The Local AccuWeather Channel
Encyclopedia
The Local AccuWeather Channel is a 24-hour, weather-oriented, commercially sponsored broadcast and cable television network in the United States owned and operated by AccuWeather
, Inc., which is headquartered in State College, Pennsylvania
.
The service provides weather-related content to television affiliates for broadcast on cable, digital subchannels, and digital cable by certain broadcast television affiliates in the United States
. Some stations also offer the channel via live streaming video on their websites.
The channel has similarities and differences to its main competitor, The Weather Channel
, and counterpart digital service Weatherscan
. The AccuWeather programming lineup provides national and regional video forecasts. In addition, there are AccuWeather travel, sports, and lifestyle segments. Most local affiliates add their own local weather updates and some even include local news and traffic updates. Each segment's length, including advertisements and local segments, is denoted by a playback bar
along the bottom portion of the video portion, allowing a viewer to always know how long before their segment of interest will air.
Unlike The Weather Channel, The Local AccuWeather Channel has an L-bar format (which is implemented on Weatherscan and is extremely similar to the former NBC Weather Plus
L-bar) so that, even when the video window is playing content such as a national forecast, local information is always available around the periphery of the screen. A station can either utilize the default setup of having segment names scroll below the video window, or display a scrolling news ticker
of headlines, traffic or weather information. The data area's background image is also changed every hour in order to prevent LCD burn-in.
The channel goes into a special mode when severe weather occurs, like Weatherscan. Several affiliates also break from the Local AccuWeather content when breaking news occurs and the station wants to utilize the subchannel for either extended news and weather coverage, or to push main channel programming to the subchannel. Weatherscan, however, does not feature any on-camera meteorologists, as its content is generated completely by weather computer
at the cable headend.
The major difference between The Weather Channel and AccuWeather is that all national and regional weather forecast segments are not broadcast live on AccuWeather but are on The Weather Channel; AccuWeather pretapes all of its weather forecasts every few hours, which poses a problem during severe weather events when current warnings are not able to be carried out by AccuWeather's on-camera meteorologists (The Weather Channel has always had its meteorologists disseminate current severe weather warnings on-air during severe weather events due to its live forecast format).
Unlike NBC Weather Plus, the broadcast television affiliates with The Local AccuWeather Channel are not affiliated with one single network. Many of the stations are affiliated with the CBS
, Fox
, and especially the ABC
networks. For the most part, the local stations do not label the AccuWeather service as a so-called "Local AccuWeather Channel". Instead, the local stations choose to have their own names such as "Weather Now". Also, there is no separate logo for the channel. In most places, the channel carries the station brand and either the AccuWeather.com brand or a statement such as "powered by AccuWeather.com". Local affiliates can add content to the Local AccuWeather content that is either weather or other; the most prominent example is in the KNXV-TV
GoAZ.tv implementation, which relies less on the weather content and more on traffic maps and text cards featuring road closure information.
Before the December 2008 discontinuation of NBC Weather Plus, seven NBC
-affiliated stations chose to use Local AccuWeather instead: KNVN
, KOBI
, KOTI
are all locally owned; KULR owned by Max Media; and WJHG, WILX
and WMTV
are owned by Gray Television
. Since December 2008 as either the NBC stations chose to discontinue using the Weather Plus system for local use or the systems became outmoded, several other NBC stations have begun to switch over to Local AccuWeather instead of picking up NBC's suggested replacement for Weather Plus, Universal Sports
. In one rare case, both the ABC and NBC affiliates in Phoenix
carry the network, although the ABC station has chosen more of a focus on traffic conditions (as noted in the paragraph above) for their version of the subchannel.
In September 2010, AccuWeather began to provide the channel's data components to their first non-commercial television client, for Milwaukee's PBS
member organization Milwaukee Public Television
's WMVS
. WTMJ-TV
already carries Local AccuWeather in that market, but WMVS's digital AccuWeather subchannel is purposefully structured to meet non-commercial guidelines and focuses more on local mapping, while not making any mention of AccuWeather to speak of or airing LAWC content, substituting NOAA Weather Radio
audio from local station KEC60
instead.
