bostonmediaguy 63 Posted November 7 Share Posted November 7 About 10-12 years ago, digital multicast weather channels were quite popular (NBC's WeatherPlus, The Local AccuWeather Channel, and locally-run options). I'm curious whether any still exist. Is it safe to assume their popularity waned in the era of smartphones? 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Route66Fan 30 Posted November 7 Share Posted November 7 There are still some TV stations that carry WeatherNation (Some carry the raw feed & others include local weather information.). I think it's pretty safe to say that their popularity has waned, not just due to smartphones, but also due to the internet & streaming (WeatherNation has their own online stream.) One thing that I've read is that the first TV station to operate a 24/7 weather channel was ABC affiliate, KMIZ-TV, Ch. 17 in Columbia, MO, which launched in late 2003 (It was replaced with MeTV on January 9, 2012.). 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ABC 7 Denver 834 Posted November 7 Share Posted November 7 30 minutes ago, Route66Fan said: There are still some TV stations that carry WeatherNation (Some carry the raw feed & others include local weather information.). I think it's pretty safe to say that their popularity has waned, not just due to smartphones, but also due to the internet & streaming (WeatherNation has their own online stream.) One thing that I've read is that the first TV station to operate a 24/7 weather channel was ABC affiliate, KMIZ-TV, Ch. 17 in Columbia, MO, which launched in late 2003 (It was replaced with MeTV on January 9, 2012.). I never understood the interest when I could just look up the weather on the AccuWeather app on my smart phone. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Route66Fan 30 Posted November 7 Share Posted November 7 (edited) The local 24/7 weather channels kinda predated the popular smartphones by about 4 to 5 years. Edited November 7 by Route66Fan To add stuff. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Adam MadMan 50 Posted November 7 Share Posted November 7 My local CBS station, WSHM, used to have an automated weather look like the one seen on WFSB. It was replace with Cozi TV in 2015, not that anyone complained. These classic TV reruns are likely drawing in more eyeballs than the weather loop ever did, especially since we don't have MeTV in our market. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jakob 2 Posted November 8 Share Posted November 8 My ABC Station (WCPO) used to have a Weather Channel, but it's Court TV now. It was on 9.2. Unfortunately, I don't know the year when the channel got replaced. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Weeters 1,073 Posted November 9 Share Posted November 9 On 11/7/2020 at 5:45 AM, Route66Fan said: The local 24/7 weather channels kinda predated the popular smartphones by about 4 to 5 years. This basically summarizes their demise. The idea of having a "local Weather Channel" over broadcast television simply fell apart the moment anyone could use their phone to look up the weather. NBC giving up on Weather Plus right after they bought into the Weather Channel also said a lot about the longterm viability of these channels. I think that was the peak of these channels. It's been downhill ever sense, with most of them having been replaced by more traditional television channels. WeatherNation seems regulated to the types of -LD's and -CD's that have 13 other channels on them. They weren't even that popular in their very narrow window of relevance. I seem to recall WTMJ's WeatherPlus subchannel just being a constant stream of promos for TV and radio with the occasional paid ad in there. If you were to figure out the cost of taping weather updates for them, they probably lost the station money. Not to mention the systems they ran on (WX+ and Local Accuweather Channel both ran on Scala InfoChannel hardware, which was an early Digital Signage controller) were costly and somewhat unreliable in this role. 3 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mrschimpf 616 Posted November 9 Share Posted November 9 WBAY's is still going strong through four ownership changes, probably because it's on an in-house system (adapted from Young's long-dead software) that all the meteorologists know left-to-right how to fix, there's rural areas in the market where cell phones can be unreliable, and because they have four other subchannel networks they can run off the current multiplexer without much signal loss. It helps that they have a few steady advertisers who bulk-buy with their regular station ads and that the weather department has a sponsorship that comes with the DT2 weather station. But otherwise it's definitely a declining form which a good website/app with the same mapping can easily duplicate. 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Asomrjsurf 4 Posted November 9 Share Posted November 9 (edited) Weathernation,Accuweather were to have 24/7 National channels but no providers other then S. Dish pick them up. Theirs also Weatherscwn and Sprectrum Weather Channel. Edited November 10 by Asomrjsurf 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Yankees4life 222 Posted November 9 Share Posted November 9 Yeah...it doesn't make sense to run a 24/7 weather subchannel if you can get the same info on your phone. WPEC is the only affiliate in South Florida that still has a weather subchannel. That station is tough to get from here (Hi-VHF) in Miami 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Megatron81 44 Posted Monday at 05:53 AM Share Posted Monday at 05:53 AM WoodTV was the first to have a local weather channel that dates back to the spring of 94 which was just radar of the map it wasn't until late 94 when they just added the weather radio to it as Adelphia Commish now Comcast mainly in older neighborhoods on West side of Kazoo county had the channel in 94 which was in there agreement in 93 where cable could've lose the local TV stations. Cablevision which I call Suckvision never did put the local weather channel on and led to a dispute and lose of WoodTV for a year it was pissing match until Jan of 98 a couple days before Super Bowl 32 WoodTV returned to Cablevision only way to watch WoodTV was with rabbit ears. The local weather channel is now WXSP made it a general entertainment in the fall of 99 when it was UPN with Pistons, Redwings & Tiger games. Weather was just on it during late night hours and also a weather update every hour as well when sub-channels became a thing they brought it back which Spectrum aired it on channel 130 until early 2016 Media General moved it to WOTV .4 which was .2 was GetTV 2016 was the last time the local weather channel was seen. I'm kinda surprised that WZZM hasn't gotten rid of the local weather channel with ACCUWeather or moved it out of .2 for Crime True Crime Network & move Quest to .3 Spectrum & Comcast got rid of the OnTarget weather network in 2017 although Spectrum didn't add the WZZM weather network until the summer of 2015 in Kazoo I think Spectrum in Allegan county always had it way back when it made it's debut in mid 2000s. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mightynine 32 Posted Monday at 03:44 PM Share Posted Monday at 03:44 PM (edited) WBRZ in Baton Rouge still has one, though it's moved to a subchannel of sister station KBTR-CD in recent years. Watch it live here, if you so desire: https://www.wbrz.com/wbrz-24hr-live-weather Edited Monday at 03:45 PM by mightynine Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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