Satisfying the Weather Junkie

摘要

For TV-station weather departments and the Weather Channel, the weather junkie, who will watch the commercials while waiting for the extended forecast, is a must-have viewer. But the race to please that junkie has led to a perplexing profusion of weather reports filled with colliding fronts, cloud fly-throughs, and Doppler radar and its potpourri of color. "Many viewers get confused about what they're seeing on the screen," says Mark Gildersleeves, CEO of weather-graphics manufacturer WSI. "They don't really understand exactly what the forecast will be specifically for their neighborhood." The confusion may spring from a plethora of information, of both comprehensive national weather and specific local data. The solution may lie in using on-air TV for national and regional weather and the Internet to meet viewers' specific local demands. "I think stations are missing the boat if they don't take advantage of both the Internet and on-air broadcast," says Victor Marsh, director of development and vice president of My Weather, a Weather Central subsidiary.