Hurricane Florence Coverage

Yep - to the extent that many radio stations in affected parts of the US simulcast the audio from the local TV coverage at times of crisis.

Radio stations with proper news teams sometimes do their own thing, but many music stations don’t have them and don’t do any news at all on a normal day.

Some of the ignorance by some posters is a bit shocking. I dont agree with elmarko on things sometimes, but thank you elmarko for posting this video from KFOR. If you watch it from the 30 mark as he suggested, I think this will clear up alot of the confusion of the reason why weather is a big deal in North America and not just for ratings. People die, homes destroyed in minutes. Hence way more than just a person sitting at a desk in a cozy quiet studio saying be careful and then moving on to another story about government is needed. That would be tantamount to dereliction of duty or something. TV stations are mandated to service in the public interest. Ignoring potentially life threatening situations would be a credibility and commercial suicide for a commercial tv station.
Most tv stations partner with local radio stations. This is key because if the power goes out or whatever they can still get their signal/information out to the public.
Again if you havent watched this video from Oklahoma City, you probably should.


KFOR in 2013 - 24 killed 2 schools flatted killing 7 children. Chopper 4 was following the tornado as it went thru the school and showed the moments they were emerging from rubble. Chokes up when watching the footage. Watch from 1:10 mark

I was going to bring that up and it got coverage on World News, that and a rivers flooding (I think it’s the past year but no home or property was lost).



They also promote heavily their app and live streams encouraging you to have extra USB batteries and ABC always be charging. Comcast also routinely opens their xfinitywifi hotspots* that are normally reserved for their customers to all.

As someone else said here and elsewhere broadcast stations have an obligation (which is why a many radio stations simulcast) to covey information about life threatening situations. If they don’t convey warnings they could get fined by the FCC. If it’s not a news producing station they have to air crawls and direct people to other sources. The cable channels don’t have that mandate. However when it’s going to hit / impact a large population area is when they usually go into “storm mode”. In other situations they may send one or two reporters.

*When Comcast’s supplies a customer a cable modem and router by default an a xfinitywifi (and cablewifi there’s agreement with other cable companies (Cox and TWC Spectrum) to allow each other customers to access hotspots)) hotspot signs on as well as the users private hotspot. Somehow they keep WiFi and DOCSIS traffic completely seperate. I heard that they have two WiFi routers built in to their modems. It’s come in handy for me several times the first block of homes that is served by one outdoor distribution box went up I was able to be connected to a neighbors. I also did the same on vacation as my hotels WiFi was spotty. And when your in a doctors office and all they air is HGTV (almost every doctors office has HGTV on and there’s only so much Love it or List It I can take ) and you want to listen to news without eating your data. On your phone it’s simple you download an app, it registers and stores settings for the variety of hotspots names, those that are safe and the login credentials.

I take it motels in NC will be fully booked with journalists, leading anchors such as Anderson Cooper and crews to cover this event?

The only radio stations that tend to do their own enhanced storm or severe weather coverage would be the all news stations. Some of them can be really good, and incredibly detailed.

We're incredibly lucky in the UK that we don't get anything like what they get. We do get the post-tropical storms and ex-hurricanes, but they've lost at lot of their punch by the time they hit us, usually. We have had a few fairly potent ones in recent years, but again, not on the same scale.

This storm season will be an interesting one to keep an eye on.

Jim Cantore is a long-time on-air Senior Meteorologist at the Weather Channel. He know for his "everyman" style of broadcasting and forecasting and also usually on scene for most severe weather situations. This sign was spotted in the strike zone. LOL

Preferably with last year's branding on it.

Yeah, they also tend to book hotels with bars.

Well I didn't expect this to be semi-controversial, but in the interest of balance and to repair relations between TV Forum UK and TV Forum USA, here's some funny '80s (or early '90s) ITN file photos when clearly it was thought viewers needed some visual help with the whole "journalist reporting live over the phone" concept.

Complete with modern day ITV bugs.

Sounds like the same way that the Fon system works. Here BT's WiFi routers provide private WiFi and a hotspot for other customers. It's all done in the firmware apparently

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fon_%28company%29

Radio 4 Long Wave was still there that morning, back then it was the de-facto emergency 'go to' service, for that sort of event, though that was never really actively promoted as such.