Oh yeah. He worked his way up in the business. He has been trying to buy a TV network for a long time now. Last year, he tried to buy ABC from Disney. Before that, he tried to buy CBS. He also tried to buy the Denver Broncos. He is worth billions.
Several years ago after 30 yrs. in local TV working as a camera operator (production) I was replaced by robotic cameras & lost my job. The reason I lost my job was due to decisions by the national corporate owner of the local TV station. They got rid of half of the local production dept. employees.
Removing those who will recognize how different the weather is from years past. That's how clean mate change deniers can keep up the pretence that we aren't destroying our planet
I have the Weather Channel app and it fails to properly forecast snow events where I live, every day! I rely on my local news channel for accurate weather forecasts.
it's sad, painful, and disgusting. I like the Weather Channel, but not there "Weather on the 8s" or whatever they call it. Wonder how much the owners paid to get FFOTUS elected?
Yeah, shit. Who cares about humans. In the words of a bitch, "Let them eat cheese." All that matters is bigger CEO salaries and shareholders dividends.
I may be a Boomer, but I haven’t forgotten how to “vote with my feet”. You can’t beat good, local based forecasts and experience. You can also join the 21st century and get news and info from digital sources.
Computers putting actual scientists out of a job. And by the way, my weather feeds could not be less accurate so this won't be helpful. If we don't have meteorologists on the ground, we don't have trained observers in an era of climate change. Mind boggling.
Even if Climate Change weren't an issue, this isn't a good thing. A lot of people rely on local meteorologists because they're often in-tune with their area. The good ones know the people and how to reach out and keep them safe when bad weather strikes. It's especially true in tornado country.
The most shining example of this was the Super Outbreak of 2011. A lot of people in Alabama trusted James Spann and local news let him run the show. No breaks to damage, no shifts in focus. The storms and getting people to cover came first. Many still died, but many more were saved.
Scary to imagine in places- like Terre Haute- where meteorologists are COUNTED on during severe weather days- tornadoes, etc- for the exact timing of the storms. Will TWC feeds be able to provide the level of detail that’s needed to keep people aware & safe? Doubtful.
This is where conservatism is right in its affection for the old and modern conservatives are wrong in their endless push for more and more profit all the time.
Yeah a ticker stream is exactly what we need as natural disaster after record setting natural disaster comes week after week. "Oh the humanity" of humanity.
Losing a job should never threaten anyone’s livelihood, and technology should be improving everyone’s lives instead of enriching those who own businesses at the expense of average people.
Seems against interest, since we celebrate markets and trading, so we celebrate earning profits. And then we try to complain about those that seek profits. You can't both have a private Media company and someone not seeking profits at the same time. I think what you want is state media.
We live in a mixed market economy where profits are are known to be paramount in private companies. Automation is used to replace menial tasks humans aren't needed for. You don't need a human to read out the results from a machine. Weather folks are more often mocked or ignored than lauded.
I think more people should probably consider what kind of tech they already use today that already uses AI or other automation and already replaces jobs that used to exist. You might be humbled.
For example, what kind of jobs do you think a digital artist skips past?
If we were playing baseball, you would have swung and missed three times just now. 🤭 I'm none of the above, just an old school scientist/engineer who's been automating stuff for about 40 years and currently doing it in healthcare to reduce bloated costs. You're welcome.
What we're seeing is that the marketplace demands free newscasts and weather, and those providers are getting less money from advertisers and paying more for their labor. Shortfalls have to be made up somewhere.
If you want actual scientific citations check out Google Scholar and papers like "Automation and new tasks: How technology displaces and reinstates labor". Or come watch me present my new work at the IEEE International systems conference in Montreal from April 7th to the 10th.
It's with my citations that the sun comes up every day. It's common sense that we observe and have been observing in business for decades. Centuries even. I even work for a company that is reducing headcount using AI. Automation to reduce labor costs is everywhere and isn't new, right?
I thought it was weird last weekend that we had a weather channel guy doing our weather on the weekend news. I just saw this post and, yeah they’re owned by Allen media.
