Severe Weather Woody I

Well, we had our first Severe Weather Woody Warning of the Spring on Monday with weather breaking out mostly to the West, but a few storms in North central Kansas. The Radars, arrival times, and hook echoes all appeared rather equal in the coverage on the 3 stations. As far as weather personalities, I'll hold judgement to later in the storm season. As for the presentation of the coverage in the actual newscast, the 3 field horse race was quickly reduced to 2. KSN didn't even even make it out of the starting gate. I know the "starting gate" is an overused cliche, but it aptly fits here. We'll consider the starting gate, as far as news goes, being after we see the weather guys for the first time in the 10PM newscast. KWCH and KAKE use great tools for showing video out in the field. Its amazing that in many of these places, just getting a clean cell phone call is a feat, yet alone live moving video of tornadoes. The video doesn't quite look like normal video. I am sure it has something to do with coming over a phone line or something, but the technology looks like it really has improved compared to the early days where it looked like still pictures being rotated by hand across a camera. Not only did the two stations have tornadoes on video, but both had several spotters telling of conditions they were experiencing. One of KAKE's spotters said he saw something like 10 tornadoes!! Great work and it definitely shows a commitment to weather. Meanwhile at KSN, outside of Freeman and his weather cut-ins, it was just a normal night. Their coverage, besides Freeman, consisted of some pictures sent by e-mail. That was sooooo 5 years ago. For a station who likes to pump itself as a weather leader, the news performance of this storm tonight was very disappointing. After Tonight, they might as well just say, "If it happens in Wichita, we may cover it. If it happens anywhere else, we don't care." The other stations had live or nearly live tornadoes on the ground in earlier cut-ins throughout the night. This technology is amazing and really compliments the reports from the various storm spotters and their pictures. Also I think Jay Prater and Merril Teller do a nice job in tossing to the weather spotters and asking them questions and steering away from talking too much weather talk. Another factor, their spotters are just that spotters. I don't think a single reporter phoned in a report. Nothing against reporters, but nothing beats an informed and educator spotter. I think I heard a few "mesocyclones" (not sure of spelling, not a meteorologist) in the coverage, but overall they did a good job in making their conversation understandable for all.
Although KSN may have struck out on the weather coverage they had a great piece expanding on the death of former Soviet leader Boris Yeltsin, who died Today. He came to Kansas in the late 90's and Dana Hertneky had a well done piece showing clips from the visit and an interview with the people who hosted him at their farm. Good example of effectively localizing a national story. The key was it didn't feel like a local story. KAKE had Larry Hatteberg do a little video reflection on the visit, not bad, but KSN did a better job having an updated angle. Chris Sadeghi on KAKE covered the latest shooting live. Note to Chris, check a local Wichita map before going live. He said on air, "The whole incident began several blocks away at the Walmart at Hillside and Broadway." Hillside and Broadway run parallel to each other and are not several blocks away. Ahead for tomorrow, possibly more weather Woodys. -Hal