History of The Weather Channel
Encyclopedia
The history of The Weather Channel in the United States dates to around 1980.
Chicago
chief meteorologist and Good Morning America
forecaster John Coleman
, who took his idea to Landmark's
then-chief Frank Batten
.
A major part of the plan for the new network was that it would be able to provide localized weather information to its viewers. This was done through WeatherSTAR
units located at each cable company's headend
. These WeatherSTARs were able to insert local conditions, forecasts, and warnings over the national feed.
On July 18, 1980, The Weather Channel, Inc. was founded in Atlanta, Georgia
.
information for the United States
as well as other countries and regions of the world
. TWC originally gathered its national region forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) and its local forecasts from local National Weather Service
offices.
The original Weather Star I model was quickly upgraded to the Weather Star II when it began to interfere with the channel 2 signal at the cable headend. The Weather Star III
upgrade improved the hardware somewhat and came about 1987.
1990 saw the introduction of the first Weather Star 4000
models in a text-based system similar to the Weather Star III. In-STAR radar was introduced in June of that year, and graphical backgrounds were introduced in July, making TWC history by being the first STARs to generate graphics and the first to feature the TWC logo in the forecast. Also in 1990, The Weather Channel included snow condition reports at 5 minutes after the hour.
Largely considered the height of the classic TWC by enthusiasts, The Weather Channel underwent a major graphic revamp with its new banner slogan being "Weather You Can Always Turn To" on March 6,1991. Graphic elements include heavy use of gradients and the Caxton typeface. July 3 brought The Weather Channel Connection, a 1-900 service for obtaining weather information. Originally 1-900-288-8800, it moved to 1-900-WEATHER in 1992 and used its phone number as its name. On 1 November, The Weather Channel filed for a trademark on TWC, a common shortening of the name that was even seen on air.
By 1993, 90% of cable households received The Weather Channel.
On January 10, 1994, TWC placed an order for 1,000 Weather Star Jr units with Wegener Communications, which builds equipment for cable headends. The Star Jr. is a budget model in the Weather Star line.
1995 brought a variety of changes to TWC, setting the stage for more changes in 1996. Minor graphical tweaks were made. The Short Term Forecasts from the National Weather Service were introduced to Local Forecasts as the Local Update (which in turn destabilized flavor lineups and caused the discontinuation of narration). The 30-Day Outlook was discontinued by the National Weather Service (which required TWC to discontinue the product). New program introductions included WeatherScope (top/bottom of the hour weather discussion) was introduced and a special on how weather affected Pearl Harbor on December 7. The music of Trammell Starks, used on Weatherscan and emergency cases since 2000, premiered at the end of the year.
, a concept in which local forecasts aired at :08, :18, :28, :38, :48, and :58 after the hour, also made its debut - the name would fade away after 1998 but make a comeback in 2002.
On May 22, Landmark Communications bought a building at 300 Interstate North near the junction of Interstates 75 and 285 in Atlanta for TWC. TWC had been looking for new studios, and requirements included 18-foot ceilings. Improvements were made to bring the building up to code before TWC moved into its new home at the end of 1996 (but not doing broadcasting from there until early 1997).
On October 30, the first use in commerce of the name Weather Star XL
was marked; two years later, the XL would make its debut, the catalyst for top-to-bottom modernization of the local forecast segment. Throughout this time period, The Weather Channel would end up with their old logo on segments, and some specialty segments retained their Dan Chandler narration and/or old TWC logo into late 1997. By 1996, The Weather Channel reached 63 million homes, with 130,000 watching at one time.
In 1997, TWC moved to its new home. A new schedule was introduced in a news wheel format on 31 March. August 25, 1997 brought a memorable advertising campaign, The Front, created by ad agency TBWA Chiat/Day. The setting was something akin to a sports bar, but the major difference was that weather was the central focus. The slogan used with The Front was Weather fans, you're not alone. The 1997 World Series was the first that TWC covered with live reporters. January 6, 1998 saw the introduction of new title bars for national segments.
In March 1998, TWC refreshed again, with extended variants of Akzidenz-Grotesk and footage of clouds at the core of the new identity. For the first time in the channel's history, there was no slogan or unifying theme. WeatherScope was out and replaced with the Weather Center
brand, originally comprising all of the channel's programming but later significantly pared down as other time slots received program names and long-form shows were introduced. April 1998 saw updates to The Front. One of the new advertisements specifically mentioned the 36-hour text forecasts (which, at the time, were still supplied by the National Weather Service), but heralded new Local Forecast graphics; the machine that produced those graphics, the IRIX
-based Weather Star XL
, came out later that year as the first new mainline STAR in eight years. Its capabilities were significantly more advanced than the 4000, with animated, high-quality output consistent with TWC's national graphics and new scalable icons; the icons would be used for eight years on TWC but still remain on the Weather Star XLs still in service and certain downloadable web widgets.