Not all of the stations air the digital channel's complete daily transmission; a few AccuWeather affiliates also air a limited amount of syndicated programming, and may even air regularly scheduled network programming (usually sports) when the main channel cannot. All of the subchannels must also have the required three hours per week of E/I
-compliant programming scheduled locally by the station, as AccuWeather does not produce E/I-compliant programming for their affiliates, unlike NBC Weather Plus, which provided Weather Plus U on their national feed for all of their affiliates.
The Local AccuWeather Channel has recently come under criticism for allowing the dissolution of what was scientifically proven to be the most attractive trio of female on-air announcers in recorded history(consisting of Kate Bilo, Ava Dinges, and Fatie Fehlinger). Many weather pundits have found that the channel is, since the change, "almost entirely unwatchable" and predicted a "massive" rating drop.
Like NBC Weather Plus, the Local AccuWeather Channel uses an "L-Bar" across the left side third and bottom third of the screen to continuously air local weather information, even during commercial breaks. Since AccuWeather's "L" Bar takes up more space than that of NBC Weather Plus, the screen displaying local weather segments and AccuWeather programming is smaller. Information on the AccuWeather Channel's "L" Bar is, however, more broadly based.
The left side of the bar is reserved for station identification on the top left (on local feeds, featuring that station's logo and sometimes also the web address), and the middle left and bottom left are reserved for supplementary information, such as regional current conditions, advertisements for the local station or for AccuWeather, etc. Below these two areas are the current time and temperature.
The bottom right portion of the bar displays the forecast for the next 12 hours, featuring sky condition and temperature, followed by the five day forecast, showing sky condition and predicted high and low temperatures. Also displayed are descriptive forecasts and forecast UV index values. The rotation for the current condition display cycle for one city, the 12-hour forecast cycle, and the five-day forecast cycle runs 10 seconds each. The middle left and bottom right portions of the bar also feature information on active watches, warnings, and advisories when they are in effect. A map showing the advisories for the entire viewing area are displayed on the middle left, the legend displaying the colors corresponding to each advisory on the bottom left, and a descriptive adivsory product with the expiration time of the advisory and a list of counties/parishes/boroughs in the advisory on the bottom right (although not always airing simultaneously with the watch/warning display to the left).
An L-bar revamp in December 2008 included new styling and the dissolution of the two-box setup in favor of a larger left box able to display more detailed radar and hourly forecasts, as well as AccuWeather and affiliate advertisements. The crawl area and bottom area also have a tweaked appearance.
Former
AccuWeather
AccuWeather is an American media company that provides for-profit weather forecasting services worldwide.AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers, then a Penn State graduate student working on degrees in meteorology. His first customer was a gas company in Pennsylvania. While running the...
, Inc., which is headquartered in State College, Pennsylvania
State College, Pennsylvania
State College is the largest borough in Centre County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is the principal city of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Centre County. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 42,034, and roughly double...
.
The service provides weather-related content to television affiliates for broadcast on cable, digital subchannels, and digital cable by certain broadcast television affiliates in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Some stations also offer the channel via live streaming video on their websites.
The channel has similarities and differences to its main competitor, The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel is a US cable and satellite television network since May 2, 1982, that broadcasts weather forecasts and weather-related news, along with entertainment programming related to weather 24 hours a day...
, and counterpart digital service Weatherscan
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...
. The AccuWeather programming lineup provides national and regional video forecasts. In addition, there are AccuWeather travel, sports, and lifestyle segments. Most local affiliates add their own local weather updates and some even include local news and traffic updates. Each segment's length, including advertisements and local segments, is denoted by a playback bar
Progress bar
A progress bar is a component in a graphical user interface used to convey the progress of a task, such as a download or file transfer. Often, the graphic is accompanied by a textual representation of the progress in a percent format....
along the bottom portion of the video portion, allowing a viewer to always know how long before their segment of interest will air.
