Snow 'n' tell: the sequel
02/11/10 05:29 PM
By ED BARK
And it kept on fallin', prompting D-FW's major TV news providers to provide viewers with a blizzard of extended coverage Thursday afternoon.
WFAA8 knocked off The Oprah Winfrey Show and Fox4 waylaid Judge Judy rather than let rivals NBC5 and CBS11 get a jump with their regularly scheduled 4 p.m. newscasts. The mounting snow and impending ice then blanketed all else -- and rightly so.
"It has been more than 30 years since we've seen a snow storm like this," Fox4 anchor Clarice Tinsley said at the start of the station's 5 p.m. news. Meteorologist Dan Henry then zeroed in.
"This is one of those once in a generation type of snow falls," he told viewers. "And in fact, it's the heaviest snow we have seen going back 32 years."
Some reporters built their own snowmen. Others, such as WFAA8's Brett Shipp, found something to investigate. The station touted his exclusive report of a weather-induced brawl on the Skyline High School campus after some snowball fights got out of hand. WFAA8 had long-distance video of punches being thrown amid a throng of unsupervised students on a day when a number of teachers stayed at home.
Shipp then capped the story by saying, "The only people around to stop that fight was our crew. And we had several gestures toward us that were unfriendly as we approached that crowd of students who were out of control."
WFAA8 also quickly mounted a promotion touting its earlier coverage Thursday of this very uncommon weather "event."
As previously noted, stations love this stuff. Bad weather newscasts, especially of this magnitude, attract many more viewers than usual. It's the one story that still plays out best on television screens, where reporter garb and anchor overstatements often spice up what otherwise can be some very useful and informative coverage.
"The boss won't let me out of the building," WFAA8 weatherman Pete Delkus noted after anchor Shelly Slater encouraged him to get outside and see a snowman or two. "I'm an indentured servant at this point."
Over on NBC5, reporter Ken Kalthoff acted as though most D-FW residents were sunbelt yahoos. Up north, he said, "they have a thing called snow plows." Really?!?!?!
Here's another picture album from the day's activities.
