said by SoonerAl:Well back in the "Good Old Days" the Weather Channel truly did have constant 24/7 weather forecasts, current conditions, etc segments and not the entertainment segments...
IMHO its sad to see that go away....
I guess I am just another OOF ('Official Old Fart') that remembers that...
Was there ever a time they didn't have any commercials though? I can't recall that back in the mid-90s, but I was only in junior high/early high school then so I may just be glossing over details in my head. I don't like any of their "reality shows" but at the same time, when there's literally nothing going on weather-wise of interest anywhere in the U.S., I'd assume their viewership would tank and that probably happens often enough that someone told them to shake up their lineup. This afternoon was a pretty good example of the "good old days" with the exception of too many commercials. But too many commercials is par for the course for any cable channel except premium stuff like HBO.
I follow major weather events, and it's very rare that when something pretty big is going on (severe weather outbreak, hurricane, snowstorm, etc), they don't break out of their new "reality show" format and go to the more traditional format. I think that's why I don't understand some of the vitriol here. Some of the complaints are obviously coming from people who haven't watched the channel in years and are just making assumptions. The poster above me who was complaining today clearly hadn't even turned the channel on to see what was on. They had live reporters in various places, they were covering the snowstorm, they had some nice segments on the weather in Iowa in their Weather Center Live coverage. I guess maybe I'm slightly not enough of a weather nerd in that when nothing is interesting is going on anywhere, I'm not too interested in the current conditions and forecasts. Calm and sunny gets kinda boring after a while. I keep my eye on the NWS and SPC stuff and then start tuning in when I know interesting stuff's about to start happening.