TWC's Retro 8s Live

[pjfrix]

Seems that around June 27 of this year (yesterday as of writing), The Weather Channel went and "brought back" their Weather Star 4000 for a nightly hour-long (around 4-5 AM eastern, including commercial breaks) set of looping national forecasts known as Retro 8's Live. Rather than actually bringing back such old hardware/software, they replicated its graphics (and even intros) in a modern fashion (likely using Max or whatever graphics engine they rely on.) In a way, some may say that they made their own simulation of the 4000.

Other than a few differences from the real deal (for example, the lack of Current Conditions icons (the only icon set used throughout is the smaller ones from the Regional Forecast segments), the fonts used and a date in the upper right instead of being both a clock and date), it's still quite interesting!

11-06-23 EDIT: Seems that as of this week, The Weather Channel is no longer airing it. Matter of fact, the entire evening/nightly programming block (which included this and an English language iteration of Twilight, which seems to have been exclusive to The Weather Channel en Español) has been replaced with long-form programming.

[mightynine]

The full hour has been uploaded to YouTube. A pretty decent recreation effort for something airing at 4am in the morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcH63awa5ow

[Stephen]

This is cool to see! One of the best things TWC has done in a while.

It would be nice to have it run throughout the entire overnight instead of just one hour.

[TV Shows Fan]

The Weather Channel also does The Weather Channel Twilight Live from 5-6AM ET. With showing the national weather forecast for the day.

[JB711]

I never expected anything like this. Best thing they've done in decades. The positive response from people everywhere online proves that. 💯💯💯💙

[jrhtwc]

OMG it's looks Wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!

This is WAY BETTER than Longform!!!!!!!!! Would be nice if TWC could do this more Hours on Weekends/Evenings!

[ap215]

That is awesome! 

[kuja killer]

Hello, does anyone know if there's any possible way at all we can send feedback, or contact The Weather Channel (like people responsible for the TV broadcasting or something like that, the people that decided to bring back the classic Weatherstar 4000 here, even though it's their own type of emulation) -- in reguards to possibly considering playing other smooth jazz songs ??

I mean i do love this very much, and like everyone else here, and in the youtube comments i've seen, that this is the best thing Weather Channel has done in ages... and i love that we have some playlist of Smooth Jazz songs here but... it's been 3 or so months, and it's just been the same exact 1 set of songs ever since this started on June 28. it hasn't changed a single time even today.

I really wish they would rotate other songs they used to play back in the 90's.. like some Trammell Starks songs obviously since that was always my #1 favorite personally.
As much as i love this current playlist, it does feel very tiring and a little annoying just hearing this exact same playlist for 3 months so far.
That's why i was hoping anyone knows if there's some way we can contact them in any shape or form, to get them to consider using other Smooth Jazz songs (and possibly Trammell Starks)

[cc17926]

Hello, does anyone know if there's any possible way at all we can send feedback, or contact The Weather Channel (like people responsible for the TV broadcasting or something like that, the people that decided to bring back the classic Weatherstar 4000 here, even though it's their own type of emulation) -- in reguards to possibly considering playing other smooth jazz songs ??

I mean i do love this very much, and like everyone else here, and in the youtube comments i've seen, that this is the best thing Weather Channel has done in ages... and i love that we have some playlist of Smooth Jazz songs here but... it's been 3 or so months, and it's just been the same exact 1 set of songs ever since this started on June 28. it hasn't changed a single time even today.

I really wish they would rotate other songs they used to play back in the 90's.. like some Trammell Starks songs obviously since that was always my #1 favorite personally.
As much as i love this current playlist, it does feel very tiring and a little annoying just hearing this exact same playlist for 3 months so far.
That's why i was hoping anyone knows if there's some way we can contact them in any shape or form, to get them to consider using other Smooth Jazz songs (and possibly Trammell Starks)

I wish I could share in your enthusasm, but as soon as they started this 4am experiment, they went around YT and took down a bunch of streams of 4000 simulators to funnel everyone into watching their programme. Not cool.

[kuja killer]

Woa, seriously ? Yea that's kinda dumb. Is it those types of messages like the copyright strike thing for regular youtube videos where it would say "XX company name claimed this video as copyright, and this video is now unavaiable" or something like that ??

I remember always watching one specific person's 24/7 youtube stream of a actual real and legit Weatherstar 4000 running (not emulator at all) -- it was real cool because the person was there sometimes in the live youtube chat and i did get to talk to him a few times. I hope he didn't get axe'd. But im guessing so.

[cc17926]

Woa, seriously ? Yea that's kinda dumb. Is it those types of messages like the copyright strike thing for regular youtube videos where it would say "XX company name claimed this video as copyright, and this video is now unavaiable" or something like that ??

I remember always watching one specific person's 24/7 youtube stream of a actual real and legit Weatherstar 4000 running (not emulator at all) -- it was real cool because the person was there sometimes in the live youtube chat and i did get to talk to him a few times. I hope he didn't get axe'd. But im guessing so.

You're correct, and for that reason, the stream was moved to http://kick.com/liveweather

[kuja killer]

Well, back to my original question though... is there still anyway we can contact these people anywhere somehow ? to send feedback on this ??

I really want to voice my opinion to them about considering, if ever... about using any other songs instead of this same exact playlist everyday nonstop. It's "still" the same as of last night October 1 sadly.

[Evan2015]

The Weather Channel has had a habit the past decade of only licensing certain tracks for a certain period of time. If I were to Hazard a guess, it's likely because they've had to cut costs. It's much cheaper to select a few production library tracks that sound thematically similar to music that used to run and play those ad nauseam instead of having to pay licensing fees to the artists that they originally featured.

[jrhtwc]

Well, I checked this weeks programing and Retro 8s Live and Twilight Live are nowhere to be found!!!!! Thanks TWC for Canning the best thing you've done in Years!!!!!!! Honestly!!!!!!!!!!

[crazybangles]

Not surprised they decided to take it off, rumor has it this was not intended to be a long term thing.