I call bullshit! It's all about the a stockholders/investor returns. Just wait until mother climate sends more tornadoes their direction, and there are no warnings for people to seek shelter.
In my area we did a major write in campaign and the ad sponsors of the TV station threatened to remove their ads and support. The owner, Allen Media Broadcasting, decided to NOT terminate our local weather anchors.
I see both sides. Local media stations are really struggling with viewership and finances. The local meteorologist has become and outdated position that is expensive for them to support
Is it better for them to cut costs and stay afloat or let themselves get bought by conservative conglomerates?
Substitute generic content for locally produced programming, save money. It's the same thing that made a lot of local newspapers not worth the bother to read anymore.
Was it after Trump said there was no such thing as weather, a lie by the radical left? 😂 Look in all seriousness would anyone be surprised at this point?! 🤦♂️
It is wrong for the individuals and wrong as a whole. News should be about reporting and not profits. Actual reporting has been whittled away... before we know it, we will only be receiving the information the gonvernment wants us to received (or are we are already there?).
Greed is such a powerful negative energy force. It’s insidious in its allure and easily seduces the person that’s attracted to it into believing they are justified in their desires. The challenges we are facing today go beyond this physical reality. It is a battle of the soul and the metaphysical.
Speaking as a graduated Met-TV student: this change is a long time building. OTA viewership is down across the board. Automation updates are making remote forecasting increasingly more reliable. It's just a continuation of 2009 when OTA went digital.
Why is it upsetting? Because they're on tv? Who cares that makes them irrelevant. Everyone gets replaced it's life don't cry about it do something about it, and that doesn't mean try to be relevant by going against the grain. Creating drama doesn't mean you're right it just means you're crying.
We're looking at a Max Headroom future. They'll all be replaced by AI. Like I keep saying: AI is a way for money to access talent while denying talent access to money.
The last place I get my local weather is from THE WEATHER CHANNEL. They are based out of Atlanta, GA, and have no idea what my local weather in Joplin, MO, is doing. They do everything for ratings and nothing more. They absolutely suck
Tried this at KWWL, in Iowa, too. But blowback from viewers saying they would be switching over to a different local station to watch the news/weather kinda changed their minds... for now.
My timing could not have been worse! Despite my post below from last night, I do not support replacing meteorologists with a feed or bot. I know it’s important work.
The worst part is that while it may be logistically possible to do the bulk of weather reporting from a regional or national hub, when severe weather strikes, folks trust that their local team knows the area best.
What happens when a tornado drops on an unlucky town? What warnings would be issued?
It's always fun to have to wait for a loop to get you local forecast when they shit's hitting the fan outside and your area isn't important enough to break in live.
The destruction of White Collar jobs is the new reality of these "roaring 20s".
Just like the 90s saw the start of destruction of blue collar jobs - this only will get worse.
Weather channel feed tells you the weather. My window can tell me that. Local meteorologists explain the effects in a more personal and focused way. Everyone remembers their local meteorologists because their was a trust built there. Toss that away to save a few bucks. Smdh
Just wait until Trump's Project 2025 eliminates the National Weather Service and privatizes weather forecasts and alerts. Then you'll need a subscription to get the weather.
It’s going to blow ip in their faces. The weather channel can do broad predictions, but the locals cannot wholly rely on a broad tool. Locality will come back when the liability overwhelms the greedy owners.
I think that's what meteorologists should start doing, taking their skills to YouTube and here on Bluesky. They can set up Patreon or Kofi or whatever works for them. Might not be the perfect solution, but it's hopefully a start. We all need to find clever ways to get around this BS.
That’s probably what I love about them the most, they are legitimately trying to help people from warnings before a storm hits, rescuing folks as they go along and helping & raising funds for victims 💜💜💜
My understand is something like that is happening near me (WJRT-Fllint, MI) dismissing all meteorologists and getting a feed out of Atlanta.
Folks you can write the FCC and let them know the station is NOT serving the public interests for the local people can report thigns like Tornados faster.
