Get a book, turn on the teevee, turn off the radio: it's weather snore-a-thon time again!

The snow fell over the weekend, so it didn't really pencil for KIRO and KOMO management to get the talk jocks in to do the 24 hour heroics of wall-to-wall storm coverage.

But praise the lord, all that snow melted and we got us a flood!

Wrapped in their handsome, hooded, blue Columbia outerwear, reporters are doing live remotes from cave-ins and washouts. On the radio, there's the sounds of sandbags being filled and rushing water that sounds suspiciously like a toilet flush. (We wonder why these reporters just don't go sit in a Starbuck's and get their sounds from the restrooms).

The two newstalk stations are in the first of their annual death matches to grab the ears of a public who seems to thrive on standing water, overwhelmed stormdrains, metastasizing mud puddles, gullywashing torrents, rumors of breached revetments, and evacuations from the usual places places where the dim- witted or the Californians keep building and rebuilding their homes. When this is over, we'll again be bored listening to these stations break their arms patting themselves on the back for the great community service and assuring us that each were the most listened-to for storm news. 

(Floods, with their dramatic visual potentials are the second best weather condition to snow for TV coverage; and darned great for radio newsies who have 300 words in their vocabulary for "wet." )

Dori Monson took this opportunity to mock global warming and Al Gore. Global Warming Deniers like Dori know that cold, wet, windy or any inclement weather smacks the theory and Al Gore right in the ass. 

This kind of continuous coverage must get ratings, though we can't figure out why. We used to live in the Skagit Valley where they have a couple 100-year floods every decade, and going through one of those we cared not care that Bothel-ites were enduring their sink-holes but wanted, rather, to hear just about anything other than the weather, weather, weather. You know like war... or pestilence, maybe?)

(We can relate to the beleaguered commuter already behind the wheel for an extra hour, alternately glissading through freeway puddlature, or halting in red brake-light studded bunches. Having filled all available plastic water bottles, he has to pee again very urgently, and is suffering not only by looking at the cascading water outside his windshield but also from the torture of radio blabberjockeys making small talk about rain, puddles, streams and rivers).

This "coverage" is the best argument for syndicated programming.

Comments

[chucks]

Holy crap Batman
I was just outside. It is raining and (GASP) the wind is blowing. Couple of idiots just played bumper cars and fucked up traffic. But, damn, it is kinda warm out there. Must be one of those pineapple thingy's. Do you suppose some folks might lose power?
Better drop Dennis Miller and tune in KIRO or KOMO to find out if it is as weathery as it seems. Damn, it reminds me of home in winter.
And we are stuck in weather pergatory waiting for the weather Barbi's six month non-compete clause to be over at KING5 so she can show her perky self on KIRO7.

[DT]

Blathering Michael, for shame! This is another disgraceful piece of garbage that we've come to expect from this blog. Instead of reasonable criticism and media commentary, we get this disrespectful post denigrating flood victims as dim-witted. Sometimes humor is irresponsible. You can do better!

[Pete]

Flood victims that repeatedly build or buy their homes in flood plains ARE dim-witted. They're also suckers, because it's not the irresponsible developers or planners that lose money and possessions.

I used to live in a waterfront community in hurricane country, and the same phenomenon happens there. People line up for the new beachfront condos, and then, three years later, when the inevitable Hurricane Rambo turns the new condos to rubble, their owners are "victims." Whatever happened to common sense?

[Bill's Mom]

If the stations weren't doing the wall to wall storm coverage, you'd be bitching about how corporate ownership has decimated radio news departments, and how awful there was no reporting of this natural disaster. Admit it. No matter what they do, you'll find a reason to bitch about it. You people in Seattle don't know how lucky you are you don't have just one - but TWO real radio stations with real news departments. You suck.

[Andrew]

How about some balance between the two? Why is it assumed people who enjoy Dave Ross' thoughts and insights will also enjoy listening him talk for five minutes with some lady stuck in traffic, trying to figure out what God Damned street she's on as he looks at map quest. That was some of the most amateurish godawful radio I've heard, ever. It was like Katlyn Ross' first day.

Then Dori comes on explaining how he has to shelve the planned topics to talk about RAIN. People listen for the content, not because they like the sound of Dori's voice, and when they cover weather they give us none of the content we tune in for.

[sparky]

Well Bla'M, I will admit in front of God and everybody--I am a Weather Geek. Yes, I even tune in sometimes to the Weather Channel to watch their specials on storms. I LOVE hearing people call in and tell what is happening in their neck of the woods. I am the target audience they aim for and I tune in until the last drop of rain has fallen and the last whiff of wind has calmed itself. NOAA.gov is a wayyy cool website that gives hourly wind speed, barometric pressure, millibar pressure, type of cloud cover, high and low temps for the day, rainfall amounts, etc. Always something to learn!

[Duffman]

Driving through all of it this a.m. (& p.m) today [on a slow route to Portland] we thoroughly enjoyed Dave Ross and Dori Monson, and both my wife and I remarked how much better they were than one's of their equal(?) in Oregon. Indeed we are fortunate to have such great stations; we enjoy KIRO very much and used to enjoy KVI 'till they self-destructed. Always up for ridicule, tho...ain't life grand.

[joanie]

I, too, get tired of the over-worked weather topic. I think coverage is necessary but obsession goes a bit too far.

I was in a Skagit River flood. I was five years old and I still remember moving out of the house. Fortunately, our house was spared even though it was situated on pretty low ground and the Mighty Skagit was practically across the street. Our neighbors basement (we didn't have one) did flood.

I can remember walking halfway down their basement stairs and seeing a swimming pool before me. It must have impressed because I can still se it in my mind's eye.

Living across from the Mighty Skagit was wonderful.

[AprilMayJune]

Ok, I will admit to listening to the weather created disasters "live and local". It takes my mind off the man-made disasters I would otherwise be hearing about; Bush et. al.

[Fremont]

Sparks, you're my kind of reality fan!! Anyone got any book recommendations? Any true crime, Bla'M?

[sparky]

When I get home, Fremont, I will email you the title of a book I borrowed from coiler about a police scandal in Spokane many years ago..its a really good book! I like to read local history. Have you read "East of the Mountains" ? It is fiction but is set in Wenatchee and surrounding towns. It is about a physician who travels there with the idea of committing suicide, but then he meets all sorts of interesting people..

[JustinAtheropinion]

The only reason to complain about extensive destructive weather coverage is if you're out of the weather, sitting on your fat ass writing a blog about talk radio.

This is the only time talk-radio is valuable to a community, rather than hearing a bunch of hysterical bitties (of both sexes) give their ignorant, uninformed and biased opinions about subjects they've just heard about.

Way to go, Blat. Myopia works well for you.