How Much Severe Weather Coverage Is Overkill?

I think yesterday I finally reached my patience limit with the “previewing” of severe weather coverage as it was heading into our area. Before anyone paints this with the normal talking points I’ll address them;

YES, we need to alert people to take cover if a severe weather threat has shown itself and is coming toward their area. I lived in a very active tornado area in North Atlanta for 25 years. We were well schooled in having a weather radio (something I never even see sold here) and a family plan when the threat appears.

YES, TV stations are required to act in service to their communities. If people are going to be in danger there is absolutely nothing in TV programming that should take priority!

Unfortunately what has now become local television big business are severe weather pregame shows. These programs have become longer than the Super Bowl Pregame Shows. They go on for hours and repeat the same information over and over again. Yesterday was one of the most egregious examples in modern memory for me. Rain wasn’t even scheduled to arrive until dinner time at the earliest, yet the local stations were breaking into programming at lunchtime.

When the storms are being tracked on radar coming across from states that don’t even border Pennsylvania, I believe that is completely unnecessary. There were counties I’ve never heard of being mentioned and tracked that are not even in the local TV market during the afternoon! Can’t that wait for the local news? Top and bottom-of-the-hour cut-ins to alert us to storms that are still 6 hours away from arriving is a weird decision for broadcasters.

What is a public service and what is a ratings grab? What is alarming the public and what is trying to protect your audience from harm? This was NOT the norm in local news until the modern era. Covering a storm when it arrives and its aftermath was the common practice. Drumming up conversation points 6+ hours out seems like an agenda.

Everyone in the media is in the business of generating revenue and ratings. When people are panicked they tend to be drawn to immediate information. It’s obvious to me some consultants told the stations that if you can get extra hours of tension, create it. Get those eyeballs and build the drama. I just have to ask, who is that serving?

This morning in our pre-show meeting some of our crew living in New Jersey did not see any rain until almost midnight last night. At our home in Chester County, we had a severe storm that lasted about 30 minutes at dinner time and clear weather until after 10 pm. Every one of us is still served by the same local TV stations, but the hype machine got cranked up early.

All of the local stations seem to be in an arms race to create more weather coverage. Break-ins and expanded coverage are more prevalent than ever. Anxiety and stress are also at an all-time high in society. I wonder if there is any way we could help dial that down a bit? Just a thought.

According to a new study from Betway, The Linc has ranked among the top arenas for tailgating. Lincoln Financial Field tailgating is simply iconic. I mean, The Linc is a stadium, but still.

The study ranks the greatest NFL tailgating parties according to fans. Philadelphia Eagles fans really know how to tailgate according to this study.

It's another one of those great American traditions. There's no better way to get hyped up for a game than hanging with your fellow fans in the parking lot outside the venue. When you walk through a tailgate outside The Linc, the smell of cooking sausage and peppers, the sea of green jerseys, and the absolute tomfoolery the fans are engaging in, all wrap up to make a great day.

Sometimes the tailgate is better than the game itself. Sometimes people tailgate WITHOUT having tickets to the game! We are a dedicated fanbase. We love our team to the max and we show it with epic parking lot parties. And don't even get me started on all the craziness Philly fans get up to in these lots.

Lincoln Financial Field tailgating is something we as Philadelphians are known for. Our ranking so high is definitely something to be proud of.

Here are the top tailgating parties in the NFL according to fans:

The Buffalo Bills have the most popular tailgate parties according to fans. The study is based on positive sentiment scores and social media post saturation. So, the Bills have a huge positive sentiment score of 21.4%. It’s also the Buffalo Bills tailgate parties that are the most popular on social media. Highmark Stadium was featured on 259,507 posts.

Close behind The Bills, The Bengals have a 21.1% positive sentiment score. There are also almost 170,000 posts mentioning tailgating Cincinnati Bengal fans. 166,053 to be exact.

The Patriots (yuck, I know) received a 19% positive sentiment score. 159,827 posts feature tailgating at Gilette Stadium. They may rank higher than us, but we're still better. (See: Super Bowl LII).

Even more yuck, we know. We don't like these guys, but other people seem to, for some reason. Their positive sentiment score landed at 18.4%. And, 137,190 posts were made about tailgating at MetLife Stadium.

Another team we've smoked in many games that mattered a lot (see: 2017-2018 NFL season). But they're above us in terms of tailgating. God knows why, it's way too cold up there. Oh well, They received a positive sentiment score of 17.9%. And in terms of posts, they had 92,629 about tailgating.

At long last, we've arrived at the best city for tailgating. Not according to this list/study. According to my opinion and also reality and complete non-bias (wink wink). We got a positive sentiment score of 17.6% which is only slightly below the Vikings. AND. GET THIS. There were 145,504 posts about tailgating at The Linc. We beat both The Vikings and The Giants in that category. SO yeah. We rock. Tailgate on, Philly.