Pretty certain this is in anticipation of #Trump shutting down Natl Weather Service, part of #NOOA. He hated being corrected about the path of a hurricane in 2019. It's part of #Comnerce department.
I can't imagine having the same job for 37 years. What does that kind of consistency feel like? How much of your frontal lobe can you access when so much of your routine can be handled by the basal ganglia?! How many relationships can you foster? Will anyone have access to that privilege again?
Privatizing National Weather Service will be either in an executive order or legislation that Heritage Foundation has already prepared. All this crap is set in motion. Hard to know when or how to stop it. I hate these people.
Then the officers get huge bonuses for saving the company money after laying off employees. That's what happened to me and 15K other people back in 2009. The company officers received multi-million $ bonuses for laying people off. Corps & the top dogs don't care 1 cent about their employees.
We lost most of our local tv news station staff (anchors, meteorologists, sports announcers etc.; only there was no on-air goodbye. There was no news for a few days, then it was replaced by a regional anchor from a few towns over. Local news went from a 30-minute segment to maybe an 8-minute one.
It’s not immigrants that put Americans out of jobs, it’s the tech bros and the other oligarchs. Deciding how to tax profits and distribute income is the economic-policy debate we should be having as America transforms from physical to virtual, analog to digital, factory to desktop.
The salaries for life and healthcare coverage must be cut for all members of Congress, the Supreme Court, the President and any other govt position with those perks.
As local news continues to plummet due to advertising $ going to mobile devices and anything else, local communities suffer from having no news about local gov or state issues, which partly how we ended up where we are now…
George if you find that disturbing, there is a radio network in Poland which is using AI announcers. No real people! That's probably coming when Felon47 implements his new Skynet program.
Making them vulnerable when disaster strikes, that they can be brought to their knees pleading to their Orange Messiah for refuge and solace... and he will answer with shackles, when he undoubtedly makes unhoused peoples illegal.
Sad but unfortunately the reality of progress. There are certain things in life where you really don't need a human to do, and us wasteful. It's different, for example, breaking bread with someone, which is why automated restaurants from the 1800s didn't take off.
A lot of people will die because they won’t know what is coming. I bet most people here just found out that meteorologists are government employees. Anyone that survives the next hurricane, tornado, drought, wildfire are on their own now. FEMA, as paltry as it it, helped recovery.
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weather news is just that LOCAL ….is Trump or Musk going to appear to the local towns tell them to take cover?
This. Just sucks.
For example, what kind of jobs do you think a digital artist skips past?
I think what you want is to ignore/downplay the demand-side of market economics.
https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/allen-media-group-scraps-plan-to-replace-local-tv-meteorologists
This is why we have laws against slavery or they would use that too as an option if they could.
Stop. Watching. Corporate. “News”.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon-musk-salute-cbs-firing-b2685320.html
Just like our founding fathers wanted it done
Is it better for them to cut costs and stay afloat or let themselves get bought by conservative conglomerates?
Where's the Weather Channel going to get its forecasts once Mr. Trump pulls the plug on NOAA?
Except for the part where people lose their jobs, income, homes, lives, etc., this ain't the utopian future they said the 21st century would be...
All the tech bros. Just a thought: Can Ai’s buy consumer goods?
https://bsky.app/profile/ottersby.bsky.social/post/3lgk46w4gq226
What happens when a tornado drops on an unlucky town? What warnings would be issued?
Just like the 90s saw the start of destruction of blue collar jobs - this only will get worse.
... aren't national forecasters always more accurate for the local weather forecasts - NOT!
His live stream of Hurricane Helene helped me prepare & helped me navigate being in a massive impact zone!
https://youtube.com/@ryanhallyall?si=-0qqku1YgB5h5nc5
Folks you can write the FCC and let them know the station is NOT serving the public interests for the local people can report thigns like Tornados faster.
Who profits from this crap?
Will Weather Channel be the new NSW/NOAA?
These are smarter people than Trump.
I’m sure they will survive