1999 brought the removal of the unpredictable-length Local Update on the Weather Star 4000, which stabilized flavor lineups. Also in 1999, Weatherscan Local
, originally exclusive to Comcast
systems, was introduced. Weatherscan runs continuous weather information 24 hours a day. Cable operators could add optional packages featuring expanded weather information or specialty (golf, boat and beach, marine, etc.) to their Weatherscan systems. That year brought Sky on Fire, a documentary on lightning
, and a new president at TWC, Decker Anstrom. By 1999, The Weather Channel reached 70 million homes, 98% of all cable households. It also provided radio forecasts to more than 250 radio stations and weather maps to 52 newspapers. Between 1999 and 2000, TWC aired conditions reports from Mount Everest using battery-powered sensors.
2000 brought Vocal Local, which uses narration to read local forecast data, to XL systems; while most cable operators added the Vocal Local feature, some did not employ it on their Weather Star XL units. Music was switched from quarterly to monthly playlists; as such, 2000 is considered the split between the "classic" TWC and "modern" TWC by several websites. Atmospheres
, a newsmagazine-style program, premiered on August 23 of that year.
In 2001, a major change occurred on Weatherscan. Local forecasts generated for each county by the National Weather Service were removed and replaced with TWC products. While the NWS forecasts were of high quality, the new TWC forecasts were generated for areas, beneficial to multi-county viewing zones served by one STAR. In May 2001, TWC launched "Rays Awareness", an initiative focused on sun safety in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and American Academy of Dermatology
.
In April 2002, what happened the previous year on Weatherscan hit the Weather Stars: The NWS forecasts were out. As NWS bulletins/warnings were in the old forecasts, a Weather Bulletins page displays the applicable watches, warnings, and advisories (on the 4000, The Weather Channel does send NWS Bulletins to appear in the text-based local forecast, as the 4000 does not feature the Weather Bulletins slide). May 2002 brought TWC's 20th anniversary; to celebrate, a special was aired, and a book was published by Harvard Business Press
, The Weather Channel: The Improbable Rise of a Media Phenomenon (ISBN 978-1-57851-559-2), written by TWC founder Frank Batten and Jeffrey L. Cruikshank.
The first long form programs arrived at The Weather Channel to begin 2003, with Storm Stories
being the first program that was not weather or a documentary-type special. Also in 2003, Live By It was refreshed slightly. Weatherscan received a new design in February and moved to a modern STAR platform, known as the IntelliStar
. The FreeBSD
-based IntelliStar is more flexible than the IRIX-based Star XL for updates. Plans to revive The Front as a weather discussion board were proposed and scrapped that year.
2004 saw the introduction and decommissioning of STARs. The IntelliStar made its way to TWC from Weatherscan. The Weather Star III was removed from service when DTMF tone and weather warning regulations were not being met. In October 2004, the United States Postal Service
and TWC teamed up to create stamps depicting clouds and an accompanying "Cloudscapes" educational campaign - aimed at kids in grades 3 through 5 - about reading clouds to tell of pending weather conditions sent to 200,000 educators around the US, unveiled at Boston, Massachusetts' Blue Hill Observatory.
In early 2005, The Weather Channel announced a major refresh - its first new logo in nine years, a new slogan, and other new elements - was to occur in August. The relaunch was part of a long-running effort aimed at reducing the network's dependence on "commodity" viewers (those looking for forecast information) and attracting what then-TWC president Patrick Scott calls "vitalists" (those with an active interest in weather) and "planners" using the channel to plan the week.
2006 continued the trend of more serial programs, such as climate-focused The Climate Code with Dr. Heidi Cullen
(later renamed Forecast Earth) and It Could Happen Tomorrow
.
In May 2006, The Weather Channel celebrated 25 years on the air, the festivities including airing select past Weather Channel commercials and showing a special 25th anniversary logo during commercial breaks (see the Logos section for details). June 17 saw the announcement of a deal with MSNBC
's msnbc.com that made TWC the exclusive weather content provider for msnbc.com. September 26 saw the launch of the HD simulcast channel, and October 23 introduced a major refresh for the IntelliStar, with new titles and backgrounds.
2008 started with uncertainty, as rumors abounded about on-camera meteorologists Bob Stokes sexually harassing co-anchor Hillary Andrews. Andrews filed a lawsuit in Cobb County
district court against The Weather Channel alleging the abuse by Stokes (which included statements like "Will you lick my swizzle stick" and saying that TWC "covered it up"). In May, Andrews won the lawsuit and was awarded an undisclosed amount of money. During the proceedings, it was revealed that Stokes' co-anchor before Andrews, Melissa Barrington, was also harassed. At the same time, Landmark Communications
announced it was selling most of its assets, including broadcast television stations, newspapers, The Weather Channel, and data center facilities.