Unlike The Weather Channel, The Local AccuWeather Channel has an L-bar format (which is implemented on Weatherscan and is extremely similar to the former NBC Weather Plus
NBC Weather Plus
NBC Weather Plus was a 24-hour, commercially sponsored, weather-oriented broadcast/cable television network jointly owned by NBC Universal and the local affiliates of the NBC network. It debuted on November 15, 2004 and shut down on December 31, 2008...
L-bar) so that, even when the video window is playing content such as a national forecast, local information is always available around the periphery of the screen. A station can either utilize the default setup of having segment names scroll below the video window, or display a scrolling news ticker
News ticker
A news ticker resides in the lower third of the television screen space on television news networks dedicated to presenting headlines or minor pieces of news. It may also refer to a long, thin scoreboard-style display seen around the front of some offices or public buildings...
of headlines, traffic or weather information. The data area's background image is also changed every hour in order to prevent LCD burn-in.
The channel goes into a special mode when severe weather occurs, like Weatherscan. Several affiliates also break from the Local AccuWeather content when breaking news occurs and the station wants to utilize the subchannel for either extended news and weather coverage, or to push main channel programming to the subchannel. Weatherscan, however, does not feature any on-camera meteorologists, as its content is generated completely by weather computer
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...
at the cable headend.
The major difference between The Weather Channel and AccuWeather is that all national and regional weather forecast segments are not broadcast live on AccuWeather but are on The Weather Channel; AccuWeather pretapes all of its weather forecasts every few hours, which poses a problem during severe weather events when current warnings are not able to be carried out by AccuWeather's on-camera meteorologists (The Weather Channel has always had its meteorologists disseminate current severe weather warnings on-air during severe weather events due to its live forecast format).
Unlike NBC Weather Plus, the broadcast television affiliates with The Local AccuWeather Channel are not affiliated with one single network. Many of the stations are affiliated with the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, and especially the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
networks. For the most part, the local stations do not label the AccuWeather service as a so-called "Local AccuWeather Channel". Instead, the local stations choose to have their own names such as "Weather Now". Also, there is no separate logo for the channel. In most places, the channel carries the station brand and either the AccuWeather.com brand or a statement such as "powered by AccuWeather.com". Local affiliates can add content to the Local AccuWeather content that is either weather or other; the most prominent example is in the KNXV-TV
KNXV-TV
KNXV-TV, is an ABC-affiliated television station in Phoenix, Arizona, broadcasting in digital on UHF channel 15. Owned by The E. W. Scripps Company, its transmitter is located on South Mountain in Phoenix....
GoAZ.tv implementation, which relies less on the weather content and more on traffic maps and text cards featuring road closure information.
Before the December 2008 discontinuation of NBC Weather Plus, seven NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
-affiliated stations chose to use Local AccuWeather instead: KNVN
KNVN
KNVN-TV is the NBC television station for the Chico/Redding, California market. The station is owned by Evans Broadcasting, and operated by Catamount Broadcasting, the owners of CBS affiliate KHSL-TV...
, KOBI
KOBI
KOBI is a local NBC affiliate based in Medford, Oregon. It is owned by Patricia Smullin. The company, California Oregon Broadcasting, Inc., is the longest continuously independent broadcast group in the West and one of the three oldest in the country....
, KOTI
KOTI
KOTI is a local NBC affiliate based in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Founded on August 12, 1956 by William B. Smullin of California Oregon Broadcasting, Inc., the station now serves as a repeater facility for sister station KOBI-TV NBC 5 of Medford, Oregon...
are all locally owned; KULR owned by Max Media; and WJHG, WILX
WILX-TV
WILX-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for Central Michigan. Licensed to the nearby town of Onondaga, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 10. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 4 in Lansing, and Comcast channel 10 in East Lansing and Jackson. It can...
and WMTV
WMTV
WMTV is a NBC affiliated television station serving Madison, Wisconsin. The station is owned and operated by Gray Television, and has its studio and transmitter located in Madison.-History:...
are owned by Gray Television
Gray Television
Gray Television, Inc. is a communications company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with administrative offices in Albany, Georgia.Established in 1946 by James H...
