To Break Into Programming Or Not, Part Two

Earlier this month, I asked the question about when television weather teams should break into programming. I received a couple of responses from two Springfield meteorologists that deserve some attention.

First, KY3 Chief Meteorologist Ron Hearst gave a good breakdown of their station's policy:

"As for our policy we do a cut-in for each tornado warning. If the warning is for Greene or Christian ‘counties we do wall to wall coverage for the life of the warning. If a confirmed tornado is on the ground doing damage and is headed towards a populated area out in the rural area we will do extended coverage. I reserve the right to do a cut-in if I see significant weather developing. I must use good judgment here as programming and commercials play a role. "

He also offers some insight about what the FCC requires. Below is a fascinating insight into an aspect of local news and weather coverage that many don't realize:

"Since KY3 is licensed to use the public airwaves we must provide a public service, part of that service to inform the public of pending weather events. Each time a tornado warning is issued we do a cut-in to alert the public of the details of the warning. The FCC is also requiring stations to provide written safety information and storm related details. Since we are not closed captioned all the time this has lead to lengthy interruptions. This is not a small matter and the FCC has been very harsh on stations who do not comply. One station in Florida had two closed captioners on duty during a hurricane. Still some vital information was not processed on time and they were fined several hundred thousand dollars."

KSPR Chief Meteorologist Kevin Lighty also weighed in on the subject.

"As far as our policy at KSPR if people’s lives or property are in danger because of a storm we will opt to cut-in to programming to inform them about it. Most of the time the cut-in to programming is usually for only tornado warnings, BUT sometimes we will for severe thunderstorm warnings. Our perfect example would be on Monday when a storm was not tornado warned for Dallas county we still opted to go on the air because of what WE saw on our radar in regards to rotation and winds in the storm. In doing so we made the right choice because an EF-2 tornado was spawned from that storm. You have to use your own instinct with storms as to if you should go on. Of course when you cut-in to peoples favorite shows you will make them mad especially if it is NOT for the area they live in, and I say that is just too bad. I tell those people, "hey tell you what, we will take that off of your next month’s bill since you missed part of that show." (remember no one pays for the over the air channels) My job is to warn the public of impending life threatening weather and that is what I will continue to do, even if I have to cut in during the middle of LOST. It is obviously a fine line you have to walk but safety of my viewers will come first before any TV program ever will."

Interesting reading to say the least. Please note that I contacted meteorologists in every market in the state and would love to hear the policies of the other areas. KY3 and KSPR are the only 2 stations to respond back.