Current weather and forecast model data is still provided to TWC by the NWS and NOAA, and the ultraviolet index and air quality index
reports are from the United States Environmental Protection Agency
. The Weather Channel does not have any local meteorologists outside of the Atlanta area.
purchased the channel, weather.com, Weather Services International, a 30% stake in Canadian company Pelmorex
, and miscellaneous other assets for $3.5 billion along with private equity firms The Blackstone Group
and Bain Capital
, from the family-owned Landmark Communications
. Later, Landmark announced it was halting the sales of most of the other properties except for one newspaper. The Weather Channel was the only property sold by Landmark.
In November, like all NBC Universal properties, it joined the "Green is Universal" campaign for environmental awareness. The logo was turned green (normally done from master control on other networks) by sending an update to the IntelliStar to change the logo. Ironically, in the middle of "green week" (on November 20), The Weather Channel made major layoffs, described as cost synergies - three active on-camera meteorologists and one former one, the marketing department, the Road Crew (originally including Jeff Mielcarz, but Mielcarz then appeared on some weather.com video forecasts in December 2008), significant portions of the TWC Radio Network, and the Forecast Earth/environmental unit. (However, certain portions of the Forecast Earth unit remain with TWC.) The layoffs are took effect on November 30. (The Weather Channel later stated it would air other environmental programs.) With the shutdown of NBC Weather Plus, certain assets from Weather Plus (meteorologists and technology, specifically) have been rebranded as TWC assets with TWC-branded graphics. The NBC Weather Plus meteorologists continued based from NBC Universal headquarters at Rockefeller Center
and appeared often on MSNBC
until the 2009 closure of the entire division. TWC personalities and on-camera meteorologists, such as Jim Cantore
and Mike Seidel
, have appeared on NBC and MSNBC properties since the sale. One of the motives for the cuts was in order to aid a $500 billion budget cut at NBC Universal parent company General Electric
; NBC Universal and CNBC
have also made cuts.
February 2009 started with layoffs of four OCMs at the channel; midway through the month, it was discovered by members to a TWC fan forum and a leak on the TWC media kit that The Weather Channel was shaking up the schedule radically, including canceling Evening Edition
, Abrams & Bettes: Beyond the Forecast
, Forecast Earth
, and Weekend Outlook
, dramatically changing Weather Center
and turning sections of it over to Abrams & Bettes - all between February 21 and March 1. It had already been announced that Storm Stories
was to return as part of a Tornado Week. The program changes are some of the most far-reaching since 2003, which saw the creation of programs such as Day Planner
and PM Edition
. In March 2009, TWC personalities and programs dramatically ramped up use of Twitter
- at the same time, other NBC Universal properties (especially MSNBC) did the same. Programs now regularly feature viewer tweets.
On March 5,2009, Geoffrey Darby was named Executive Vice President of Programming and Production. Under Darby, Abrams and Bettes were moved to Your Weather Today; First Outlook was shortened by one hour to make way for a new show Wake Up With Al
featuring Al Roker
; and the longstanding jazz on the channel was removed and replaced with instrumental rock at Darby's request; it was even confirmed by Chris Geith, the only remaining jazz artist in the playlists, that TWC had sent out a request for proposal to create production music branded with a common signature for the channel. TWC began showing weekly movies related to weather on Friday nights, beginning October 30, 2009; this caused criticism from many viewers and those in the media, who have criticized The Weather Channel for deviating from its format of running weather information 24 hours a day. The first film seen on TWC was The Perfect Storm
. Other films included March of the Penguins
and Misery
. Showing movies on TWC was a move that was planned for some time, even before the acquisition by NBC. After December 2009, these weekly movies were discontinued for the time being in favor of running Weather Center, which already aired in the entire primetime slot during the rest of the work week. Despite the controversy, the channel revisit the Friday night film block starting on March 26, 2010 with Into Thin Air
.
Since the acquisition by NBC, live programming such as Your Weather Today has featured live video from NBC-owned or affiliated stations, as well as live or videotaped field reports from news correspondents employed by the local NBC affiliate serving the area being covered.
In January 2011, TWC announced that Australian-born landscape photographer Peter Lik
would be starring in a new half-hour action-adventure nature reality series titled From the Edge with Peter Lik, to debut March 31. The program is produced by NBC's in-house production unit, Peacock Productions. Lik will also serve as a special contributor for TWC, providing segments from his frequent travels to weather-impacted locales.
Pre-launch
The Weather Channel was the brainchild of former WLS-TVWLS-TV
WLS-TV, virtual channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The station operates their full power digital operations on UHF channel 44, with their digital fill-in translator on VHF channel...
Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
chief meteorologist and Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
forecaster John Coleman
John Coleman (meteorologist)
John Coleman is an American TV weatherman noted, along with entrepreneur Frank Batten, for founding The Weather Channel. He presently works as an on-camera weather caster at KUSI-TV in San Diego but is no longer affiliated with The Weather Channel....
, who took his idea to Landmark's
Landmark Communications
Landmark Media Enterprises LLC is a privately held media company headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia specializing in cable television, broadcast television, print publishing, and internet publishing...
then-chief Frank Batten
Frank Batten
Frank Batten was the founder of the first nationwide, 24-hour cable weather channel, The Weather Channel...
