Are You Irritated?

[Prunepicker]

It's 7pm and I'm watching TV. Suddenly there's a "RED BANNER" across the
screen and an obnoxious noise is blasting from the TV. What's worse, the
sound of my show goes off.

IT'S A STUPID STORM WARNING!

Give me a break! I'm watching Matlock, I don't have time to go outside to
look for a storm!

I love the fact that we have the best tornado warning system in the world,
but lighten up. Wait until there's something to worry about. Chill with,
"there might be!"

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!

Matlocks back on. I'll talk later...

[OKCisOK4me]

I figured there'd be a thread like this tonight. I was already prepared today for the slight fact that I might not be watching 'Heroes' in HD. So....I'm just not going to watch it. No biggie. You can go to surfthechannel.com and watch your favorite episodes of your favorite shows (with no weather interruptions ;-) ).

[southernskye]

You can also watch Heros on Hulu

[Bobby821]

The Weather is more important for peoples safety than any silly TV Show. Thats life deal with it.

[Prunepicker]

I figured there'd be a thread like this tonight. I was already prepared today
for the slight fact that I might not be watching 'Heroes' in HD. So... I'm just
not going to watch it. No biggie. You can go to surfthechannel.com and
watch your favorite episodes of your favorite shows (with no weather
interruptions ;-) ).

I didn't know that. surfthechannel.com? Cool. Do they omit the
commercials? I can't stand commercials.

Somebody had to start this thread. I'm glad to oblige. HEY! There's
another alert! I think the storm is in Chihuahua, Mexico
There may be the possibility of of 1/32 inch hail, however, it may dissipate
before hitting the ground...

[Prunepicker]

You can also watch Heros on Hulu

What's Hero's?

[jstanthrnme]

What's Hero's?

Heros:

[Prunepicker]

heros:

coooooooooooooooooooool!

[Nermel]

Prunepicker: Do you have a Cox Digital TV Box?

When the tornado warning was issued for Logan County, my box had the EAS audio and the red banner, despite the fact that I was watching a TV station that participates in the EAS (KFOR).

Perhaps that could be a topic for a future "Generally Speaking".

[kevinpate]

Went to be early, simply to avoid the nonsense. Down side is, I'm up early. Sheeesh, I remember when I wouldn't even be in yet, let alone home, asleep, warshed and back awake.

[Bobby821]

just wait one day it is going to catch up to you and will catch you offguardm then i bet you wont be so quick to knock and mock the weather anymore.

[westsidesooner]

It's 7pm and I'm watching TV. Suddenly there's a "RED BANNER" across the
screen and an obnoxious noise is blasting from the TV. What's worse, the
sound of my show goes off.

I think I pulled a muscle in my arm reaching for the remote mute button so many times. Seriously though, I'm a weather junky so the thing the bugs me is these types of messages while the meteorologist is just about to say where the danger is. It never fails. "The area of greatest danger is.......BBBBBEEEEEEEEEPPPPPP, an emergency has been declared for your area tune to channel 7" And it goes off every 5-10 minutes. You'd think they could do better.

[Prunepicker]

Prunepicker: Do you have a Cox Digital TV Box?

Yes!

[Prunepicker]

I think I pulled a muscle in my arm reaching for the remote mute button so
many times. Seriously though, I'm a weather junky so the thing the bugs me
is these types of messages while the meteorologist is just about to say where
the danger is. It never fails. "The area of greatest danger
is... BBBBBEEEEEEEEEPPPPPP, an emergency has been declared for your
area tune to channel 7" And it goes off every 5-10 minutes. You'd think
they could do better.

Same here. The thing is, these "oh my, there might be something" alerts
are like the boy who cried wolf. There are so many false alarms that when
a real storm alert comes it's treated like the others. Unless there's a fire
don't cry fire. Unless there's a lion in the street don't cry there's a lion in
the street.

It's hard to watch KSBI during storm season. Half of the screen is covered
with a map. I remember one time that Brady Bruce stayed on the air, during
a great show, telling the viewers that there was nothing to worry
about, but we're going to keep it here, blah, blah, blah... Of course the
only thing that happened was I missed the end of the show.

They could do better by giving updates during commercial breaks and only
interrupt unless it's the real thing. Stop crying wolf

[TaoMaas]

I remember one time that Brady Bruce stayed on the air, during
a great show, telling the viewers that there was nothing to worry
about, but we're going to keep it here, blah, blah, blah... Of course the
only thing that happened was I missed the end of the show.

The same thing happened on the final episode of "Barney Miller". Everyone had said their goodbyes and Barney was left alone in the station house. He was about to speak when KOCO cut in just to update things and to let everyone know that there was no need to worry. They came back just in time for us to see Barney switch off the light and close the door. I don't know if they still do it, but at one time Ch. 9 used to have a designated program watcher during severe weather. That person's job was to watch whatever was on the air at that time and let the crew know if they were about to cover a crucial part of the show by doing a cut-in.

[TaoMaas]

The thing is, these "oh my, there might be something" alerts
are like the boy who cried wolf. There are so many false alarms that when
a real storm alert comes it's treated like the others.

I totally agree with this. People start mentally tuning out the cut-ins. When the May 3rd tornado went through Moore, many people said they really weren't paying that much attention to the cut-ins until they heard some of the meteorologists say that they would not survive this storm unless they were underground. You can't believe how many folks told us, "I'd never heard them say that before and that's what got my attention."

[Nermel]

I have no problems with any local TV stations doing weather cut-ins. In fact, local TV news is one area where this is still money to be made.

kind of relevant: Cable, Phone Giants Use Community News to Lure Customers - WSJ.com

However, I wish there was a way on the Cox boxes to disable the EAS interrupts, epically when watching a local TV station that is providing far superior coveraage - only to have it interrupted by Cox telling me there is an emergency. Thanks! I see the tornado on the ground, you are interrupting my obtaining information.

sorry for ranting

[Prunepicker]

I have no problems with any local TV stations doing weather cut-ins. In fact,
local TV news is one area where this is still money to be made.

sorry for ranting

There's nothing wrong with the cut-ins. It's just the ones that are totally
useless. Pardon my hyperbole, but when the weather guy cuts in the middle
of a great program to let us know there's circular cloud movement over Tahiti
it gets my goat. When there's a real threat then by all means interrupt.