Messages

31

Local Forecast / Re: TWC Songs you've heard in other places

« on: December 23, 2015, 07:37:49 PM »

Yet another TWC tune I found on YouTube, this time from an old WCAU promo that aired back in the late 80's or early '90s (this was back when they were then a CBS O&O, now NBC O&O). The promo features "Kei's Song" by David Benoit (featured in both September 1990 & May 1991 LF playlists) and it starts at 28:52-29:22.

Courtesy of NewsActive3 & stevieboy247.
https://youtu.be/HRq-9VbYblk?t=28m52s

32

Local Forecast / Re: TWC Songs you've heard in other places

« on: December 21, 2015, 08:10:23 PM »

While watching a video review on the Tyco VideoCam TVC 8000 from YouTube user Druaga1, I came across a short clip of what he recorded from his Tyco cam from around either late 1997 or early 1998, and it appeared to be The Weather Channel playing on TV in the background with the song "Casino" by Physical Therapy (October 1997 playlist). The clip starts at 14:17-14:28.

https://youtu.be/G1tSyhzIlPE?t=14m17s

33

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: December 15, 2015, 08:24:16 PM »

Vocal Music!  Wow that was the longest vocal hiatus in TWC History! Actually no, 1983-2012 was the longest. Hmm let's see if this rolls over into next month? Really could care less but that would kind of be exciting to see

Actually, TWC did had vocal music back in June 2007. So technically, that was only a 24 year hiatus.

34

General Discussion / Re: The Pot Belly Stove

« on: December 04, 2015, 05:28:27 PM »

Not sure if anyone caught this... but at 12:17PT/3:17ET on December 4th, there was an interesting commercial that aired before the LF... it was the original WUWA commercial from back in the day, then at the end it said "Wake up with Al is brought to you by (some) law office"... anyone else catch that or was it just me? Wish I recorded that. Really bizarre.

Wasn't that a local cable commercial? That sounded like one of those local cable company-produced commercials promoting not only with the featured local business or sponsor, but also TWC. Some national cable networks like TWC would sometimes promote some of their participating cable affiliates to do their own local business tie-in promos with various cable companies. The cable company would edit the local promo by combining it with the national network promo to promote with their featured businesses. Your local cable company must have aired the local commercial during the national commercial break before automatically switching back to the national feed even if it wasn't tuned to TWC.

For example, one cable system back in 2008 with an IntelliStar v2 still continued to air an old TWC promo (likely produced back in the "Live by It" era). And the funny thing is, is that the cable company still aired the old promo as late as 2008!

Here's the video I was talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfmkthCQxCc&feature=player_embedded

And here is the "raw" version of that same promo (without the local cable company produced sponsor):


There was also another one that was produced circa 1998-99 that also had a "Sponsored locally by..." insert.


Another one from around 2004-early 2005 that features Jim Cantore (still with some hair back then) and an obviously fake IntelliStar v1 warning crawl:


There was even one for PrimeTime Tonight that was promoted way back in 1991:


Lastly, here's a more recent one from last year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDjNa003KIQ

35

General Weather Chat / Re: What's the weather in your area?

« on: November 15, 2015, 12:17:35 PM »

61° Clear

36

TWC Today News / Re: Martin's passing and the future of TWC Today

« on: November 01, 2015, 07:22:21 PM »

I'm sad to hear this. Martin was such a nice guy and a great contributor. I too also had the same exact interests of the weather, technology and of course, The Weather Channel just like what Martin had. I hope the website will still live on since TWC Today is such an awesome website. It would be nice if it merges with TWC Classics. My hearts and prayers all go out to his friends and family members.

37

General Discussion / Re: The Pot Belly Stove

« on: November 01, 2015, 07:04:28 PM »

I'm sad to hear this. Martin was such a great person and an awesome Weather Channel fan and contributor. My hearts and prayers all go out to his friends and family.

38

Local Forecast / Re: TWC Songs you've heard in other places

« on: October 21, 2015, 07:39:02 PM »

Sorry for bumping, but recently, I just heard "Pacific Coast Highway" from Nils (December 2005 playlist) in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtLMNcnC-pE

Video courtesy of FreewayJim. Music starts playing at 16:53.

39

Everything Else Classic TWC / The Weather Channel from 1984

« on: October 19, 2015, 10:17:52 PM »

I found several clips of The Weather Channel that was taken from April 12-September 9, 1984. Unfortunately, most of the Local Forecasts were edited out as well as a few other segments. The videos originally came from MeadeLX50 on YouTube.

Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaT17fgmJy8

40

Programming and Graphics / Atmospheres Hurricane Hunters episode from 2000

« on: October 13, 2015, 06:32:55 PM »

Look what I found: a classic episode of Atmospheres! Video courtesy of: vortexva.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgv_YFcolxE
This episode that aired around 2000 features then-TWC personality Warren Madden who was also then a hurricane hunter (which I never knew he used to be a hurricane hunter). Anyways, enjoy the clip.

41

Local Forecast / Re: TWC Songs you've heard in other places

« on: September 21, 2015, 09:53:57 PM »

I forgot to mention this, but over the weekend, I recently heard "Sermonized" by Joe Sample (August/September 1990 playlists) on DirecTV's Sonic Tap Smooth Jazz channel.

42

Programming and Graphics / Re: Sweeping Changes Coming: Champion Cancelled, Less Reality Shows

« on: September 09, 2015, 03:15:44 PM »

Despite the layoffs and cost cutting, it appears that Stephanie Abrams will return to the channel to be a "key part" of the morning team. Although, it's unclear what morning show is going to replace WUWA and AMHQ.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/sam-champion-al-roker-lose-shows-in-weather-channel-cost-cutting/ar-AAe6KCr?ocid=iehp

43

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: August 14, 2015, 08:21:43 PM »

Just to let you know, tomorrow will officially mark the 10 year anniversary of The Weather Channel's logo change.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ciWgKy8RuQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqvBwZJ4cDg
(Videos courtesy: Vernon Metcalf, The Weather Chazz, and UNCJerry77.)

Hard to believe it's been 10 years already. I still miss the old logo. Anyone's thoughts about the anniversary tomorrow?

44

Local Forecast / Re: TWC Songs you've heard in other places

« on: July 26, 2015, 03:45:06 PM »

Last night while listing to the Sonic Tap Smooth Jazz channel on DirecTV, I heard "Afterglow" by Craig Chaquico (June 2002 playlist). One of my all time favorite TWC tunes.

45

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: July 25, 2015, 06:33:31 PM »

I still wish cable systems would stop down converting their IS2s to make a fake digital MPEG-2 "SD feed" that's fully letterboxed and use the IS2 only on the actual MPEG-4 HD feed. I also wish cable systems would combine both the IS2 for the HD simulcast and the IS2Jr. for the SD simulcast so that way, the actual SD simulcast wouldn't be letterboxed and still have the main IS2 shown only on the actual HD simulcast plus the IS2Jr. on the SD simulcast. It's still a waste of bandwidth.

The thing is, most headends prefer to just having the IS2 and the HD feed simulcast alone, primarily to avoid the time and money maintaining another STAR (i.e. the IS2 Jr). The acquisition of a STAR system isn't exactly priority number one for a lot of cable headends (e.g. think of Comcast and their X1 DVR systems) even though The Weather Channel requires headends with the TV network to do so.

Also, I do like the idea of running the IS2 Jr through an IS2/HD feed simulcast, but that idea seems technologically impossible IMO.   Even if it was possible, the trouble is that headends would have to program the IS2 to not display LFs and only LDLs, vice versa for the IS2 Jr. Another problem is that you'd probably be hearing Cantore's narrations twice during LFs like an echo effect, because the IS2 HD would be simultaneously running in the background behind the IS2 Jr. So, the thought of running an IS2 Jr through a letterboxed HD feed simulcast may sound great, but as I said, that idea is technologically impossible.

But personally, (especially with older 4:3 only SD TVs), I've always hated widescreen mainly because of the cost of getting a new HDTV. I've always had preferred backwards compatibility with older TVs in the post analog cable era. Even back in the early days of cable networks broadcasting in HD back in the late 2000s, networks like CNN, ESPN, MSNBC, and even Fox News used to provide 4:3-safe crop-friendly compatibility, but in recent years however, they all eventually jumped on the widescreen heavy bandwagon. Even an old 1950's era Zenith B/W TV or even a mid-2000s era Sony Trinitron SD TV would now have to deal with what media conglomerates are doing by letterboxing their broadcasts. Again, I have nothing against HDTVs in general; it's just that it's still expensive to this very day.

But after all, TWC is even one of the last networks to still have 4:3-safe broadcasts on their actual SD feed along with CNBC's SD feed as well as most NBC News programs (like Today, NBC Nightly News, and Meet the Press). ABC and CBS News also still have 4:3-safe broadcasts on all of their newscasts and even C-SPAN, C-SPAN 2, HSN, and QVC also still have 4:3-safe broadcasts.

If TWC were to eventually go permanently widescreen only on their actual SD feed like on most other cable networks, then the IS2Jr. would already be considered obsolete.