Hurricane charley local news coverage

[jaymer]

I know its been a few weeks now, but I saw something the other night that really made me laugh.

During something on CBS, there was a commercial with the Tampa Mayor, and St Pete Mayor sitting in the CBS studio commending them on their great coverage.

Did they do this at the other 4 stations as well, or is there some political reasons why they did this for CBS.

On Friday afternoon of the hurricane, between 2 hours and 1 hour before it hit Punta, I tuned to CBS and they were showing COLOR BARS. They weren't even on the air, although all others were still Broadcasting. Oh, they had to evacuate, you say... well, poor them because other stations didn't (NBC is downtown on the water) and news trucks were right in the middle of the storm... what if they would have evacuated? but i digress...

here's what i saw during one another flip to CBS.
A red screen with a WTSP logo and a guy talking. Oh, he's talking to a girl in the studio about stories, whats up next, etc.
Then comes a telephone ring. RING RING.
"Hello", he says.
"Oh, I AM?" are his next words. Then some "Uh huhs... Yes..." and then click goes the audio feed.
I'm thinking AMATUER HOUR at its finest.
Flip back to the much better coverage - ABC News was great, and esp that guy I think from FOX who was at the hotel down south where the store went right over him... he had the first video by 6pm or so that night.

flip back to CBS (as I'm surfiing, STILL an hour before the storm)
Hey, there's a guy talking again. His mic is live (and its not supposed to be) and we hear him chatting away.
RING RING again.
"Oh. Again" he asks... or something like that. Moments pass then click off goes the feed.

Evacuated or not, that had to be the worst coverage of any local station. The Riverview antennas had a bigger chance of being hit when it was all said and done, yet none of those channels powered down to Tone & Bars.

I wanted to write this up but went out of town right after that, but seeing the MAYORs at CBS really pushed me over the edge.

jaymer...

[teampozer]

Let's look at this a different way for a moment and forget about all the bells and whistles you see on the screen.
Yes. Engineering and production at channel 10 should have been better prepared. No doubt about that. And you'd think they would have at least brought some kind of set or graphics to the Clearwater studios they were using. However... they never "powered down" (ok, the digital signal was off but analog is the primary) nor does it matter where towers and or antennas are located. Most if not all should have backup generators. Now, where programming originates is another story. Channel 10's studios are on Gandy Blvd and just like the radio stations I work at, these buildings were evacuated by the management who felt it necessary to follow the directions of the EOC. The on air product is one thing but being responsible to yourself or your employees is another. You mention WFLA as staying put in their downtown studios. Well good for them, they took a chance and came out a winner I guess. But what if the hurricane had struck the area? What if WFLA's "news center" was flooded out? That transmitter high above Riverview isn't much good if it's broadcasting dead air from a studio that's offline. Rip 10 all ya want but they probably would have been one the few still broadcasting had the storm hit Tampa Bay. And about those reporters from the field... nice job by most. That's what they do and 28's Germace being assigned to Punta Gorda was one hell of a crapshoot. These stations can pump their chests all they want about who was first with this or better at that... the fact remains that a storm like this is still hard to predict and people's lives to our south were changed because of it.

[Dknow]

I agree with both postings but more so with Jaymer. I thought that the Vipir system that channel 8 had was phenomenal. I studied meterology for a few years in college and couldn't believe how much better this system was than the others. The storm definately made it's superiority evident. As for Channel 10 DT going off air, I thought that was just bad. What if someone in northern Pasco county uses only digital signals and can only pick up channel 10? It's stupid, but a possibility just the same. I also have to throw props to Paul Delegatto of FOX 13, as always that guy is straight to the point and the best human meterological tool this community has. I think maybe he needs to buy one of them there vipir systems and all will be right with the world. Channel 10's studios are right on gandy and probably 3' above sealevel so I can't blame them for evacuating, but there is no excuse for shutting down their digital transmissions.

[jaymer]

i had not even heard of the Vipr system until mention of it here in threads.

i was just pointing out the IRONY of CBS's coverage problems... due to the "THANK YOU WTSP" advert from the Mayors. Did the Mayors give thank you's to the guys who were in Punta first on the scene?

Plus the fact that it was amateur hour with the open mic stuff was funny.

[Floyd]

Gee, I missed all of that funny stuff, and I thought I was glued to the screen for the hurricane Charley coverage.
Having 3 families in the house due to zone2 evac didn't help my concentration any, since I was being somewhat democratic about what channel everyone wanted to watch.
No problems noted yet on the Frances coverage.