Messages

811

Everything Else TWC / Re: Blooper Thread

« on: September 16, 2011, 01:22:22 PM »

1:18 PM (ET): The L-Bar had an interesting fail.  When it began, the national feed suddenly cut to black, so the Intellistar's data was superimposed on black.  About a minute into it, I heard "And we're back," and the show continued, but in full frame, meaning the Intellistar's data was covering most of the programming.  Just as the Intellistar finished, the full frame then pulled back as if the L-bar was to begin again, but the rest of the screen was black.  It quickly went back to full frame.  During this time, the Intellistar's LDL began, but the national feed LDL didn't start for almost another minute.

812

General Discussion / Re: The Front Porch

« on: September 16, 2011, 12:19:43 PM »

Also, to Alex: Your current conditions for Gorham, NH at 12:05 ET are showing blowing snow and a very chilly 25 degrees. Are those observations correct?

Wow.  According to TWC and Accu-Weather, the weather for Gorham, NH is cloudy and 48°.  However, the NWS uses Mount Washington as its nearest observation location for Gorham, and on Mount Washington, it is, indeed, 25° with blowing snow and winds of 60 mph!

Edit: I just remembered that the XL, during the brief time the Boston area had it and the even briefer time it worked (it was a lemon and notorious for breaking down; our cable company very often switched to the Worcester Star while the Boston one got rebooted), that was the only time my area got to see conditions on Mount Washington on the "Latest Observations" page.

813

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: September 15, 2011, 02:30:13 PM »

I got word that it's still testing due to viewer feedback. It's mist likely going to be a permanent change but if we do complain, they'll yank the lbar locals out

I just got a reply back too.
"Effective Mon, 9/12, we started using a squeeze back Local on the 8s during most live programming at :08, :18, :38 and :48.  Full screen locals will remain as is at :28 / :58. It is most likely a permanent change, although we do continue to monitor viewer feedback. I will be sure to forward your note to our Locals team.
Thank you for letting us know what you think."

 

What possible benefit do they think this has?  For viewers who actually watch The Weather Channel for weather information, very little.  Unfortunately, this isn't the audience TWC is interested in anymore. 

814

Programming and Graphics / Re: Wake Up With Al

« on: September 14, 2011, 11:18:18 PM »

Update on the WUWA LF situation

The WUWA full-screen locals had suspended playing the music with vocals during recent hurricane coverage. The producers felt that pop/vocal songs were not appropriate during hurricane coverage. At this time, it is uncertain whether WUWA will stick with instrumentals or switch back to vocals.

Where did you get this update from?

815

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: September 14, 2011, 11:17:11 PM »

The problem with the L bar local forecast is it makes the video window on the SD and HD feeds way to small.
It's not worth getting the extra programming time if the video window is to small.
Just go back to the full screen regular local forecast and be done with this test format.

The first L-bar from a few years ago was better in terms of picture size.  However, I think this may have been before HD.

816

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: September 14, 2011, 11:13:30 PM »

No one believed me, but I said a while back (and I'm not going to look it up) that with the L-bar, TWC will probably start using that to replace the local forecast segments.  And... it looks like they're testing just that.

If they're going to rely on the L-bar (and the occasional LDL alone) for "local forecasts," I wish they'd at least bring back the expanded LDL.  That would give us more information - precious little as it is already without the full local forecast.

And everyone's right about non-Intellistar viewers - those poor people are really missing out on their local weather.

817

Questions, Comments, Suggestions / Re: Should the TWCC presence stay?

« on: September 14, 2011, 11:10:58 PM »

Thanks to everyone who commented! I guess we'll leave things as they are. I honestly didn't expect anyone to care, so this is good.

I'm glad everything will stay as it is. 

818

Questions, Comments, Suggestions / Re: Weather conditions

« on: September 13, 2011, 11:54:31 PM »

Restored

Thank you very much!!

819

Your Local Weather / Re: Grand Forks Weather

« on: September 13, 2011, 04:04:03 PM »

Whoo, lordie!  It's 90 degrees outside right now underneath a blazing sun.  Granted, our lows are now generally in the 60s instead of around 80 as when I first got here a couple of months ago, but it's still too hot for me.  I'd actually prefer your weather than the weather here!

