coverage, I know how fortunate y'all are over there to have someone who thoroughly knows what is happening, thoroughly knows the area, and truly cares about the people. Until you've been in the basement wondering what is going on, yu can't fully appreciate wall-to-wall coverage. Regular programming should take a back seat when severe weather moves in.

-Jeff

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