.
A major part of the plan for the new network was that it would be able to provide localized weather information to its viewers. This was done through WeatherSTAR
WeatherStar
WeatherStar refers to the technology used by The Weather Channel to generate their Local Forecast segments on cable TV systems nationwide...
units located at each cable company's headend
Cable television headend
A cable television headend is a master facility for receiving television signals for processing and distribution over a cable television system. The headend facility is normally unstaffed and surrounded by some type of security fencing and is typically a building or large shed housing electronic...
. These WeatherSTARs were able to insert local conditions, forecasts, and warnings over the national feed.
On July 18, 1980, The Weather Channel, Inc. was founded in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
.
The launch: May 2, 1982
The Weather Channel went on the air on May 2, 1982. The channel reported the weather and other meteorologicalMeteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
information for the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as well as other countries and regions of the world
World
World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth....
. TWC originally gathered its national region forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pronounced , like "noah", is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere...
(NOAA) and its local forecasts from local National Weather Service
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service , once known as the Weather Bureau, is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States government...
offices.
The original Weather Star I model was quickly upgraded to the Weather Star II when it began to interfere with the channel 2 signal at the cable headend. The Weather Star III
Weather Star III
The Weather Star III is one in a series of systems from The Weather Channel that use data from satellite systems and organize it for broadcasting. Introduced in 1986, it was a major hardware upgrade over the Weather Star II...
upgrade improved the hardware somewhat and came about 1987.
You Need Us: 1986 - January 1991
In 1986, The Weather Channel unveiled its first major image campaign and slogan, "You Need Us For Everything You Do". A full one-minute lyrical theme was created, but rarely aired - the shorter version was more commonly seen. 1989 saw the remixing of the theme. Also in 1989, Prime Time Tonight, a 3-minute video cable guide that appears daily every 9 times from 7:57pm to 11:27pm was introduced.1990 saw the introduction of the first Weather Star 4000
Weather STAR 4000
The Weather Star 4000 is the first graphic-capable model of the WeatherStar line manufactured for The Weather Channel. It was first introduced in December 1989 and was designed by Canadian electronics company Amirix . The WeatherStar 4000 was manufactured by Northern Telecom...
models in a text-based system similar to the Weather Star III. In-STAR radar was introduced in June of that year, and graphical backgrounds were introduced in July, making TWC history by being the first STARs to generate graphics and the first to feature the TWC logo in the forecast. Also in 1990, The Weather Channel included snow condition reports at 5 minutes after the hour.
Weather You Can Always Turn To: March 6, 1991 - October 1996
By 1993, 90% of cable households received The Weather Channel.
On January 10, 1994, TWC placed an order for 1,000 Weather Star Jr units with Wegener Communications, which builds equipment for cable headends. The Star Jr. is a budget model in the Weather Star line.
1995 brought a variety of changes to TWC, setting the stage for more changes in 1996. Minor graphical tweaks were made. The Short Term Forecasts from the National Weather Service were introduced to Local Forecasts as the Local Update (which in turn destabilized flavor lineups and caused the discontinuation of narration). The 30-Day Outlook was discontinued by the National Weather Service (which required TWC to discontinue the product). New program introductions included WeatherScope (top/bottom of the hour weather discussion) was introduced and a special on how weather affected Pearl Harbor on December 7. The music of Trammell Starks, used on Weatherscan and emergency cases since 2000, premiered at the end of the year.
Major modernization: October 1996 - March 1998
In two years, The Weather Channel changed dramatically. The first wave of change came in February 1996. A new slogan hit viewers' screens, "No place on Earth has better weather", heralded with a trio of humorous spots promoting the accuracy of TWC weather coverage. Months later, The Weather Channel received its biggest overhaul since 1991. A newer, flatter logo, new graphics featuring rotating globes and compass points, and new music made for a total modernization of TWC presentation. 1996 also saw the launch of weather.com, The Weather Channel's Web portal. Local on the 8sLocal on the 8s
The Local on the 8s or Local Forecast is the portion of programming where viewers see current weather conditions and local weather forecasts for their respective area on The Weather Channel in the United States...
, a concept in which local forecasts aired at :08, :18, :28, :38, :48, and :58 after the hour, also made its debut - the name would fade away after 1998 but make a comeback in 2002.
On May 22, Landmark Communications bought a building at 300 Interstate North near the junction of Interstates 75 and 285 in Atlanta for TWC. TWC had been looking for new studios, and requirements included 18-foot ceilings. Improvements were made to bring the building up to code before TWC moved into its new home at the end of 1996 (but not doing broadcasting from there until early 1997).
