It’s happened again…(A brief musing)

Within the last couple of hours, a rather hefty storm came through which caused some flooding, a few nasty lightning strikes and so forth during morning rush hour. A friend called me around 8:45 or so to let me know that I might be interested in the final segment of Good Morning America. The program was in commercial break and unfortunately was never taken back to GMA. Instead, I was watching Don Schweneker…and I really wasn’t sure I wanted to see him! (Nothing personal Don!) But Don was doing what broadcasters have a responsibility to do.

You see, the storm had passed through Allegheny County and headed to Greensburg – still well within the viewing area. This meant local stations had a responsibility to spread the word. Unfortunately, in today’s society – people always wanting to know what’s going on but not when a good program is on – the stations are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. In this case weather overtook the national segment – unfortunate for many Pittsburghers waiting to see it.

But when is enough, enough? Enough is when you don’t have updated information within the last 5 minutes. Enough is when you’re repeating yourself over and over and over. Enough is when you play the same video loop every two minutes. Enough is…oh well you catch my drift.

My point is this. Although your program may have been interrupted, remember that local broadcasters actually have a responsibility to bring you any important information. Be glad that they do. Disappointment does sometimes occur as a result but it’s better to be safe and informed rather than blowing away because the station took no responsibility to broadcast a warning.

I suppose I will get over the fact that I missed the GMA segment, but if anyone knows where online I might be able to find it…please let me know!

A few months back, we had some severe weather blow through the Pittsburgh region and one of the local affiliates broke in on top of an all-important ending to a program. Uproar city took place at that time with emails coming in to PBRTV, The Post-Gazette and the poor guy who made the unfortunate decision to go with the news regarding the weather rather than the ending of the program.