|
|
 |
|
PalmBeachPost.com
|
| Local stations put forecasters
in spotlight |
|
| |
| Local stations put
forecasters in spotlight |
|
| |
By Susan T. Port
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 24, 2002
Bill Peterson got his first broadcast television job in 1965
at WPSD, the top-ranked station in Toledo, Ohio.
As an assistant, the 22-year-old Peterson was responsible
for many of the lowly and menial tasks that had to be done
around the NBC affiliate. One of the most important was helping
put the weather forecast together.
Weatherman Frank Venner used wax pencils to draw the high
and low temperatures, cloud conditions and wind directions
on a glass board, writing backward because the camera would
reverse the markings. Peterson's daily job was to clean the
board with a foul-smelling specialty cleaner and a rag and
move the glass map, which was mounted on wheels, outside.
Yes, outside. Rain, snow or shine, Peterson wheeled the map
to The Commodore Perry Hotel near the station, parking it
outside under the marquee, and then set up the lights.
There, in the great outdoors, Venner would give his daily
weather forecast. The station called it "Weather in the Weather."
"It was all kind of fascinating and seemed exciting at the
time," said Peterson, who these days is general manager of
WPTV-Channel 5, the NBC affiliate in West Palm Beach. "There
was no technology in weather television. It's laughable today."
Today's weather broadcasting is anything but a laughing matter.
In fact, it's the single most aggressively contested part
of area broadcast journalism. Insiders and experts say weather
news is the primary reason most South Florida viewers tune
in to their local broadcasts.
"Weather is on the top of the list of why people watch local
news," said Joe Coscia, general manager at WPBF-Channel 25,
an ABC affiliate. "That's why we make such a big investment
in weather technology and talent."
Insiders say the three network stations -- WPTV, WPBF and
WPEC-Channel 12, the CBS affiliate -- spend close to $1 million
apiece on their weather broadcasts, amounting to 15 percent
to 20 percent of their total news budgets.
The actual numbers are a jealously guarded secret. West Palm
Beach is the 39th-largest media market in the country, but
it plays for bigger stakes.
"Weather is one of the only subjects everyone is interested
in," said Jim Jaggers, chairman of the board of broadcast
meteorologists for the Boston-based American Meteorological
Society. "They might not care if the mayor is stealing money
out of the till, but they are interested in how hot it's going
to be."
Jaggers, who has been chief meteorologist at WHBQ in Memphis
for 25 years, said he and other forecasters nationwide are
"quite jealous" of how much South Florida stations get to
spend.
"We don't spend as much on weather," he said. "It's serious
in Memphis, but it's not quite as deadly serious as it is
in South Florida."
They do it themselves
It's 4:30 p.m. on a recent Thursday, and John Matthews is
scuttling back and forth on a rolling chair between his weather
workstations, getting ready to go live.
Matthews arrived at WPEC studios in Riviera Beach two hours
earlier to get ready for a day of broadcasts: the 5 p.m. and
10 p.m. shows for WFLX-Channel 29, the Fox affiliate with
whom WPEC shares its news team, and the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.
newscasts for WPEC itself.
Like his eight forecasting brethren -- only one is a woman
-- hereabouts, Matthews is a one-man band when it comes to
putting together that mix of hard data, gee-whiz science,
pretty pictures and cheerful banter that makes up the daily
weather forecast.
"This market has great talent. They are really responsible
for what they put out there," said John Spinola, general manager
at WFLX, the market's fourth-ranked station. "An anchor sits
down there and has a team of reporters covering a story. Somebody
has written it. Some associate editor has cut and rewritten
it. The weather person, it's all their work. They even do
their own maps."
Matthews sits in a narrow office on the side of the studio,
facing several computer screens. One has a satellite picture
of Florida, another a readout from the station's Doppler radar
apparatus. On a third, Matthews is designing graphics, pulling
in high and low temperatures. This is Big Technology, and
it's at the heart of today's forecasting. It's also very expensive,
though no station would divulge the total bill.
Peterson said WPTV spent about $300,000 initially on its Doppler
radar a few years ago and spends about $200,000 annually on
upkeep and new equipment.
"It's almost like narcotics," he said. "You just have to keep
on investing."
Matthews, 55, an outgoing Michigander who's been in the South
Florida market for 26 years, said he remembers the days when
clouds were represented by stickers on a map. Crafting today's
broadcasts, by contrast, takes a great deal more preparation.
"You just don't walk in and do the weather."
The other two chief forecasters in the area -- Steve Weagle
at WPTV and Mike Lyons at WPBF -- also operate out of a formidable
enclave of technical apparatus that is separate from the rest
of the news operation.
