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Ike: Which TV stations are you watching for hurricane coverage?

editor

By editor
in Hurricane Ike 2008

Pick one of the following. Don't answer "none" because that's not what the poll is about.  

55 members have voted

  1. 1. Which TV stations are you watching for hurricane coverage? (Select all that apply)

    • 2 KPRC-TV (NBC - Local2)
      11
    • 11 KHOU (CBS - 11News)
      27
    • 13 KTRK (ABC - ABC13)
      24
    • 26 KRIV (Fox - Fox 26)
      5
    • 39 KIAH (CW - 39 News)
      0
    • 47 KTMD (Telemundo)
      0
    • 45 KXLN (Univision)
      1
    • The Weather Channel
      12
    • CNN
      9
    • CNN Headline News
      0
    • Fox News Channel
      7
    • MSNBC
      2

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editor

editor

Posted
Posted

Lots of people are glued to their televisions today watching the latest on Ike.

Which channels are you watching? Don't bother answering "none" because that's not what this poll is about and no one thinks you're cool for being a faux iconoclast.

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RedScare

RedScare

Posted
Posted

11 has better Galveston video, 13 has better overall news on the storm. Poor Channel 2. I switch every so often to look at the eye candy, but then they start showing sticks they stuck in the ground to measure storm surge, and I have to switch back to 13.

Until today, I watched the Weather Channel a lot for the hurricane forecasting and tracking.

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editor

editor

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I find it interesting how many people are watching the national channels. Of course, we have a lot of people outside the Houston broadcast area on HAIF, so that could explain it.

My mother called and said she was watching the storm on Fox News Channel. I told her to switch to CNN since it has access to video from KHOU, KTRK, KPRC, and KIAH and not just KRIV.

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crunchtastic

crunchtastic

Posted
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I keep switching over to Weather Channel and Jim Cantore is nowhere to be found? WTF? My timing sucks. I have had to settle for ole' sweaty: Wayne Dolcefino. Good lord, this storm is huge, I want my tv reporter to be buff, tan and extra gay--not as wide as they are tall. Wayne, I know you are a nice italian boy just like Jim, but when that shiny golf shirt starts sticking to ya, ick.

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citykid09

citykid09

Posted
Posted

I have been watching abc13 all day. We get abc13 in Bryan/College Station automatically, but they are now broadcasting KHOU on cable channel 8 up here for the storm so I havebeen flipping to that. Also CNN and the Weather Channel. etc.

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JLWM8609

JLWM8609

Posted
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For the folks who are watching KHOU, every now and then, Gene Norman will encourage people to sign up for a service that will call you if a severe weather situation such as a tornado or flooding threatens your immediate area. What he doesn't tell you is that there is a $6.95 service fee for it. Kind of deceptive really, but I suppose $6.95 is cheap if it informs you to seek an interior room because of a tornado coming in.

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RedScare

RedScare

Posted
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For the folks who are watching KHOU, every now and then, Gene Norman will encourage people to sign up for a service that will call you if a severe weather situation such as a tornado or flooding threatens your immediate area. What he doesn't tell you is that there is a $6.95 service fee for it. Kind of deceptive really, but I suppose $6.95 is cheap if it informs you to seek an interior room because of a tornado coming in.

Except that they already told us on 13 that due to a nightime storm, and hurricane spawned tornadoes coming in at around 10,000 feet, while radar is normally aimed at 25-30,000 feet, most tornadoes will hit before anyone knows they are there. Waste of $6.95.

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LarryDallas

LarryDallas

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From what I have seen:

KHOU....best weather men (Gene and Doc) who explain the most clearly and give wind forecasts.

KTRK....best live footage from the field.

KPRC....too much fear mongering. YES this is a major storm and it will cause bad things to occur but right now is not the time to scare people who are already nervous at best and devastated at worst.

KRIV...pretty bad coverage...they use too many still pictures with someone on the phone to tell some story. It is supposed to be TV with moving pictures....not radio on the idiot box.

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editor

editor

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Except that they already told us on 13 that due to a nightime storm, and hurricane spawned tornadoes coming in at around 10,000 feet, while radar is normally aimed at 25-30,000 feet, most tornadoes will hit before anyone knows they are there.

Yes and no. A TV station's radar will be aimed at 25-30,000 feet. But NWS radar sees almost everything, which is why it takes so long to update.

KRIV...pretty bad coverage...they use too many still pictures with someone on the phone to tell some story. It is supposed to be TV with moving pictures....not radio on the idiot box.

This is typical in breaking news situations for Fox. It's because it went for the helicopter instead of the sat truck. When your microwave mast is being blown all around by a hurricane, sometimes you can get a shot through the clouds to the satellite. Fox doesn't have this option.

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jm1fd

jm1fd

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KTRK had their sports guy driving around town in a suburban or other SUV with what appeared to be a live feed. How are they beaming the signal back to the mother ship for broadcasting?

The picture quality was too good to be mobile broadband, but they couldn't have been using the conventional super tall mast live truck setup since they were broadcasting while blazing down 610 at 70 MPH.

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editor

editor

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KTRK had their sports guy driving around town in a suburban or other SUV with what appeared to be a live feed. How are they beaming the signal back to the mother ship for broadcasting?

The picture quality was too good to be mobile broadband, but they couldn't have been using the conventional super tall mast live truck setup since they were broadcasting while blazing down 610 at 70 MPH.

There are a number of ways and a number of companies that sell equipment that will get the job done. Without seeing the video, it's hard to tell exactly which setup KTRK used. Basically there are four methods -- local cellular network, local microwave transmission (the rule of thumb in Houston is if you can see Chase or Williams Towers you can get on the air), satellite data, or satellite video.

With the advances in auto-tracking and omni-directional antennas in the last few years it could be any of them. I know it's counter intuitive to think that it could be cellular data, but if you throw enough money at Verizon or Sprint or whomever you can get at least 500kbps up and often much more. That's more than enough for live SD video.

Also, you don't always need to have the mast up to get a signal in. When I had crews out covering severe weather and there was lightning, the more ambitious ones would park under an underpass to protect themselves from the lightning and only raise the mast a foot or two to microwave the shot in.

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