Messages

61

The Game Room / Re: TV Slogans

« on: July 16, 2014, 08:21:05 PM »

Louisville:
WAVE 3 (NBC): WAVE 3 News (They don't really have a slogan, but they use "WAVE 3 News" for everything. Even promos for syndicated talk shows.)
WHAS 11 (ABC): On Your Side
WLKY 32 (CBS): Live. Local. Latebreaking. (Yes, still. They've been using this since 1998)
WDRB 41 (Fox): Better Journalism.

Lexington:
WLEX 18 (NBC): Count on LEX 18.
WKYT 27 (CBS): Tracking. Alerting. Protecting.
WTVQ 36 (ABC): Your Neighbors. Your News.
WDKY 56 (Fox): It's listed as "Your Primetime News Source Since 1995." but isn't really used on air. WDKY Fox 56 doesn't produce it's own newscast, WKYT does it for them.

62

Local Forecast / Re: Emergency Feed Sightings

« on: July 15, 2014, 09:13:19 PM »

Video of this morning's emergency feed outage: http://youtu.be/Z1Is_f2NWeUbed

63

Programming and Graphics / Re: New Show: "WXGeeks"

« on: July 15, 2014, 06:16:58 PM »

This seems to me to be the Weather Channel's answer to the immensely popular and long running podcast "Weatherbrains". I think (at least according to NWS Norman WCM and WB panelist Rick Smith) they even mentioned James Spann and Nate Johnson during their conference call.

64

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: June 30, 2014, 11:27:23 PM »

TWC has preempted long-form as of 8pm ET due to severe weather.

In the 11pm hour the video is full screen on the national HD feed so I'm guessing the is extra coverage in place of long form shows.

From the way I saw it, TWC planned to go to Catching Hell but pre-empted at the last second. I have no problem with showing more weather,  but they really need to use the squeezeback like normal for these situations. The translucent LDL on-screen makes it look kind of cluttered and it can at times obscure graphics (such as chyrons).

65

General Discussion / Re: Post your desktops

« on: March 22, 2014, 10:35:08 PM »

Decided to get a screenshot of all of my computers plus my phone's home screen.

From top to bottom:
My Windows 7 machine. Had to get this after my old XP machine's power supply failed.
Of course, my Mac, with the default Mavericks desktop.
The XP machine whose power supply failed but miraculously came back to life. Currently searching for one online before the old one dies again. And of course, I have to show House of Cards some love.
My netbook, which since October has been running a Linux distribution called Peppermint. It's based on Ubuntu and designed for such computers with limited specs.
And lastly, my phone. I've condensed all of my apps onto one screen for the sake of cleanliness.

66

Weatherscan Discussion / Re: Weatherscan Topic

« on: March 09, 2014, 03:18:43 AM »

For the first time, I had trouble with WS springing forward. Once the forecast segment at 1:59am ended, the quarter-hour segment (with town name) didn't cue right at 3am and the bottom portion of the L-bar failed. This was a cycle mostly repeated for the next almost ten minutes. I should have a video up by later today.

A more pertinent question would be, why does this happen at all? Why should losing an hour (on the system, the equivalent of skipping a number) affect the graphical presentation so much? Background glitches and graphical element resets... Is it just a problem of how it gets the signal from TWC?

67

General Discussion / Re: The Pot Belly Stove

« on: March 06, 2014, 06:17:22 PM »

Why is it that sometimes my TV guide will show on one channel "[Channel Name] Programming" for a few hours? Example: On Comedy Central it says "Comedy Central Programming" from 6AM to 4PM this Tuesday. Is my cable headend really that lazy to obtain listings for TV shows that will air throughout a particular programming block? 

This typically happens here when my Fox Sports Network (Fox Sports South) diverts programming to another network in the lead-up to a live pro sports event. For example, typically an hour before Nashville Predators games, the guide will list it as "FSN Programming" and instead of the program being from Fox Sports South, it's coming from Fox Sports Tennessee. Same thing with the Pacers games FSIndiana gives FSSouth for broadcast in Kentucky.

68

TWC and your Cable Company / Re: DirecTV Dropping TWC

« on: February 09, 2014, 03:18:16 PM »

According to The Weather Channel, this is what "without warning" means.

69

TWC and your Cable Company / Re: DirecTV Dropping TWC

« on: January 20, 2014, 10:36:07 PM »

The hilarious thing about that video?  The Weather Channel aired the first part of it.

