I am a big proponent of owning storm coverage but KTVT in Dallas turned that opportunity into a huge annoyance as an unbelievable 13 inches of wet snow fell on Dallas - a one day record.   As I watched primetime television on CBS it felt like I was stuck watching Bill Murray in Groundhog Day!

All of the Dallas stations had strong storm coverage - including KTVT (the CBS O&O) during the early evening newscasts.  But when the early evening newscasts ended - KTVT decided we needed a “Weather Alert” during EVERY commercial break - right through Craig Ferguson (and maybe beyond I hit the sack after Craig).

So, every time the CBS network went to a commercial break - the KTVT weather dude came on with the exact same phrase, “we promise you are not going to miss any of the program, we are taking this commercial break time to update you on the latest weather.”  OK - good idea - but there was nothing to update.

The snow had tapered off dramatically by the evening, and it was just sitting over Dallas without moving - something I learned every time the weather guy from KTVT went to live radar.  Pretty much everyone had worked their way through a traffic mess and were home by now - not wanting to be reminded about the snow every few minutes.  This is especially true when there was absolutely NO new information to deliver.

So, just like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day - we were subjected to the same information over, and over, and over and…   It was really maddening.

Oh, and then at ten o’clock this morning, I flipped over to KTVT - and in the middle of Price Is Right they were still doing the same Weather Alerts during every commercial break.  I could not turn the TV off fast enough.

The message of course is - Yes, you must own weather coverage but this approach was like touting fake breaking news.  It was nothing but an irritant to viewers - no doubt having the opposite effect that KTVT was hoping for.

Jim

This entry was posted on Friday, February 12th, 2010 at 5:24 pm and is filed under Willi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.