So I happen to work at a station that has branded the weather area the "Severe Weather Center 11" . We are always promoting the severe weather, whether we have inclement weather or not. I have come to realize that stations only have so many "catch phrases" ..i.e. 'News Coverage You Can Count On' (which we use), 'Live , Local Late Breaking' (which we also use) or 'Action News: We Take Action For YOU!'. I can understand trying to promote severe weather when there actually IS weather....but if it's 80 degrees and sunny....with a few days of the same in a row..isn't it just overdoing it a bit?
I see from letter to the editors in our local paper that viewers are getting tired of the constant scare tactics....and the cut-ins that happen at a single drop of rain....so why do stations continue to do it? I have been told by one of my news directors that the point is to inform the viewers, but more often than not the viewers are annoyed that we are covering up their favorite program. I've only worked at one station where they actually listened to viewers...if you were doing more than running a crawl it better be armageddon outside otherwise the assignment desk would be FLOODED with complaint crawls. Maybe that's what needs to happen. Maybe viewers need to be vocal enough to exact change. Maybe I'll try to anonymously call the assignment desk next time the station is crying havoc over a 5 minute rainstorm......
When I started doing radio, a consultant came in and the first lesson about audience was, "anyone who calls a station to complain is automatically a kook. Normal people don't call stations to complain."
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that I never bought into to that.
Content will be the leveler of the playing field. There are these nuances that are getting by right now, but there is a certain analog nature to human perception and people may not realize what it is that they don't like, only that they don't like it.
Our job is to know what's wrong before it gets that far.
DC