Ice storm & weekend morning news

[sinklair]

When you have a major ice storm, you need to be on the air providing important weather and safety information. By listening to Ahmad and other meteorologists, this was a more than just your average winter storm. So you’d think “Mid-Michigan Now” would air a special weekend morning news. The other stations had news updates this morning. But 25-66 doesn’t want to live up to its lame branding line because it’s too expensive to produce weekend morning news. Maybe we should rename it “Mid-Michigan Later”?

[Beerbong]

When you have a major ice storm, you need to be on the air providing important weather and safety information. By listening to Ahmad and other meteorologists, this was a more than just your average winter storm. So you’d think “Mid-Michigan Now” would air a special weekend morning news. The other stations had news updates this morning. But 25-66 doesn’t want to live up to its lame branding line because it’s too expensive to produce weekend morning news. Maybe we should rename it “Mid-Michigan Later”?

They did an hour last night at 6pm on 66.
Really nothing to update this morning. Watching 12 this morning revealed nothing new about the storm. I think they realized it was not the catastrophic event everybody said it was going to be. No mass power outages. No traffic issues. No loss of life reported. For 99% of the viewing area it was just Michigan. The sinkhole on 1-75 has been repaired.

[sinklair]

If that’s your excuse for not going on air — that nothing significant happened — what’s your justification for going on air Monday-Friday to cover meaningless community events, press releases and the stories 12, 5 and M-Live covered days before?

A quick look at Facebook would show you massive market wide impacts. If you ventured out this morning to church (if it wasn’t cancelled) or the store, you might have a different perspective.

So if meteorologists can spend 4 minutes on a weather forecast when it’s warm and sunny, it makes zero sense why they can’t come in during a major ice storm.

Another excuse from Beer coming in 3, 2, 1...

[sinklair]

So Beer are you claiming your meteorologists screwed up the forecast and that’s why you pulled back on plans to do morning updates?

There was never a plan to do a morning update...

And if you’re so concerned about the accuracy of your weather forecasts, maybe don’t be the only station in the market without a Chief Met. Management at 25-66 going cheap by laying off Kagol and not replacing the Chief.

[Beerbong]

So Beer are you claiming your meteorologists screwed up the forecast and that’s why you pulled back on plans to do morning updates?

There was never a plan to do a morning update...

And if you’re so concerned about the accuracy of your weather forecasts, maybe don’t be the only station in the market without a Chief Met. Management at 25-66 going cheap by laying off Kagol and not replacing the Chief.

I don’t do anything. All I said was the storm was a non event. I wasn’t concerned about accuracy. All the rest of your response is just another rant. I don’t have a dog in this fight. But without me, your shit storm would be just one sided.

[audiophile]

The NWS and TV stations were way off.

[sinklair]

Maybe some places didn’t see as big of impacts, but I lost power and saw significant ice. Other places had flooding.

My point is if the station claims to value weather so much... where is 25-66 management’s priorities? Clearly “Storm Ready” is only when it’s convenient. Weather coverage is only important when you can save money by not promoting your main weather guy.

Instead of taking your management team out to Escape Room for so-called team building... the GM, “Assistant GM” and in over her head News Director might be better off using that time in developing a coverage plan for the ice storm.

[Beerbong]

Maybe some places didn’t see as big of impacts, but I lost power and saw significant ice. Other places had flooding.

My point is if the station claims to value weather so much... where is 25-66 management’s priorities? Clearly “Storm Ready” is only when it’s convenient. Weather coverage is only important when you can save money by not promoting your main weather guy.


Instead of taking your management team out to Escape Room for so-called team building... the GM, “Assistant GM” and in over her head News Director might be better off using that time in developing a coverage plan for the ice storm.
[/quote

Well, you finally stumped me. What the hell is
Escape Room?

[sinklair]

While the rest of us were out getting stories and producing newscasts, the GM took department heads out to an Escape Room as part of a “team building” exercise.

The good news is the Sales Director, News Promotions Manager, HR Director and Chief Engineer all cane back claiming victory that —while we were getting actual news done — that they were able to escape with less than a minute left on the clock.

By that approach, my teenaged daughter could be an effective manager at 25-66. She probably has better ideas on how to run a TV station than the accountant in chief.

[Beerbong]

After looking up what they are. They “lock” you in a room and they provided with clues that enable the team to open the door and escape.. What people won’t come up with in order to make money.
Anyway, a team building exercise. Getting people to work together in order to solve a common obstacle. “Team building exercises” are a widely accepted practice in the corp. world at many levels.
In the “old days” people had to physically be in the building in order to communicate. Nowadays, you can be in another country and still communicate with your people.
This one makes you sound like your a little butthurt.

[sinklair]

Beer: not sure why you care so much. You claim to be retired. Not in the business. Don’t know what’s really happening at 25-66.

But you take every opportunity to criticize those of us who are calling for significant changes at the stations we’re putting in long hours for little pay. With the current management, they intimidate and marginalize anyone who dares speak out. So just posting here in the Buzzboard puts our careers in jeopardy because the GM and his minions have paper thin skin and easily bruised egos.

There are some who are just fine with being a third and fourth place station. Others want the station to grow. They want 25-65 to be a station where quality journalism to be done. We are asking for a fair/competitive wage. We want appropriate staffing levels. We want minority staffing levels to reflect a diverse TV market like Flint.

But when you can’t even provide decent weather coverage by the station that claims it is “Storm Ready”... then there is a serious problem at the top.

[Herm]

When you have a major ice storm, you need to be on the air providing important weather and safety information. By listening to Ahmad and other meteorologists, this was a more than just your average winter storm. So you’d think “Mid-Michigan Now” would air a special weekend morning news. The other stations had news updates this morning. But 25-66 doesn’t want to live up to its lame branding line because it’s too expensive to produce weekend morning news. Maybe we should rename it “Mid-Michigan Later”?

I think you know it’s not that easy to just air a special morning newscast on a weekend ESPECIALLY for a spot news event with only a matter of days notice.
That being said, having your meteorologist come in to fill the local news cut-ins with live weather updates would be totally doable and probably should have been done.

[sinklair]

Herm, completely agree. But the station was able to put together a 1 hour special the night before. They made a big deal out of it. They understood the ice storm’s importance and impact. Then they just dropped the ball the next morning. I’m not sure why 25-65 managers can’t own up to this being a missed opportunity. Instead they anonymously post on the Buzzboard attacking me and others. It’s sad that they can’t do the right things and instead make excuses for their bad decisions/incompetence.

[Beerbong]

Beer: not sure why you care so much. You claim to be retired. Not in the business. Don’t know what’s really happening at 25-66.

But you take every opportunity to criticize those of us who are calling for significant changes at the stations we’re putting in long hours for little pay. With the current management, they intimidate and marginalize anyone who dares speak out. So just posting here in the Buzzboard puts our careers in jeopardy because the GM and his minions have paper thin skin and easily bruised egos.

There are some who are just fine with being a third and fourth place station. Others want the station to grow. They want 25-65 to be a station where quality journalism to be done. We are asking for a fair/competitive wage. We want appropriate staffing levels. We want minority staffing levels to reflect a diverse TV market like Flint.

But when you can’t even provide decent weather coverage by the station that claims it is “Storm Ready”... then there is a serious problem at the top.

Well, for one thing, every argument needs balance. With out me, this would be a total one sided shit show. With that said, it’s still a shit show. Again, as stated before. “I don’t have a dog in this fight”. What I do have is a lot of experience in this market and have a pretty good understanding of where the industry is going.
Why do I care? Do I care? I don’t know... This seems like an interesting experiment in futility.
I like that.