With the recent severe weather and flooding across many parts of the Show-Me State, one has to ponder exactly when and how the decision is made to break into programming. Some times the decision is easy. Take the May 4, 2003, and January 2008 tornado outbreaks for example. When tornadoes are on the ground and causing major damage it is easy to make the decision to preempt MUST SEE TV or CSI Night or whatever show might happen to be on.
Monday's severe weather episode is much trickier. Many of the storms that weren't actually tornado warned spawned tornadoes. When should local tv meteorologists jump in front of the camera and warn viewers? Is it ever a waste of time? I know what my personal thoughts are on this subject, but that isn't the point of this post. What do you think?
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2 comments:
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.
I would much rather miss my favorite television show than the rest of my life or anyone eles life for that matter. The tornado that hit Buffalo is a perfect example because the tornado sirens did not go off due to the fact that no tornado warning had been issued. The only warning they had was from the weather team. What I hope everyone understands is that the tornado sirens are a backup to what storm spotters,law enforcement,
national weather service and the local television station's storm teams see. They all work together to keep people informed. They save lives and I am gratful to them for the excellent job that they do!!
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