Messages

106

Programming / Re: Local Radars circa 1989

« on: September 26, 2012, 04:06:48 AM »

Those radar codes were based off the airports in the city - those codes you are mentioning are used by the FAA to identify airports. They have some clever stories behind them.

ORD - Original name of the airport when it was a military field in the Chicago suburb of "Orchard Place."

BNA - Nashville airport. The "NA" stands for Nashville. The "B" stands for Berry, the last name of Harry Berry, the head of the Tennessee Works Progress Administration during the 1930s.

MCO - Orlando International Airport. MCO stands for "McCoy," the name of the old air force base in the same general location of the airfield.

MSY - I will let a news article tell the story of New Orleans:

MSY: Last, and certainly the best airport code story of all is the three letter code designation of the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. On the last day of 1910, John Moisant, the first person to build and fly a plane with an all metal frame, and the first pilot to fly over the English Channel with a passenger and an animal, died of a broken neck after he was thrown out of his nose-diving aircraft at the current location of New Orleans’ major airport.

Stock yards for cattle were later put on the land where Moisant met his fate. The owners wanted to honor John Moisant, so they called the stock yards the Moisant Stock Yards, or MSY for short.

The city of New Orleans later bought the stock yards for airfield construction and named the completed project Moisant Field. In 1962, Moisant Field was renamed New Orleans International Airport, but the stock yards’ designation still remains to this very day.

Wright-Patterson AFB "FFO" has a similar story.  Likely dating back to the 1940s, it was located between two towns called Fairfield and Osborn.  The two towns joined in the early 1950s....the problem?  Name!
There was already a Fairfield just outside of Cincinnati.  Sooooo, they combined the two names into one "Fairborn" - the city now located adjacent to the base.....and Wright State University (my alma mater).

107

Programming / Re: Local Radars circa 1989

« on: September 17, 2012, 08:10:03 PM »

There's a certain charm about these radars.  They're simple, yet informative, and there are no overly-flashy graphics to distract from the information.

Back in the day I had so many of the three letter codes memorized. 

I fell in love with those single site radars. And I had a lot of those 3-letter codes too. I wish there was more of these radar videos.......... I used to have one that had the Bristol WSR-57 radar and one other....... I cant remember which one it was.

I enjoyed thinking about which three-letter code was which city. Some made more sense than others. "MSY" didn't make much sense for New Orleans or "BNA" for Nashville, whereas "JAN" for Jackson and "MIA" for Miami made more sense.

A lot of those codes that "don't make sense" actually do - they can either be the original name or the biggest nearby city. 

Just in Ohio for instance, Columbus, Ohio's main airport "Port Columbus International Airport"'s identifier is CMH....which stands for its original name "Columbus Municipal Hangar"

But to get back on topic, those radars were interesting and how TWC could pop them up in their presentations.  The big thing in the mid to late 1980s was "action radars" that would animate a few frames.

108

General Weather Chat / Re: National Weather Service that serves/ used to serve your area

« on: September 04, 2012, 02:08:55 PM »

Mine used to be Dayton (KDAY) until the newer Doppler radar arrived in Wilmington (KILN) in the '90s.  It serves southwest and west-central Ohio, northern Kentucky and extreme east-central and southeastern Indiana.

109

OCMs & Personalities / Re: Kyla Grogan

« on: August 11, 2012, 02:35:28 AM »

Where do these names come from (their parents, I know, but really!) 

110

Hurricane Central / Re: Tropical Depression Seven

« on: August 11, 2012, 02:33:54 AM »

It reminds me of an old York Peppermint Patty commercial that saluted the Winter Olympics.

A couple are watching the ski jump on TV - the husband goes crazy as he describes the ski jump.

The wife turns to him and says "Lovely......you win the SILVER!"  and holds up the patty.   

111

Programming and Graphics / Re: New Show: "Tipping Points" and "Plane Xtreme"

« on: August 04, 2012, 02:19:40 PM »

I just try to catch TWC when it is live.

112

Everything Else Classic TWC / Re: 7/17/82

« on: August 01, 2012, 07:11:18 PM »

If you look at the 22:00 mark of the video......

