Severe weather & tornado warning coverage

[uswx70]

What were your thoughts on today's tornado warning & severe weather coverage? I'm curious to see what everyone thinks.

I clicked through all the channels and found WBZ's coverage and NECN's coverage to be the best. Mish Michaels on 'BZ was stellar. Admittedly, I was thrilled that Ken had the night off. It's too bad that she's leaving; she is truly the best of the best.

Speaking of the best of the best - someone who often times I think "flys under the radar" (no pun intended) - Matt Noyes on NECN. Matt's a true pro and is excellent at what he does. Add that to the fact he was probably at NECN for a total of 14 hours or so today... amazing. Matt's analysis of the storms were great.

I tuned into Harvey on channel 5...who is obviously a weather god. I watched, and thought Harvey was very thorough with his coverage. J.C. Monahan called in from her house who was on the fringe of the tornado warned cell. But, I couldn't stand Ed Harding talking about "the bright colors on the radar". It seemed like he was pretending to be a meteorologist for a time; analyzing the radar. Needless to say, I changed the channel.

Pete and Jeremy did a good job as well. It was interesting to see some of the capabilities of the new "Storm Scan" radar.

Didn't see too much of Fox's coverage. I flipped on 25 briefly and saw A.J. on.

Bottom-line IMO: Mish Michaels and Matt Noyes on WBZ and NECN, respectively, did the best job today.

That's just my opinion. Looking forward to reading other's thoughts.

**For the record - I didn't see any coverage after 5:30 p.m.... so not sure how the reporters did in the field.

[fluffernutter523]

Well I thought it was a little over the top (and was glad WBZ went back to regular programming at 4). I did think Mish did amazing as usual (I was thinking the same thing, happy Ken had the day off... they should let Mish fill in everyday until her last day).

I thought 25 was alright (although I didn't watch them for long). I was annoyed that AJ had to keep leaving the shot to change what was being displayed on the weather wall... every other station has a person doing that for them. And I was annoyed at Sara Underwood, especially when she was saying how the people in Boston had no clue what was heading their way... when it wasn't going towards Boston.

I thought 7 was great, they had their viewer pictures very quick.

5 of course did great... I think in general they are the best weather department in the market. But I agree... Ed was annoying. It seemed like he thought he was in control as the coverage. I was glad Susan was on, I think she's great.

[brightonboris]

Jul 8, 2009 21:17:51 GMT -5 fluffernutter523 said:

Well I thought it was a little over the top (and was glad WBZ went back to regular programming at 4). I did think Mish did amazing as usual (I was thinking the same thing, happy Ken had the day off... they should let Mish fill in everyday until her last day).

I thought 25 was alright (although I didn't watch them for long). I was annoyed that AJ had to keep leaving the shot to change what was being displayed on the weather wall... every other station has a person doing that for them. And I was annoyed at Sara Underwood, especially when she was saying how the people in Boston had no clue what was heading their way... when it wasn't going towards Boston.

I thought 7 was great, they had their viewer pictures very quick.

5 of course did great... I think in general they are the best weather department in the market. But I agree... Ed was annoying. It seemed like he thought he was in control as the coverage. I was glad Susan was on, I think she's great.

WBZ was running a split screen during much of Judge Judy. I don'[t necessarily agree with that decision which obviously was business/revenue based.

The weather in the past couple of days has been very out of the ordinary for July. If this was April, May or June, you could have an argument of over-coverage, But this was July where a weather pattern like this is not the norm. NECN, 5,7 and 25 gave the coverage this story deserved.

[bostonmediaguy]

Jul 8, 2009 22:43:54 GMT -5 brightonboris said:

WBZ was running a split screen during much of Judge Judy. I don'[t necessarily agree with that decision which obviously was business/revenue based.

Makes sense to me. The tornado warning was over by 4pm, thus no reason to remain on-air. The crawl was because of the severe thunderstorm warnings in place. Admittedly, it is INCREDIBLY obtrusive. Why they don't do something similar to their Breaking News box during newscast (replace the longer text with radar), I don't know. It seems Newsroom Solutions offers the technology to do it (of which CBS is a major client): www.newsroomsolutions.com/products/severewx/.

[waianae]

I agree that Mish is the best and too bad she is leaving. Matt Noyes is excellent too and I watch NECN alot. Ed is so annoying!