On October 30, the first use in commerce of the name Weather Star XL
Weather STAR XL
Weather Star XL is the fifth system designed for The Weather Channel's local forecast. At its rollout in 1998, it came months after a major update to the channel's presentation. The Star XL was a major leap over the much older Weather Star 4000 system, featuring advanced capabilities such as...
was marked; two years later, the XL would make its debut, the catalyst for top-to-bottom modernization of the local forecast segment. Throughout this time period, The Weather Channel would end up with their old logo on segments, and some specialty segments retained their Dan Chandler narration and/or old TWC logo into late 1997. By 1996, The Weather Channel reached 63 million homes, with 130,000 watching at one time.
In 1997, TWC moved to its new home. A new schedule was introduced in a news wheel format on 31 March. August 25, 1997 brought a memorable advertising campaign, The Front, created by ad agency TBWA Chiat/Day. The setting was something akin to a sports bar, but the major difference was that weather was the central focus. The slogan used with The Front was Weather fans, you're not alone. The 1997 World Series was the first that TWC covered with live reporters. January 6, 1998 saw the introduction of new title bars for national segments.
The second wave of change: March 10, 1998 - June 2001
Weather Center (1998)
Weather Center was a news/weather program produced by The Weather Channel in Atlanta, Georgia. Initially, Weather Center was the lone news program for The Weather Channel. By 2000, the show had started being significantly pared down...
brand, originally comprising all of the channel's programming but later significantly pared down as other time slots received program names and long-form shows were introduced. April 1998 saw updates to The Front. One of the new advertisements specifically mentioned the 36-hour text forecasts (which, at the time, were still supplied by the National Weather Service), but heralded new Local Forecast graphics; the machine that produced those graphics, the IRIX
IRIX
IRIX is a computer operating system developed by Silicon Graphics, Inc. to run natively on their 32- and 64-bit MIPS architecture workstations and servers. It was based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. IRIX was the first operating system to include the XFS file system.The last major version...
-based Weather Star XL
Weather STAR XL
Weather Star XL is the fifth system designed for The Weather Channel's local forecast. At its rollout in 1998, it came months after a major update to the channel's presentation. The Star XL was a major leap over the much older Weather Star 4000 system, featuring advanced capabilities such as...
, came out later that year as the first new mainline STAR in eight years. Its capabilities were significantly more advanced than the 4000, with animated, high-quality output consistent with TWC's national graphics and new scalable icons; the icons would be used for eight years on TWC but still remain on the Weather Star XLs still in service and certain downloadable web widgets.
1999 brought the removal of the unpredictable-length Local Update on the Weather Star 4000, which stabilized flavor lineups. Also in 1999, Weatherscan Local
Weatherscan
Weatherscan is a TV channel offered by The Weather Channel. Carried on select cable systems in the United States, Weatherscan features uninterrupted local weather information in graphical format on a continuous loop...
, originally exclusive to Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
systems, was introduced. Weatherscan runs continuous weather information 24 hours a day. Cable operators could add optional packages featuring expanded weather information or specialty (golf, boat and beach, marine, etc.) to their Weatherscan systems. That year brought Sky on Fire, a documentary on lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
, and a new president at TWC, Decker Anstrom. By 1999, The Weather Channel reached 70 million homes, 98% of all cable households. It also provided radio forecasts to more than 250 radio stations and weather maps to 52 newspapers. Between 1999 and 2000, TWC aired conditions reports from Mount Everest using battery-powered sensors.
2000 brought Vocal Local, which uses narration to read local forecast data, to XL systems; while most cable operators added the Vocal Local feature, some did not employ it on their Weather Star XL units. Music was switched from quarterly to monthly playlists; as such, 2000 is considered the split between the "classic" TWC and "modern" TWC by several websites. Atmospheres
Atmospheres (TV show)
Atmospheres was a weekly television series on The Weather Channel. The series, hosted by popular meteorologist Jim Cantore and Mish Michaels, featured current weather news and information...
, a newsmagazine-style program, premiered on August 23 of that year.
In 2001, a major change occurred on Weatherscan. Local forecasts generated for each county by the National Weather Service were removed and replaced with TWC products. While the NWS forecasts were of high quality, the new TWC forecasts were generated for areas, beneficial to multi-county viewing zones served by one STAR. In May 2001, TWC launched "Rays Awareness", an initiative focused on sun safety in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and American Academy of Dermatology
American Academy of Dermatology
The American Academy of Dermatology is the largest organization of dermatologists in the world. It was founded in 1938 and represents 17,000 dermatologists in the United States, Canada, and around the world. The Academy grants Fellowships and Associate Memberships, as well as Fellowships for...
.
Live By It and complete changes: June 2001 - August 14, 2005
September 2001 saw the Weather Star XL get refreshed for the first time. Changes included improved maps, title bars, and graphical elements. TWC introduced its "Live By It" slogan.In April 2002, what happened the previous year on Weatherscan hit the Weather Stars: The NWS forecasts were out. As NWS bulletins/warnings were in the old forecasts, a Weather Bulletins page displays the applicable watches, warnings, and advisories (on the 4000, The Weather Channel does send NWS Bulletins to appear in the text-based local forecast, as the 4000 does not feature the Weather Bulletins slide). May 2002 brought TWC's 20th anniversary; to celebrate, a special was aired, and a book was published by Harvard Business Press
Harvard Business Press
Harvard Business Press is the book-specific division of Harvard Business School Publishing, owned by the Harvard Business School, based in Boston, MA.The Press publishes general interest books in addition to business books...
