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Shocking: Snowmageddon Means Ratings Gold
By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 17, 2010
Modified Feb 17, 2010
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By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 17, 2010
Modified Feb 17, 2010
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It's no surprise why TV news divisions love winter weather events like Snowmageddon/Snowpocalypse 2010—keep hyping it, viewers keep tuning to see what will unfold! Storm Field, weather man (and son of Dr. Frank!) tells the NY Times, "There was a point — I think this goes back 20 years or more — when you had consultants coming in, telling stations weather was something important and you should move it up in the show.... I had these moments where I thought they wouldn’t be happy if I didn’t get on the air like Crazy Eddie and scream, ‘It’s coming, it’s coming, white death from the sky.’" Wait, like this infamous AccuWeather.com guy?
Field added, "Therefore, the more ratings you can generate, the more revenue you can generate. And in a failing economic climate where people can go online and get instant weather gratification, they’ve got to do something." See, people, that's what your damned weather widget is up to—it's forcing TV folks to do something.
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ratings
snow
snowmageddon
snowpocalypse
tv ratings
weather
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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