"We are kind of a satellite orbiting the newsroom," said Lyons,
48, a 12-year veteran of local TV. "In the weather business,
you are your own boss. They kind of leave you alone."
Satellites changed everything
The modern forecasting era dawned April 1, 1960, when the
first weather satellites -- called TIROS, for Television and
Infrared Observation Satellite -- were launched into Earth's
orbit.
"Before satellite, everything had to be done by hand," said
Kevin Lavin, executive director of the Charlottesville, Va.-based
National Weather Association, which has 4,000 members nationwide.
"They used to have to rely on reports of airplanes."
Legendary CBS anchorman Dan Rather, who was then a weatherman
at a Houston TV station, is credited with the first use of
a satellite picture on a broadcast, showing Hurricane Carla
as it bore down on Texas in September 1961.
Technology now allows forecasters to do much more sophisticated
close-ups, almost down to individual neighborhoods.
"It doesn't look clunky anymore," said Jim Brihan, media marketing
vice president for WSI, the largest weather information provider
to TV stations nationwide. "Now you can get so close."
Billerica, MA.-based WSI provides 350 stations around the
country, including WPTV and WPBF, with satellite feeds, graphics-creation
software and work stations.
The local stations pay between $1,200 to $3,000 for monthly
upkeep, in addition to hundreds of thousands of dollars up
front, Brihan said. He declined to give specific numbers.
At WPBF, Lyons also relies on constant satellite updates from
Madison, WI.-based Weather Central, a forecasting service
for media and industrial clients.
All three network stations use WSI's Storm Tracker technology,
which determines times of expected storm arrivals in a given
city. It sells for $50,000. The graphics-designing software
that goes with it retails for $85,000.
"We spend a lot of money to make a very small change in how
the radar works," said Weagle, 36, of Scripps Howard-owned
WPTV, the market's top-rated station. "We have to be at the
top. We have to be number one in weather."
Most stations nationwide have Doppler, a radar apparatus that
sends out narrowly focused beams that help determine wind
speed and rain velocity. Each station has its own name for
their Doppler. At second-ranked WPEC, a Freedom Communications
station and Palm Beach Post news and weather partner, it's
Doppler 12000; third-ranked WPBF, owned by Hearst-Argyle,
calls it Pinpoint Doppler, and at WPTV, it's Digital Doppler.
Next month, WSI plans to introduce TrueView. With this technology,
priced from $50,000 to $80,000, a forecaster stands in front
of a wall displaying weather scenes that he can interact with
by using a mouse, drawing tablet or touch screen. To viewers,
it will appear that the forecaster is actually out of doors.
Call it a high-tech version of "Weather in the Weather."
"It will be like a virtual scene of the weather 24 to 48 hours
in the future," Brihan said.
Forecasters wield clout
This market's weather forecasters are among the best-compensated
broadcast journalists in the area. Insiders say the major
broadcasters make in the high five to low six figures annually,
matched only by the pay of veteran anchors.
In addition, the area's forecasters have plenty of programming
clout. Whenever threatening weather appears, each forecaster
has the power to go live and interrupt scheduled broadcasts.
Each station also permits its broadcasters to run "crawls"
on the bottom of the screen to inform viewers about important
weather.
WPTV's Weagle gets three to four minutes of each newscast.
But if it's a big storm, he can have as much time as he needs
"to tell the weather story."
In some cases, he takes more than seven minutes, or about
a third of the 22-minute broadcast. "This is the weather big
leagues. We have more face time than anyone else on the station."
That's not to say the forecasters are happy when the area
is menaced by a Category 5 whopper aiming at South Florida.
"Everyone always thinks we want hurricanes to happen," said
Matthews, of WPEC. "But we don't want storms. We like storms
in the middle of the Atlantic that don't hurt anyone."
Still, they know how good they have it -- a weather-obsessed
market, fierce competition, plenty of toys and good paychecks.
Lyons appreciates his job, particularly when he goes to out-of-state
conferences and talks to other forecasters. They always are
envious of his bevy of gadgets and his plentiful screen time.
"I have the best job in the world. I just got lucky."
Matthews concurs, saying South Florida's changeable weather
and the high level of viewer interest makes working in this
area "paradise for weather forecasters."
Weagle tells a story about the curious looks he got recently
as he headed home after the 11 p.m. newscast in his Sunfire
convertible. The sky looked threatening, but Weagle kept the
top down.
"I know they thought, 'Hey, this guy is going to get wet,'
" he said. "But I knew where I was headed, it wasn't going
to rain."
|
| |
|
| BACK
TO TOP |
|
|