, The Weather Channel: The Improbable Rise of a Media Phenomenon (ISBN 978-1-57851-559-2), written by TWC founder Frank Batten and Jeffrey L. Cruikshank.
The first long form programs arrived at The Weather Channel to begin 2003, with Storm Stories
Storm Stories
Storm Stories is a non-fiction television series aired on The Weather Channel and Zone Reality hosted and narrated by meteorologist and Storm-Tracker Jim Cantore. Storm Stories showcases various types of severe weather, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and blizzards. Each episode features a famous...
being the first program that was not weather or a documentary-type special. Also in 2003, Live By It was refreshed slightly. Weatherscan received a new design in February and moved to a modern STAR platform, known as the IntelliStar
IntelliStar
IntelliStar is the fifth generation successor to the WeatherStar systems used by the American cable TV and satellite TV channel The Weather Channel , for inserting local forecasts and current weather information into TWC's programming...
. The FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
-based IntelliStar is more flexible than the IRIX-based Star XL for updates. Plans to revive The Front as a weather discussion board were proposed and scrapped that year.
2004 saw the introduction and decommissioning of STARs. The IntelliStar made its way to TWC from Weatherscan. The Weather Star III was removed from service when DTMF tone and weather warning regulations were not being met. In October 2004, the United States Postal Service
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
and TWC teamed up to create stamps depicting clouds and an accompanying "Cloudscapes" educational campaign - aimed at kids in grades 3 through 5 - about reading clouds to tell of pending weather conditions sent to 200,000 educators around the US, unveiled at Boston, Massachusetts' Blue Hill Observatory.
In early 2005, The Weather Channel announced a major refresh - its first new logo in nine years, a new slogan, and other new elements - was to occur in August. The relaunch was part of a long-running effort aimed at reducing the network's dependence on "commodity" viewers (those looking for forecast information) and attracting what then-TWC president Patrick Scott calls "vitalists" (those with an active interest in weather) and "planners" using the channel to plan the week.
Bringing weather to life: August 15, 2005-June 1, 2008
On August 15, 2005, at 5am Eastern Daylight Time, The Weather Channel underwent a total relaunch. A newer, simpler logo was introduced, as was a new slogan, "Bringing weather to life". More serial programs were introduced. The refresh came with STAR graphics refreshes for the XL and IntelliStar, both receiving the new logo and a new cloud background. The XL also received new title bars.2006 continued the trend of more serial programs, such as climate-focused The Climate Code with Dr. Heidi Cullen
Forecast Earth
Forecast Earth is the name for The Weather Channel's environmental initiatives. It also was the name of an environment news program that ran on TWC from 2006 to 2008.-History of the brand:The Forecast Earth brand was introduced in 2003 for special series...
(later renamed Forecast Earth) and It Could Happen Tomorrow
It Could Happen Tomorrow
It Could Happen Tomorrow is a television series that premiered on January 15, 2006 on The Weather Channel. It explores the possibilities of various weather and other natural phenomena severely damaging or destroying America's cities...
.
In May 2006, The Weather Channel celebrated 25 years on the air, the festivities including airing select past Weather Channel commercials and showing a special 25th anniversary logo during commercial breaks (see the Logos section for details). June 17 saw the announcement of a deal with MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
's msnbc.com that made TWC the exclusive weather content provider for msnbc.com. September 26 saw the launch of the HD simulcast channel, and October 23 introduced a major refresh for the IntelliStar, with new titles and backgrounds.
2008 started with uncertainty, as rumors abounded about on-camera meteorologists Bob Stokes sexually harassing co-anchor Hillary Andrews. Andrews filed a lawsuit in Cobb County
Cobb County, Georgia
Cobb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Its county seat and largest city is Marietta, which is located in the center of the county. The county was named for Thomas Willis Cobb, who in the early 19th century was a United States representative and senator from Georgia...
district court against The Weather Channel alleging the abuse by Stokes (which included statements like "Will you lick my swizzle stick" and saying that TWC "covered it up"). In May, Andrews won the lawsuit and was awarded an undisclosed amount of money. During the proceedings, it was revealed that Stokes' co-anchor before Andrews, Melissa Barrington, was also harassed. At the same time, Landmark Communications
Landmark Communications
Landmark Media Enterprises LLC is a privately held media company headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia specializing in cable television, broadcast television, print publishing, and internet publishing...
announced it was selling most of its assets, including broadcast television stations, newspapers, The Weather Channel, and data center facilities.
