Looks like this includes KWWL here in Eastern Iowa.
Local News Weather
Multiple sources have indicated to NewscastStudio that Allen Media Group will begin the process of “hubbing” weather forecasts from the Atlanta facilities of its Weather Channel property.
The group, which owns around 36 stations in mid-sized to small markets across the country, has already been quietly cutting a variety of jobs in recent days, including managers, anchors and forecasters.
The next step, according to multiple insider sources who requested anonymity because the plans are not public yet, is to start producing weather segments for stations from The Weather Channel.
Christina Burkhart, a forecaster at WJRT in Flint, Michigan, has also gone public with claims that her station’s parent company will cut “all local meteorologists company-wide.” She posted a message saying so as a public Facebook post.
NewscastStudio has reached out to a general information box for Allen Media Group for comment. The company does not list a public email address for media inquiries and its “press release” section of its corporate website is listed as “coming soon.”
It’s not clear what the exact timeframe for these changes might be if they take place; there is an “on-camera meteorologist” listing on the Weather Channel’s careers page, but it’s not clear what specific role this might be for and it’s also possible the network might produce them using existing staffers.
This isn’t the first time that a station group has attempted to “hub” its weather operations. Other groups, including Sinclair Media Group, have tried it in the past and some stations have also experimented with having a forecaster from a sister station handle forecasting segments on a day when no other local staffers are available due to illness, time off or staff shortages.
Radio stations have also been using “remote” hosts and deejays for years — with personalities at one location seemingly hosting “local” shows on multiple stations across the country.
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Overall, cutting forecasters at every station would likely come in at about 100 jobs nationwide, assuming each property has at least two to three weather staffers.
Thanks to advances in remote production and work setups, the notion of producing local weather forecasts hundreds or thousands of miles a way is more feasible than ever. Computer systems already exist that allow anyone with a computer terminal and compatible software access near real-time maps, conditions and other data for any market in the U.S.
Of course, creating a weather hub does mean that talent likely won’t be as familiar with local happenings, pronunciations, geography and weather patterns, though at least some of that knowledge could be transferred. It’s also likely that forecasters at the hub would be assigned to appear on the same group of stations as often as possible in order to build rapport with viewers.
Although weather continues to be a big draw for local newscasts, it’s also lost some of its luster to the increase in more and more advanced weather apps and other services that mean viewers don’t have to wait around for the weather block to get the forecast.
At least some of these hubbed weather forecasts would likely need to be pre-taped because weather segments tend to hit about the same time on the clock dial for most stations and newscasts, such as morning ones, often have multiple weather hits in a 30-minute chunk, meaning it would be challenging, though not necessarily impossible, to reserve live windows for each station.
Pre-taping forecasts does run the risk of forecasts being slightly out of date by the time they air, though it’s also fairly easy to structure a forecast to avoid anything that’s like to change drastically, much like many stations already pre-tape their weather cut-ins.
Breaking weather could presumably be handled live, perhaps even with multiple stations in a the same geographic cluster using the same coverage.
www.newscaststudio.com
Allen Media preparing to ‘hub’ weather, cut local forecaster jobs: Sources
By Michael P. Hill • January 17, 2025Local News Weather
Multiple sources have indicated to NewscastStudio that Allen Media Group will begin the process of “hubbing” weather forecasts from the Atlanta facilities of its Weather Channel property.
The group, which owns around 36 stations in mid-sized to small markets across the country, has already been quietly cutting a variety of jobs in recent days, including managers, anchors and forecasters.
The next step, according to multiple insider sources who requested anonymity because the plans are not public yet, is to start producing weather segments for stations from The Weather Channel.
Christina Burkhart, a forecaster at WJRT in Flint, Michigan, has also gone public with claims that her station’s parent company will cut “all local meteorologists company-wide.” She posted a message saying so as a public Facebook post.
NewscastStudio has reached out to a general information box for Allen Media Group for comment. The company does not list a public email address for media inquiries and its “press release” section of its corporate website is listed as “coming soon.”
It’s not clear what the exact timeframe for these changes might be if they take place; there is an “on-camera meteorologist” listing on the Weather Channel’s careers page, but it’s not clear what specific role this might be for and it’s also possible the network might produce them using existing staffers.
This isn’t the first time that a station group has attempted to “hub” its weather operations. Other groups, including Sinclair Media Group, have tried it in the past and some stations have also experimented with having a forecaster from a sister station handle forecasting segments on a day when no other local staffers are available due to illness, time off or staff shortages.
Radio stations have also been using “remote” hosts and deejays for years — with personalities at one location seemingly hosting “local” shows on multiple stations across the country.
Advertisement
Overall, cutting forecasters at every station would likely come in at about 100 jobs nationwide, assuming each property has at least two to three weather staffers.
Thanks to advances in remote production and work setups, the notion of producing local weather forecasts hundreds or thousands of miles a way is more feasible than ever. Computer systems already exist that allow anyone with a computer terminal and compatible software access near real-time maps, conditions and other data for any market in the U.S.
Of course, creating a weather hub does mean that talent likely won’t be as familiar with local happenings, pronunciations, geography and weather patterns, though at least some of that knowledge could be transferred. It’s also likely that forecasters at the hub would be assigned to appear on the same group of stations as often as possible in order to build rapport with viewers.
Although weather continues to be a big draw for local newscasts, it’s also lost some of its luster to the increase in more and more advanced weather apps and other services that mean viewers don’t have to wait around for the weather block to get the forecast.
At least some of these hubbed weather forecasts would likely need to be pre-taped because weather segments tend to hit about the same time on the clock dial for most stations and newscasts, such as morning ones, often have multiple weather hits in a 30-minute chunk, meaning it would be challenging, though not necessarily impossible, to reserve live windows for each station.
Pre-taping forecasts does run the risk of forecasts being slightly out of date by the time they air, though it’s also fairly easy to structure a forecast to avoid anything that’s like to change drastically, much like many stations already pre-tape their weather cut-ins.
Breaking weather could presumably be handled live, perhaps even with multiple stations in a the same geographic cluster using the same coverage.
Allen Media preparing to ‘hub’ weather, cut local forecaster jobs: Sources
Multiple sources have indicated to NewscastStudio that Allen Media Group will begin the process of ... Read More
www.newscaststudio.com
