THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 9, 1995 TAG: 9506090070
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
WHEN IT'S NICE outside, the last thing on my mind is The Weather Channel. Who needs the Michelin Driver's Report when the sky is blue, winds calm and waters glassy smooth?
On The Weather Channel recently, they were talking about thunderstorms in Montana and chilly winds in Utah. What did I care?
It was 85 and sunny in Virginia Beach. Who wants anything from The Weather Channel on a day like that, except maybe the Boat and Beach Report?
However, when nature turns disagreeable, when there is a hurricane on the loose in my corner of the world, this channel surfer pulls up at The Weather Channel and parks there. As Hurricane Allison was cranking up in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this week, I dropped the O.J. Simpson trial like a hot potato and switched to The Weather Channel, where they have elevated forecasting to an art form.
With Allison picking up steam, one of the meteorologists stepped back to admire a radar image of the storm's ``nice rotation'' as a lover of impressionism might marvel at Monet's ``Sunflowers.'' Not forgetting that his job was to keep viewers up to date, Dennis Smith said crisply, ``The storm's impact will be minimal.''
That's what I wanted to hear.
Thank you, TWC.
See you again when the weather turns nasty.
The staff of The Weather Channel in Atlanta, including vice president of operations Ray Ban and senior meteorologist Jim Wilson, knows that when a weather crisis develops, the channel's viewership will likely increase by as much as fivefold.
With all eyes on The Weather Channel in a weather emergency, 200-plus employees in Atlanta break out the Severe Weather Warnings and Watches Game Plan. If a hurricane is making trouble, John Hope shows up with instant analysis. Dennis Smith heads out to report from where the storm will make landfall.
``That's when we really pull together as a team,'' said Wilson. As with all divisions within Landmark Inc., the company that publishes this newspaper, the mantra at The Weather Channel is teamwork, teamwork, teamwork.
It's all about pleasing the customer. The viewers on more than 5,500 cable systems who are The Weather Channel's customers said they wanted to see reports from the field when a storm is raging. ``The viewers expect us to be out there,'' Ban said.
Wilson added, ``They want us to be on the spot, to see the story evolving live on camera.''
And so it was.
Allison blew rain in his face, but Smith pressed on, reporting from the Florida beaches.
During Allison's march, Wilson and the others participated in The Weather Channel Forum on CompuServe, an online service for users of personal computers. It was a remarkable experience, Wilson said, to be reading messages on CompuServe from viewers who were watching the storm's movement on television.
``Some worried about relatives who might be in the storm's path,'' Wilson said. Track a storm on TV, track a storm in cyberspace, all courtesy of The Weather Channel.
``It shows what we are capable of accomplishing,'' said Ban.
Not so many years ago, The Weather Channel was losing $1 million a month. It was the subject of one-liners tossed out by everyone from the Rolling Stone writers to Jay Leno. Today, my friends, the Weather Channel is no joke.
It makes a profit. It reaches people in 55.6 million U.S. households. In times of hurricanes, tornadoes and snowstorms, its ratings are almost as high as wrestling on cable. Ban tells of homes where the TV is tuned to The Weather Channel around the clock.
Weather enthusiasts, he calls them. Weather junkies, I say.
Not me. Most of the time, the Weather Channel is a snoozer, TV's best sleeping pill after baseball.
I pay no attention to it until a storm comes knocking at my door. by CNB