820

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: September 13, 2011, 02:53:56 PM »

With some headends using the legacy STARs; ironically, the lack of LFs should have been a violation against FCC standards.

While I agree with you in theory, I don't think there's actually any FCC regulation requiring any cable network to display weather warnings.  What the FCC does require, however, is that the display of local weather warnings be accompanied by an audible tone.  This is why the WeatherStar III had to be retired: it was capable of producing a tone (assuming it still worked on any given unit) only during the first display of a warning, but not on any subsequent warnings.  An upgrade to conform to FCC regulations would have been too expensive and time-consuming for a 20-year-old computer system.

By its nature, the national feed local forecast/L-bar/LDL can only give so much information.  Even when it shows weather advisories and warnings on a national map, they're not detailed enough to warrant the warning tone: a tone for a tornado warning in ABC county in Texas would be not only worthless, but actually "crying wolf" for a viewer in XYZ County in Montana watching the national feed forecast.

I do agree with you 100%, though, that the loss of non-Intellistar LDLs and the lack of non-Intellistar L-bars is a major drawback for TWC's viewership.  Non-Intellistars are now able to broadcast anything (not counting weather advisories) only during regular local forecast segments - and those are becoming fewer and fewer in number, apparently.  While the Intellistar is used in a lot of headends, it's not used everywhere, leaving so many TWC viewers without their own local weather for large amounts of time.  The "tune to Weatherscan instead" argument doesn't even work, considering how few people have it.

821

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: September 13, 2011, 11:48:00 AM »

But I know that the music is partly what attracted me and many others to TWC. For TWC to reduce their LFs to twice an hour, if it is permanent, IMO, is the cherry on the sundae in terms of the deterioration of TWC over the last few years.

I haven't been a fan of the music on TWC for about 20 years.  It's the information in the local forecast that I'm after.  A squeezeback is good in case of an emergency so that more live coverage can be broadcast, but, otherwise, I can't think of any good reason to reduce the number of actual local forecasts... unless TWC is trying to even further deemphasize its original mission.

822

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: September 13, 2011, 11:45:52 AM »

If they seriously even remotely considered getting rid of the LOT8s format, they just wasted a VERY considerable amount of time and money working on a new HD STAR that is not only been around for a little over a year, but is still not widely available to everyone.

Welcome to the corporate world!  I can't tell you how many ghastly money-wasting ideas have been implemented, only to be changed or outright cancelled almost immediately where I work.

823

Questions, Comments, Suggestions / Re: Should the TWCC presence stay?

« on: September 13, 2011, 11:44:02 AM »

Unless the "classic" part of the forum is actually taking up space and it's becoming a hindrance, or it's costing someone extra money to keep it here, or people are complaining that it just doesn't "fit," I can't see any reason to get rid of it.  What's wrong with information for the sake of information?  Leave it available in case someone would like to post in there, or even just read what's already there, as I do from time to time.

Why take choices away from people just because these choices aren't the most popular in a forum?  Who would be hurt by leaving them the way they are?  Would the benefit really be that great by getting rid of them?

824

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: September 12, 2011, 11:15:20 PM »

TWC sure loves to recycle old stock footage, this looks like the same stock footage they used of the lady waiting in the rain for a taxi from the "Live By It" era  decade ago.

Why, oh why, couldn't we see said era again? This was their best, always will have been.

I think the late 1980s-early 1990s was TWC's best era.  Great OCMs and beyond superb weather coverage.

825

Questions, Comments, Suggestions / Re: Should the TWCC presence stay?

« on: September 11, 2011, 08:05:12 PM »

I would have to say that the "Local Forecast" thread is pretty popular, especially judging from the comments above about the desire to find playlists. "OCMs" ranks second in terms of activity for the classics sub-forums. However, "Programming" and "Everything Else Classic TWC" aren't receiving much activity. Maybe we could just get rid of those, if need be?

I hope they'll at least be replaced by one "general" category for the purposes of discussing what TWC was back then.  Otherwise, it would be too restrictive to limit discussion only to playlists, local forecasts, and OCMs.