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September 7, 2008 | By: Gary Lico
Storm Over Television News
What programming choices this weekend during the storm say about network's real priorities and the nimbleness of local news stations ...
Dateline, Saturday, September 6, 2008. 7pm, EDT — Tropical Storm Hanna is making her way up the East Coast and into the New York metropolitan area. Already, the US Tennis Open and the New York Mets games have been postponed. Two-inches of rain is falling … sideways. Winds about 40 mph and gusting. Flash flood warnings exist. A pleasure boat has washed up on shore, the captain unconscious.
Let’s check in on the local and cable news stations to see how they’re covering this BIG story:
- CBS (locally, WCBS-TV) – A one-hour breast cancer special, tying in with the multi-network special the night before.
- NBC (WNBC) – New York (football) Giants game.
- ABC (WABC) – NASCAR
- Fox (WNYW) – Syndicated AT THE MOVIES
- MSNBC – HONEYMOONS FROM HELL (a one-off about, well, bad honeymoons)
- CNBC – DEAL OR NO DEAL (repeat off NBC)
- Headline News – NOT A CABLE NEWS SHOW (basically the I LOVE THE 80s of weekly news)
- CNN – Lou Dobbs (Commentator – Hates that jobs go offshore)
- Weather Channel - FORECAST EARTH (long-term look at the planet’s climate)
The only real news going on?
- FOX News – a basic newscast
- Local Cablevision News 12 (covers Fairfield County, CT, where we’re at)
So let’s get this straight … ya got 4 local stations, none of which are on the case (Are you kidding? Cancel football, or worse, NASCAR?!). Four of five national news nets are into something waaaaay different than “breaking news.” Even The Weather Channel (full disclosure: CABLEready represents some of their programs) stuck with the schedule rather than, frankly, lead with their strength, which is to be all over these severe weather stories.
So, if I’m Roger Ailes (FOX), I got a new thing with which to tweak the competition. When he reads this, you bet he will. If I’m the “hyper-local” cable channel, I’ve got the big guys, hands down.
All of us who ever took Communications 101 know about Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs … roughly translated
from the pyramid to mean: “Am I safe? Is my family safe? Is my town safe? If that first hierarchy is not met, stress results. People worry about, in this order, survival needs, safety and security, love and belonging, and esteem. Play to football, race cars, prison-type shows, even a benefit, and let’s face it, you’re just telecasting noise, not anything that will form any kind of a bond with your viewers — or save them if something turns terribly wrong.
Not to mention giving a couple of worthy competitors something to talk about.
By the way, minor flooding and wind damage, but that’s this time …
Read past entries by Gary Lico
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Reess said,
September 8, 2008 @ 11:32 am
I interned with News-12 for a whole summer in college, going out into the field with reporters every day to cover local stories — fatal and tragic traffic accidents, controversial new education reform, all sorts of stuff. I never knew how much goes on in Norwalk, CT, every day until I spent some time in that news room.
And they pride themselves on this sort of nimbleness, being able to bring you what’s going on right now in your area, immeditaley.
In-fact, this is still the major pitch made by Cable execs when speaking on the benefits of Cable over satellite.
So I think it’s a valuable service. Not sure, however, I want every station telling me it’s raining outside, however. But then again, everyone has a different neediness or level of concern when it comes to weather.
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Liz said,
September 8, 2008 @ 5:14 pm
Over the weekend, I saw that CNN actually did a picture-in-picture – they had their regularly scheduled programming and then, as an insert, a radar track of the storm in a small box in the lower-left portion of the screen. What a great way to combine both regularly scheduled programming and up-to-the-minute storm coverage at the same time.
Then, the even neater thing was that I put CNN on my picture-in-picture TV while watching MTV and I could actually watch a teeny-tiny version of Hurricane Hanna, twice removed, all the while, getting fully updated on THE HILLS (aka Hurricane Lauren!)
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