Many TV stations around the country are dealing with historically severe weather conditions today and have been over the past few days. Not only is the record-breaking cold and snow the focus of the news coverage in many TV markets in the US, but it’s disrupting normal operations within those stations as well. Here's an account of how one station, WISH Indianapolis, is coping.
DMA 26 (INDIANAPOLIS)
Reporting Live From The Polar Vortex
Since Sunday morning, between 11 and 15 inches of snow has fallen in Indianapolis (DMA 26). The snow totals are the second most in a single day for the area going back to 1871. And overnight temps have plummeted to -14 degrees which with the wind, translates into a -40 wind chill.
Phones are down and power is out in many areas. At WISH, LIN Media’s CBS affiliate in the market, General Manager Jeff White, News Director Steve Bray and Creative Services Director Scott Hainey talked via cell phone — area landlines were down — offering their take on how the city and station were coping with the severe weather.
“We told non-essential employees at WISH to stay home on Monday,” White, said. “This would include accounting, traffic, sales and promotion people.”
Non-essential employees at WISH were told to stay home Tuesday, as well. This is the first time in more than 20 years that the station’s offices have been closed like this.
“We did this for two reasons,” White said. “First off, the mayor of Indianapolis [Greg Ballard] was telling people to stay home, and secondly, today’s cold and the icy streets made traveling unsafe.”
“Even though the hallways at WISH may be empty,” Hainey added, “we were able to provide additional over-the-air coverage.”
BRAND CONNECTIONS
Starting at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning, WISH provided viewers with continuous weather updates throughout the day and night. On Monday morning, WISH was in continuous coverage from 4 a.m. through 10 a.m. On Monday night at 10, WISH began its already scheduled expansion to a one-hour newscast on its sister station WNDY (MNT), a case of perfect timing considering the appetite viewers in the city had for news and weather coverage.
“We’ve got between 10 and 15 people staying in nearby hotels the past two nights,” Bray said, WISH’s news director and chief meteorologist. “I want to give credit to our photographers, reporters and engineers for working outside in this very challenging environment.”
WISH Weather Coverage:
With power out to many viewers, WISH streamed its newscasts live on its website and digital offerings. On Monday, the site had more than 1 million page views and 220,000 unique visitors — significant for a market with 1.2 million households.
White said Mayor Ballard told him all the city’s broadcasters did a great job of keeping people off the street so they could be cleaned of snow.
“It’s times like this that all broadcasters understand what needs to be done,” added White.
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