Winter's Big Blast

(originally posted Feb. 14, 2007)

What a blast!

The Big Blast is what we called the blizzard of 2007. The first blizzard in twenty-nine years caused major power disruptions, business cancellations and school closings. It also resulted in extra-effort coverage on 13abc.

This year's blizzard pales in comparison to the last one in 1978. The one back then resulted in deaths, stranded motorists and misery that went on for days. This one was a challenge but ended much more quickly.

Still, it was significant enough to cause authorities to close roads to all but emergency traffic. It also left its mark by creating traffic hassles and many accidents. Coverage was ramped up as the storm arrived. A 13abc news special replaced the "Ellen" show and another one-hour special aired in prime time. Special digital microwave equipment allowed us to present more live coverage than ever. Reporters brought the storm home from throughout the region. Four meteorologists used Live Doppler 13000 to show exactly where the snow was heaviest.

Some viewers thought the coverage was excessive. Our morning news was expanded to five and a half hours on Wednesday with our Noon news extended by 30 minutes. Linda wrote us to say she couldn't "believe&the "scare them silly" approach you use to talk about winter. Winter goes with the territory, so why don't you just report it, then put it to bed?" That's a fair question. Our mission is to provide thorough, responsible and accurate coverage. The 13abc Storm Team did not inflate expected storm totals which turned out to be correct. Nor did we tell viewers that this would be the worst storm ever. We did report that authorities were concerned that conditions would rapidly deteriorate causing hazardous travel, which also turned out to be true. The significance of a blizzard requires major coverage for us to meet our obligation to provide emergency information.

Other viewers, like Harold, complained that it was repetitive. He wrote that "my wife watch and enjoy your news program.....up to a point, and then we just have to turn it off. Your weather reporting in regards to this latest storm, get to be a bit to much. Repeat, repeat, repeat."

We thank Harold for his kind words about our news. We work hard to present fresh information. For example, this morning, police and emergency officials were interviewed live. A news briefing was presented live. Closings and delays were constantly updated. Traffic reports from Greg Jones continually brought forward new trouble spots and accident locations. In all, nearly 1,000 weather-related closings or cancellations were presented. Some elements were repeated for viewers that may have missed the original announcements or information. Still, it's clear we must do a better job of avoiding saying the same thing repeatedly or risk disappointing viewers like Harold.

Nobody was killed in our area during this storm and disruptions were minimal. Perhaps advance warnings helped keep people off the highways and led to fewer accidents. I'd like to believe that our coverage was beneficial.

I'll end with a tribute to the photographers who braved the cold and snow to bring back video. We put one of them, Phil Antry, on the air with our anchors to narrate his video and explain what he witnessed first hand. And that led to email from Angie. "Phil Antry, your camera man was VERY entertaining and REAL. Seeing him once in a while is something our community would love to see. Just listening to the people who actually film makes your news 10x's more interesting."

Thanks, Angie. And thanks to you, too, Phil!

Your comments are always welcome at: brian.trauring@abc.com!