Boycott this Business Too

There is a guy in St. Louis who puts roofs on people's houses for a living. And he must make a ton of money doing it because he has started advertising on a local tv station whenever there is the least threat of stormy weather within 100 miles of St. Louis.

John Beal Roofing has it's logo plastered all over my TV set every time a dark cloud comes near the St. Louis region. Actually, the local CBS affiliate (KMOV-TV) is charging this guy a lot of money to be associated with it's severe weather coverage. (And the coverage is terrible to say the least. Large ugly graphics blotting out images of prime time network programming. Yecchh).

So, how do we stop this abuse by the Channel 4 Weather Children? Just boycott John Beal Roofing until he stops advertising and taking up space on my TV screen. Not roofer man's screen, MY screen. KMOV is far from alone in interrupting programming with bogus "storm" coverage, but they are the only ones brazen enough to have a sponsor for it. Do they really think they are doing the public a service. No, they are NOT! I have yet to hear anyone say they appreciate the non-stop barrage of "breaking" weather" when the storms have long since passed and are well out of the area that can even see these TV stations' signal. But, I have heard a lot of people complain about the preemption of prime time shows when you ask them.

Again the simple answer; just boycott the sponsor and probably more importantly the local TV station.

Random Thoughts on TV "News"

Now, two local TV stations have gone to embedding their logos in local "newscasts". Both KSDK and KMOV have their garbage on the screen non-stop except for when they are running commercials. I have stopped watching these moronic presentations because they are annoying and pretty much unwatchable. Add to this the crawls across the bottom of the screen warning of the impending change to digital and it's even worse. Thank God for Satellite TV. If you haven't seen this practice yet or it does not take place in your market consider yourself fortunate.

About 20 years ago I had a former journalism professor tell me to get out of broadcast and into print. As he put it then..."radio news is a dinosaur and TV news is a 'Gong Show". Man, did he have that right.

I Would Say They Have no Integrity

A journalism professor of mine told me many years ago if you see an advertisement on the front page of a newspaper it means one of two things. Either the paper is going broke or it has no integrity.

Well the same can be said of a St. Louis TV station that runs advertisements inside it's "newscast". The local CBS affiliate, KMOV, is doing just that. I was flipping channels after the Mizzou game ended and the sports dude was showing highlights of the St. Louis Blues. But, down below it was an ad for a local hamburger chain just as plain as day sitting next to a crawl of NBA and NHL scores.

Since the parent company of this TV station, Belo Broadcasting, isn't going broke it verifies the management at the TV station has no integrity. Shades of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which pulled a similar stunt about a year ago.

The Host Makes the News

I happened to watch the CBS affiliate this evening and the anchor appeared clean shaven. No, not his beard but his head.

Belo owned, KMOV Channel Four, anchor man Larry Conners made an appearance for the first time with a clean shaven head. The new "look" dominated the banter during the newscast. While that is acceptable for TV news, the remarks stretched into the newscast itself. That is not acceptable.

They're Out of Control

The NCAA tournament is a beautiful sporting event. But, you can't enjoy it in St. Louis. Why, you ask?

Well the local CBS affiliate has decided it would rather put on some bozo weather geek than show the game in it's entirety. Instead we are being subjected to Bozo's reporting on a tornado about 100 miles away that is not even in the stations market. Why, would they do this? A reasonable question. Because the management of KMOV, owned by Belo, thinks it will enhance the stations position in the market and boost ratings. Ratings translate directly into dollars in the "Gong Show" industry. So, looks like I am going to miss some great basketball on TV. But, then again I wont miss the game. The NCAA in conjunction with CBS Sports is streaming the game live on the Internet. So, I can just tell KMOV to kiss my butt and shove Bozo where the son don't shine.

Idiot TV Talking Heads

St. Louis got about six inches of snow over the past two days. It was your average winter snowstorm. But, to listen to the moron weather types at the local TV stations you would have thought the apocalypse was upon us.

The snow was never heavy all afternoon or last night. The National Weather Service (NWS) cut it's forecast to 3-5 inches of new snowfall last night at eight p.m. As it turned out the forecast was right on the money. But, the idiot "forecasters" at the local CBS and NBC affiliate continued their dire warnings even after the NWS revised it's forecast downward. I tried to watch "CSI" last night and the channel four weather idiot interupted twice for lengthy periods to say "we could have ten inches or more". Pure bull hockey.

So what does this tell you about television news/weather? Well for starters it tells you the newsroom managment doesn't think you're very smart. Apparently they are unaware of a thing called the Internet. Either that or else they are stupid and/or arrogant. Otherwise why would they tell you there's going to be a blizzard when the real forecasters have given you the truth?

Once again the bottom line is money. Ratings month started last night and both KMOV and KSDK urged viewers to watch their late newscast. The more viewers the higher the ratings. The higher ratings the more expensive the commercials. Once again the stations are not broadcasting in the public interest but rather their own financial interests. If you are unhappy with this abuse of the airwaves go to fcc.gov and let the agency know how you feel.