There is a hand writing some names down on a whiteboard....those names look familiar.

113

Everything Else TWC / Re: Drought 2012

« on: July 26, 2012, 12:14:25 AM »

It's a give or take.

In Ohio, we have already hit 100F three to five times (depending on the city) this summer.  The last time it did that was 2007.  That was also a drought, but this one seems to be slightly worse than that, but not quite to 1988 yet.

On the flip side, we did get some rain.....but OH are we EVER paying for it with the extra humidity!  We are seeing highs down to the mid 90s, but heat indices have risen to over 105F.  The temperatures used to be closer together when the air was dry.  Humidity is a mess!  I saw Owensboro, Kentucky today had a temperature of 101F, but with a 71F dewpoint, the heat index was 118F!

114

TWC and your Cable Company / Re: Is cable TV going downhill?

« on: July 11, 2012, 09:40:42 PM »

I found this interesting articals about cable TV's rising rates:
 
http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/10/11118954-pay-tv-costing-a-pretty-penny-and-rising?lite
http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/Study-Average-Cable-Bill-Will-Top-200-By-2020-119185
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2012/02/5-theories-on-the-death-of-cable-tv----and-why-theyre-wrong060.html
 
It seems that most cable networks (and likely TWC) wants to raise the rates mostly because they want to put more programing and attract ratings. This is just one reason why Dish Network originally pulled the plug on TWC before when they reach that new agreement and shuttered "The Weather Cast" two years ago.

I am paying $125 a month for two television sets with Cinemax and HBO.   I have seen it rise from $90 in just the last five years.....I have FEWER channels, too.  I still get charged for two remotes and cable boxes.  The remotes are worn out....and the cable boxes, on good days only, actually tell me what show is on.  It used to work all of the time, but now it's like 5% of the time.

It's gone downhill since the recession started for sure. 

I remember asking to have a set of channels added for $2.50 so I could get Game Show Network....2003.  They changed themselves to GSN in March 2004, and the cable company removed the channel completely by September.  I have not seen it since.

115

Contributions / Re: Weather Star 4000 Units in Central/Western Pennsylvania

« on: July 05, 2012, 01:23:43 AM »

I like seeing the current and regional conditions.

I had (still do with the IS) Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Columbus.  I am further west, though .

116

Everything Else Classic TWC / Re: A WeatherStar4000 Meltdown At It's Best

« on: July 05, 2012, 01:22:09 AM »

I found a link to that full length song you can listen to here at soundcloud a couple of months ago.

http://soundcloud.com/craig-peyton/good-morning

I keep playing the first few measures  .  I love that drum beat 

117

Hurricane Central / Re: Tropical Storm Beryl (former Subropical Storm)

« on: May 28, 2012, 12:40:41 AM »

It made landfall shortly after 12am EDT May 28 (Memorial Day).  It's right over the Extreme Drought area, so it's a blessing.  The bad part is that the rain will need to be just slow enough to activate absorption and not run off.  I am not sure about Florida soil (I remember it being rust colored - hey, I am from Ohio  !), but I would hope that this rain would help.

I noticed that everybody has been mispronoucing the name.  I remember the last time this storm name came up.  It is supposed to be pronounced "BERLE" as in Milton's last name!

118

OCMs & Personalities / Re: Kim Cunningham

« on: May 06, 2012, 03:41:50 AM »

I saw her last night. She does look different with that Rihanna blonde hair. 

I thought she looked quite different with reddish hair.

Her hair was even more blonde before she cut it short in that top picture.

119

Programming / Re: Couple of videos

« on: March 17, 2012, 10:41:29 PM »

She also did a segment on Albert Clippers .  She would have ahd more time on the air .

Check out that '80s can of Lysol!  I haven't seen that in years 

120

Local Forecast / Re: COLD! icon

« on: February 13, 2012, 11:36:38 PM »

The other icon set - the one matching the Current Conditions/Extended Forecast - had a version where it was a rectangle with the word COLD and the entire rectangle would flash like "frigid" did.  An interesting icon.

We still haven't seen the "SMOKE" icon with the blackened cloud.  I remember seeing that one, too.