I heard it on the TV:
Our highly trained professional weather prognosticators have a new powerful tool to help bring our weather predictions to you even faster. Just because Channel 247 loves you!
Okay, so I paraphrased it a little. But they’re all using it. They’re all blowing their own horns about it, too. They’re soooo smug about their committment to our weather awareness, our very safety, because they have IT!
What is “IT”? Is “it” a new doppler RADAR? A new super-computer to crunch the algorithmns of which weather forecasts are made? A new service from the government?
No.
It’s a TV tool called THE CRAWLER.
You’ve seen them running across the top or bottom of the screen during your favorite show. You see them a week later in the show you TIVO’ed… You have heard the annoying BLEEEP BLEEP! they use in case you are not looking at the screen and might miss it. Like a kid with a new hammer, the various weather departments on our local TV stations are seeing nails every time a cloud passes by the sun.
I am so sick of these things already. They’re not new. The capability to create them has been in the hands of TV stations for years, but all of a sudden, restraint has been thrown into the wind every time there is a wind, and the weathermen are having a heyday using them.
All I can say is, KNOCK IT OFF! We live in Western New York. It is NOT NEWS when there is a Lake Effect Snow storm in the Southtowns in December. It’s a nightly occurrance, just like the sun setting. It’s where snow is supposed to be.
If I want to know my local weather I’ll look out the window. If I want to spend an evening, inside, taking my mind off the weather, I’ll watch TV. Please don’t interrupt.
Want to prove how good your weather department is? Show a little professionalism and use some restraint. Thank you.