The Weather Channel goes HD: June 2, 2008-present
On June 2, The Weather Channel unveiled its first major modernization since 2005. New graphics and openers for every TWC program, a new IntelliStar lower display line with tabs (another first), and a full thrust into the channel's new studios were the results of a massive move to high-definition. By August 12, the old SD studios were out of service and ready to be turned into offices.Current weather and forecast model data is still provided to TWC by the NWS and NOAA, and the ultraviolet index and air quality index
Air Quality Index
Air quality is defined as a measure of the condition of air relative to the requirements of one or more biotic species or to any human need or purpose. Air quality indices are numbers used by government agencies to characterize the quality of the air at a given location...
reports are from the United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
. The Weather Channel does not have any local meteorologists outside of the Atlanta area.
Becoming an NBC-owned channel
The channel got more in the way of change a month later, as NBC UniversalNBC Universal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
purchased the channel, weather.com, Weather Services International, a 30% stake in Canadian company Pelmorex
Pelmorex
Pelmorex Media Inc. is a Canadian broadcast group. The company operates the broadcasting licence for The Weather Network and its French sister station, MétéoMédia. The Weather Network and MétéoMédia are Canada’s only 24-hour national specialty television networks devoted to weather reporting...
, and miscellaneous other assets for $3.5 billion along with private equity firms The Blackstone Group
Blackstone Group
The Blackstone Group L.P. is an American-based alternative asset management and financial services company that specializes in private equity, real estate, and credit and marketable alternative investment strategies, as well as financial advisory services, such as mergers and acquisitions ,...
and Bain Capital
Bain Capital
Bain Capital LLC is a Boston-based private equity firm founded in 1984 by partners from the consulting firm Bain & Company. Originally conceived as an early-stage, growth-oriented investment fund, Bain Capital today manages approximately $65 billion in assets, and its strategies include private...
, from the family-owned Landmark Communications
Landmark Communications
Landmark Media Enterprises LLC is a privately held media company headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia specializing in cable television, broadcast television, print publishing, and internet publishing...
. Later, Landmark announced it was halting the sales of most of the other properties except for one newspaper. The Weather Channel was the only property sold by Landmark.
In November, like all NBC Universal properties, it joined the "Green is Universal" campaign for environmental awareness. The logo was turned green (normally done from master control on other networks) by sending an update to the IntelliStar to change the logo. Ironically, in the middle of "green week" (on November 20), The Weather Channel made major layoffs, described as cost synergies - three active on-camera meteorologists and one former one, the marketing department, the Road Crew (originally including Jeff Mielcarz, but Mielcarz then appeared on some weather.com video forecasts in December 2008), significant portions of the TWC Radio Network, and the Forecast Earth/environmental unit. (However, certain portions of the Forecast Earth unit remain with TWC.) The layoffs are took effect on November 30. (The Weather Channel later stated it would air other environmental programs.) With the shutdown of NBC Weather Plus, certain assets from Weather Plus (meteorologists and technology, specifically) have been rebranded as TWC assets with TWC-branded graphics. The NBC Weather Plus meteorologists continued based from NBC Universal headquarters at Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...
and appeared often on MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
until the 2009 closure of the entire division. TWC personalities and on-camera meteorologists, such as Jim Cantore
Jim Cantore
James D. Cantore is an American meteorologist. He is best known as an on-air personality for The Weather Channel.- Career :...
and Mike Seidel
Mike Seidel
Michael Phillip "Mike" Seidel is an American meteorologist who has worked at The Weather Channel since March 1992. He is noted for his field reporting from breaking weather including severe weather, hurricanes and snowstorms.- Early career :...
, have appeared on NBC and MSNBC properties since the sale. One of the motives for the cuts was in order to aid a $500 billion budget cut at NBC Universal parent company General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
; NBC Universal and CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
have also made cuts.
February 2009 started with layoffs of four OCMs at the channel; midway through the month, it was discovered by members to a TWC fan forum and a leak on the TWC media kit that The Weather Channel was shaking up the schedule radically, including canceling Evening Edition
Evening Edition
Evening Edition was a weather program broadcast by The Weather Channel. Evening Edition included multiple hours of programming, cut into by long-form programs such as When Weather Changed History, as well as a repeating overnight hour.-Program history:...
, Abrams & Bettes: Beyond the Forecast
Abrams & Bettes: Beyond the Forecast
Abrams & Bettes Beyond the Forecast, commonly abbreviated Abrams & Bettes, Beyond the Forecast, or A&B, was a weather program produced by The Weather Channel.-Program history:...
, Forecast Earth
Forecast Earth
Forecast Earth is the name for The Weather Channel's environmental initiatives. It also was the name of an environment news program that ran on TWC from 2006 to 2008.-History of the brand:The Forecast Earth brand was introduced in 2003 for special series...
, and Weekend Outlook
Weekend Outlook
Weekend Outlook was a weekend morning weather program on The Weather Channel. It was comparable to First Outlook, but with a different focus: Weekend Outlook was geared toward weekend planning and forecasts, compared to the commuter/straightforward style of First Outlook...