In other words, AN NBC-OWNED PROPERTY ACKNOWLEDGED THE EXISTENCE OF CONAN O'BRIEN.

MSNBC's "Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" routinely uses Conan clips along with other comedians coming in and out of commercial breaks.

70

TWC and your Cable Company / Re: DirecTV Dropping TWC

« on: January 19, 2014, 07:13:22 PM »

better idea. make weatherscan a TWC2 of sorts, kinda like ESPNEWS where it's live weather forecasts all day and night... even if they have to do taped forecasts overnight.

I not really a big fan of this idea, mainly because Weatherscan is a continuous, 24-hour source for hyperlocal weather information and is much more of a "life-saving utility" than the main TWC channel (though still shouldn't be counted on in an emergency situation. I've seen in some cases where the unit actually stops receiving updated information). Take my town for instance, Weatherscan as it is now is so popular my local cable company renewed the contract with TWC for TEN YEARS. And that was in 2010.

Anyway, CNN aired a taped interview with Jim Cantore this morning during Reliable Sources and brought on an expert to talk about this situation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6HWMjPNijs

71

TWC and your Cable Company / Re: DirecTV Dropping TWC

« on: January 14, 2014, 12:19:52 AM »

ATLANTA -- January 14, 2014 -- At 12:01 this morning,  The Weather Channel is no longer available on DIRECTV,  which refused to come to an agreement on a market-based carriage deal. Following is a statement from David Kenny, chairman and CEO of The Weather Company:

“This is unprecedented for The Weather Channel. In our 32 years, we have never had a significant disruption due to a failure to reach a carriage agreement. We offered DIRECTV the best rate for our programming, and I am shocked they have put corporate profits ahead of keeping a trusted channel that subscribers rely on every day. We are not looking for a large fee increase. We are simply looking for a fair deal that allows our company to continue to invest in the science and technology that enables us to keep people safe, deliver the world’s best weather, and tell weather stories to help people be prepared and informed.

“At a time when DIRECTV has increased customer rates by 4 percent, they are trading safety for  increased profits and replacing the experience and expertise of The Weather Channel with a cheap startup that does weather forecasting on a three-hour taped loop, has no field coverage, no weather experts -- certainly not any on par with The Weather Channel network’s industry-recognized experts like tornado expert Dr. Greg Forbes and winter weather expert Tom Niziol --  and no experience in severe weather emergencies. This is a dangerous gamble over one penny a month that puts DIRECTV customers at risk.

“This reckless move by DIRECTV will have an impact on our role as part of the national safety and preparedness fabric of our country at a time when the volatility and frequency of weather events seems to be increasing. The Weather Channel partners with humanitarian and emergency management agencies at the local, state and federal levels. We help people prepare before storms, stay safe during their effects, and find help afterward. If the network is not available to viewers, the effectiveness of these partnerships, which help make us a more weather ready nation, are jeopardized. I am hopeful DIRECTV will come to their senses soon and will not force its customers to change carriers to stay safe and informed.”

72

TWC and your Cable Company / Re: DirecTV Dropping TWC

« on: January 13, 2014, 06:43:26 PM »

2 Minute Locals added to this extended coverage would be perfect right now!

They would, but that also would cut into TWC's "hype time."

73

Programming and Graphics / Re: New Graphics coming to TWC

« on: December 22, 2013, 04:29:54 PM »

Noticed something during a severe thunderstorm warning last night. As the alert crawled, the LDL wasn't active, but the sidebar was. Sometimes even occurred when there wasn't a warning crawl. On another side note, the national LDL's clock looks to be about 2 minutes slow.

74

Programming and Graphics / Re: New Graphics coming to TWC

« on: November 24, 2013, 10:02:46 PM »

So I tuned in to TWC And I saw The Intellistar had no CC Report and the Doppler radar was missing, so I tuned in to TWC HD And saw that the Intellistar 2 skipped the CC page and Doppler radar! I'm confused. HiRAD Outage Maybe?

In addition, Weatherscan units have been intermittently rebooting. Some sort of data issue to be sure.

75

Programming and Graphics / Re: New Graphics coming to TWC

« on: November 18, 2013, 10:49:37 PM »

Since I kind of like the jokes (sometimes) here's how I would do it. Remove the entire slide and cue the CC screen earlier, thus giving more time for the ad crawl to run. Just before the local ad begins to crawl, you insert the small joke there. Only for about 2 or 3 seconds and it should be short enough to fit within the limitations of the ad crawl.

Just a thought.