CONTROLLING COSTS, OR CONTROLLING CONTENT?

Earlier this week, we called attention to Milwaukee's Weigel Broadcasting terminating Channel 58 meteorologist Sam Kuffel.  That post noted what might have been a related phenomenon in local television.

There is something going on in local television, though, involving the weather broadcasts.  "According to her LinkedIn page, Kuffel joined Channel 58 more than five years ago. She previously worked at WAOW-TV (Channel 9) in Wausau after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2016."  The three Allen Group television stations of Wisconsin, Wausau's WAOW, LaCrosse's WXOW, and Madison's WKOW have of late been hiving off their meteorologists.  That might be the normal churn in small-market television, or it could be another economy measure, contracting delivery of the local weather forecast to The Weather Channel.

Allen Group own a number of local broadcasting stations in the Midwest and elsewhere.  They also own The Weather Channel, and there might be the harvesting of an economy of scope involved.  "The media group, which owns roughly two dozen local TV stations, recently announced it would phase out local weather reporting, opting instead for forecasts provided by The Weather Channel's national bureau led by veteran meteorologist Carl Parker, based in Atlanta."

Allen's corporate communications types proffered the predictable boilerplate, whilst the local personalities facing an unplanned career move defended the work they were doing.

The decision to nationalize the weather coverage is justified by Allen Media Group as part of their strategy to leverage expertise from The Weather Channel for 24/7 updates, promising improved forecasting tools and continuous access to weather updates. A representative from the Weather Group emphasized, "We are one hundred percent committed to delivering next-level weather news to our local television stations 24/7." This shift marks the latest concerted effort by Byron Allen's media empire to reduce operational costs amid declining viewership across traditional television.

While Allen Media expresses strong intentions for maintaining weather reporting as a priority, many veteran meteorologists warn of the long-term consequences of removing local weather expertise from communities. Spencer Denton, who works at [Knoxville's] WVLT, argued, “WEATHER is the number one reason most people watch a local newscast… These folks are more valuable than some companies realize.” He notes the local forecasters' invaluable connection to their communities, providing personalized weather reports and emergency updates based on local conditions.

That might include showing up at the Christmas tree lighting or the Polar Plunge or the local ethnic festivals.  Look who got to weigh in.

Likewise, as Allen Media Group continues its strategic restructuring, observers express concerns about the impacts on localized reporting quality during severe weather events. Meteorologist Sam Kuffel remarked, “Communities will suffer during major, local weather events because of this decision.” Indeed, if history reveals anything, it shows how integral local meteorologists are, particularly when severe storms loom, as they blend expertise with community knowledge to provide timely and life-saving information.

This reorganization marks another chapter for Allen Media Group, which has faced various challenges amid industry pressures, including concerns over viewer trust. Weather has proven to be one of the few anchors of viewer loyalty amid shifting media consumption patterns. Nonetheless, Allen Media insists the technological benefits gained from centralizing meteorological forecasts will bolster local reporting efforts as their operations evolve to meet new demands.

Though the fallout has begun, local meteorologists are gearing up for new adventures as they seek to navigate this shifting industry. With the transition expected to begin before 2025, many are left contemplating not just their futures but the cost of such significant moves toward nationalization of local forecasting.

And the local viewers reminded local station managements and Allen Media that they could get their reminders of the upcoming ethnic festivals elsewhere.  Variety's Michael Schneider gets to put the editorial in the headline:  "Take the ‘Local’ Out of Local TV At Your Own Peril."

Allen Media Group was clearly not ready for viewers to see right through that explanation. And they somehow forgot how personally attached news viewers are to their local weathercasters. These TV personalities are superstars in their local markets, often because they’ve been the most important source of information when weather gets scary. They know exactly where that tornado is hitting, where the winds are blowing and who’s in the path of danger because they live there too. Not some meteorologist in Atlanta.

I also don’t think they expected so many farewells from their local stations would go viral. I found myself tearing up at a goodbye from Allen Media Group’s Terre Haute, Ind., station WTHI-TV anchors Patrece Dayton and Kevin Orpurt. I had never heard of them, and I’ve never been to Terre Haute, but I could immediately see why that town loved these two — and weren’t happy with the decision to can them.

Deeper into the article, Mr Schneider gets to elaborate on a regular Cold Spring Shops theme.

Allen Media Group, of course, isn’t the only TV station group to make drastic cuts by centralizing operations — Sinclair, CBS, Gray Media and others have done variations of the same in recent years. These cost-cutting moves are a disappointing financial reality given a soft advertising marketplace and audiences turning their attention away from TV. It’s also happening in newspapers, of course.

But what’s lost in these moves to centralize coverage is the local expertise and nuance that comes with having your boots on the ground, knowing the intricacies of your community and having a personal relationship with viewers. Ironically, removing all of that will only hasten the demise of local media as we know it. What is more local than the daily weather forecast? Stripping away the very selling point that still makes broadcast valuable — its live, local nature — may help save a few coins in the short run, but it’s a recipe for obsolescence in the long term.

It might be that corporate journalism is going to go the way of other corporate dinotheria, although there will always be a market for reliable providers of information, implying some level of concentration in the industry, and some degree of curation of the content.

Local viewers, however, let the local managers and Allen Media know what they thought.  "We need owners that want to run tv stations, not bean counters."  Allen have scrapped their plans.  That might mean viewers of Rockford's WREX (which is no longer available on DeKalb cable) still get to watch a forecast originating at the City Market or Stroll on State.

What's amusing is the way Variety's Mr Schneider works in a fret about concentrated corporations curating information in a bad way.

When it comes to weather, the effects of climate change will also only make our environment more dangerous and unpredictable in the coming years. This is a public safety issue, and broadcast stations carry an FCC license that requires some responsibility to operate in the public interest. Firing your meteorologists and beaming in reports from Atlanta is the opposite of that.

Somebody tell Mr Schneider that you include The Weather Channel among the most vocal advocates for linking extreme weather events with climate change.  Thus, letting Team Chicken Little produce the Wausau or Knoxville or Terre Haute forecast deprives residents of possible dissenting interpretations of the evidence.  Thus the concentration is not a good thing, with American Thinker's Michael Bedar offering a different reason.

When a partisan few hands control the filters on weather news and information alongside climate agenda-driven government weather agencies, the career’s magic can vanish in a cloud. Removing scores of meteorologists from communities for relatively untested and digital replacement systems is not going to improve the product.

Local experts serve by documenting and communicating factual localized weather history that federal and global actors may seek to bury. What can upend a narrative that bases itself on global-scale data quite like expertly explained granular local records that say, “It ain't so!” Truth or the devil is in the details.

A large T.V. network’s removal of local meteorologists from its Midwest holdings reminds one of the medical experts who were snowballed off-stage, deprived of their positions with patients for merely expressing professional views that conflicted with an overbearing agenda.

Several meteorological commentators and writers have expressed concern about the expertise-purging entailed by increased hubbing. Is the broadcast weather profession heading for a politicized scrubbing?

Who would report, for example, the causative correlations between a given valley’s crop yield increases and carbon dioxide concentration?

There are Minimal Publishable Units to be written about many of the phenomena he calls attention to: and yet, the local weather forecaster on walkabout to the ethnic festival or Polar Plunge is better placed to observe the anomalies that run contrary to the supposed scientific consensus being validated by Weather Channel script writers.