, dramatically changing Weather Center
Weather Center
Weather Center Live, previously named Weather Center from its March 2009 relaunch until May 2011, is a weather news program produced by The Weather Channel in Atlanta, Georgia.-Program history:...
and turning sections of it over to Abrams & Bettes - all between February 21 and March 1. It had already been announced that Storm Stories
Storm Stories
Storm Stories is a non-fiction television series aired on The Weather Channel and Zone Reality hosted and narrated by meteorologist and Storm-Tracker Jim Cantore. Storm Stories showcases various types of severe weather, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and blizzards. Each episode features a famous...
was to return as part of a Tornado Week. The program changes are some of the most far-reaching since 2003, which saw the creation of programs such as Day Planner
Day Planner
Day Planner is a late morning-early afternoon weather forecast program airing on The Weather Channel.-Program history:Day Planner was added in 2003 as one of the last programs to be added to The Weather Channel's morning programming block...
and PM Edition
PM Edition
PM Edition is a weather program on The Weather Channel, an American television station. It focuses on weather conditions for the evening commute...
. In March 2009, TWC personalities and programs dramatically ramped up use of Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
- at the same time, other NBC Universal properties (especially MSNBC) did the same. Programs now regularly feature viewer tweets.
On March 5,2009, Geoffrey Darby was named Executive Vice President of Programming and Production. Under Darby, Abrams and Bettes were moved to Your Weather Today; First Outlook was shortened by one hour to make way for a new show Wake Up With Al
Wake Up With Al
Wake Up With Al is a morning weather program on The Weather Channel. It premiered on Monday, July 20, 2009. It is also currently the newest live show on The Weather Channel.-Program history:...
featuring Al Roker
Al Roker
Albert Lincoln "Al" Roker, Jr. is an American television meteorologist as well as an actor and book author. He is best known as being the weather anchor on NBC's Today. On Monday, July 20, 2009, he began co-hosting his new morning show, Wake Up with Al, on The Weather Channel, which airs weekdays...
; and the longstanding jazz on the channel was removed and replaced with instrumental rock at Darby's request; it was even confirmed by Chris Geith, the only remaining jazz artist in the playlists, that TWC had sent out a request for proposal to create production music branded with a common signature for the channel. TWC began showing weekly movies related to weather on Friday nights, beginning October 30, 2009; this caused criticism from many viewers and those in the media, who have criticized The Weather Channel for deviating from its format of running weather information 24 hours a day. The first film seen on TWC was The Perfect Storm
The Perfect Storm (film)
The Perfect Storm is a 2000 dramatic disaster film directed by Wolfgang Petersen. It is an adaptation of the 1997 non-fiction book of the same title by Sebastian Junger about the crew of the Andrea Gail that got caught in the Perfect Storm of 1991. The film stars George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg,...
. Other films included March of the Penguins
March of the Penguins
March of the Penguins is a 2005 French nature documentary film. It was directed and co-written by Luc Jacquet, and co-produced by Bonne Pioche and the National Geographic Society. The film depicts the yearly journey of the emperor penguins of Antarctica...
and Misery
Misery (film)
Misery is a 1990 American Psychological Horror Film based on Stephen King's 1987 novel of the same name. Directed by Rob Reiner, the film received critical acclaim for Kathy Bates' performance as the psychopathic Annie Wilkes...
. Showing movies on TWC was a move that was planned for some time, even before the acquisition by NBC. After December 2009, these weekly movies were discontinued for the time being in favor of running Weather Center, which already aired in the entire primetime slot during the rest of the work week. Despite the controversy, the channel revisit the Friday night film block starting on March 26, 2010 with Into Thin Air
Into Thin Air
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster is a 1997 bestselling non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer. It details the author's presence at Mount Everest during the 1996 Mount Everest disaster when eight climbers were killed and several others were stranded by a 'rogue storm'...
.
Since the acquisition by NBC, live programming such as Your Weather Today has featured live video from NBC-owned or affiliated stations, as well as live or videotaped field reports from news correspondents employed by the local NBC affiliate serving the area being covered.
In January 2011, TWC announced that Australian-born landscape photographer Peter Lik
Peter Lik
Peter Lik is a self-taught Australian landscape photographer. While traveling in Alaska in 1984, Lik began to experiment with panoramic cameras. He is known for his limited editions and his work has been compared to that of legendary photographer Ansel Adams...
would be starring in a new half-hour action-adventure nature reality series titled From the Edge with Peter Lik, to debut March 31. The program is produced by NBC's in-house production unit, Peacock Productions. Lik will also serve as a special contributor for TWC, providing segments from his frequent travels to weather-impacted locales.
See also
- The Weather Channel (United States)
- NBC UniversalNBC UniversalNBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
- Landmark CommunicationsLandmark CommunicationsLandmark Media Enterprises LLC is a privately held media company headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia specializing in cable television, broadcast television, print publishing, and internet publishing...