Should we talk about the weather?

Let's get one thing straight: Portland – or more specifically, Portland TV news – is obsessed with the weather. Maybe it's because the four local stations, KATU 2, KOIN 6, KGW 8 and FOX 12 all seem to have four news shows running directly after each other and they need to fill them with something. And I'm not kidding here... the evening schedule on KATU looks something like this.

  • The 4 o'clock news (FIRST AT FOUR!)
  • The 5 o'clock news
  • The 6 o'oclock (national) news
  • The 6.30 news
  • Some other TV programs getting in the way of more news
  • The 11 o'clock news
Geez! Really? Portland ain't that big of a town and, when it comes down to it, not a lot happens here. So for one network to give us more than four hours of local news a day (there's also the morning news to consider!) is kinda ludicrous.

So it ain't surprising that they fill a lot of this time with inane banter between the anchors and that great time-filler, the weather. On a really slow news day, the weather can be the big top story of the day. "And in breaking news, we cross to Rod, our chief meteorologist, for more news on that rain that could be coming our way on Veterans' Day." I made that story up, but it's not too far from the truth.

Each channel prides itself on its extensive weather coverage: "Your Storm Watch Team!" intones the Voice Over Man™ solemnly, or, "your trained local meteorologists!" followed by, "Doppler 8000 radar!!!" (whatever that actually is!) and every channel has a veritable arsenal of weather cameras dotted around northern Oregon. Out at the coast, along the Columbia River, on every tall building in Portland – just waiting to show you what it currently looks like outside. I dunno, if I wanted to know what it was like outside right now, I could just... go outside.

Look, we all like to know what the weather's going to be like (although at this time of year in Portland, "rainy and cold" is probably the answer pretty much every day), but do we really need vast tracts of time every night given over to the subject? I really bet the forecast hasn't changed that much in the five minutes since they last gave it to us...

Posted in: , , , on November 9, 2008 at at 6:32:00 PM  

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