. Since December 2008 as either the NBC stations chose to discontinue using the Weather Plus system for local use or the systems became outmoded, several other NBC stations have begun to switch over to Local AccuWeather instead of picking up NBC's suggested replacement for Weather Plus, Universal Sports
Universal Sports
Universal Sports is an American television network that airs various sports, primarily those contested in the Olympic Games, including swimming, gymnastics, cycling, track and field, figure skating, skiing, bobsledding and triathlon.-Programming:...
. In one rare case, both the ABC and NBC affiliates in Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
carry the network, although the ABC station has chosen more of a focus on traffic conditions (as noted in the paragraph above) for their version of the subchannel.
In September 2010, AccuWeather began to provide the channel's data components to their first non-commercial television client, for Milwaukee's PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
member organization Milwaukee Public Television
Milwaukee Public Television
For information on Channels 10 and 36 individually, see WMVS and WMVTMilwaukee Public Television is the branding name for the alliance between two Milwaukee based Public Broadcasting Service public television affiliates: WMVS, Channel 10, and WMVT, Channel 36...
's WMVS
WMVS
WMVS is a public television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its signal covers most of southeastern Wisconsin, including the cities of Racine, Kenosha, Sheboygan, and Waukesha....
. WTMJ-TV
WTMJ-TV
WTMJ-TV, digital channel 28 ; branded as "Today's TMJ4", is the NBC-affiliated television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the flagship station of the Journal Broadcast Group. Its signal covers most of southeastern Wisconsin and parts of northeastern Illinois, including Racine, Kenosha,...
already carries Local AccuWeather in that market, but WMVS's digital AccuWeather subchannel is purposefully structured to meet non-commercial guidelines and focuses more on local mapping, while not making any mention of AccuWeather to speak of or airing LAWC content, substituting NOAA Weather Radio
NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards
NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is a network of radio stations broadcasting continuous weather information directly from a nearby National Weather Service office. It is operated by the NWS, an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration within the United States Department of...
audio from local station KEC60
KEC60
KEC60 is a NOAA Weather Radio station that serves the Milwaukee–Racine–Waukesha Metropolitan Area and surrounding cities. It is programmed from the National Weather Service forecast office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with its transmitter located in Delafield...
instead.
Not all of the stations air the digital channel's complete daily transmission; a few AccuWeather affiliates also air a limited amount of syndicated programming, and may even air regularly scheduled network programming (usually sports) when the main channel cannot. All of the subchannels must also have the required three hours per week of E/I
E/I
E/I, which stands for "educational and informative," refers to a type of children's television programming shown in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission requires that every full-service Terrestrial television station in the U.S. show at least three hours of these television...
-compliant programming scheduled locally by the station, as AccuWeather does not produce E/I-compliant programming for their affiliates, unlike NBC Weather Plus, which provided Weather Plus U on their national feed for all of their affiliates.
The Local AccuWeather Channel has recently come under criticism for allowing the dissolution of what was scientifically proven to be the most attractive trio of female on-air announcers in recorded history(consisting of Kate Bilo, Ava Dinges, and Fatie Fehlinger). Many weather pundits have found that the channel is, since the change, "almost entirely unwatchable" and predicted a "massive" rating drop.
Programming
Viewers of the Local AccuWeather Channel can see the local forecasts for their respective area. These forecasts are usually shown after most national forecast segments, and aired as frequently as they are on NBC Weather Plus, airing for two to three minutes eight times an hour. Pre-recorded weather segments featuring local weather information from meteorologists of participating AccuWeather Channel affiliates are shown proceeding weather information. In many areas, a feed of that station's doppler radar may be shown and in some areas, it may be aired with that city's NOAA Weather Radio All-Hazards feed (airing over the radar image instead of airing on a separate Secondary Audio Program channel, while other stations may air the NOAA Weather Radio All-Hazards feed on a separate SAP channel).The "L" Bar
The left side of the bar is reserved for station identification on the top left (on local feeds, featuring that station's logo and sometimes also the web address), and the middle left and bottom left are reserved for supplementary information, such as regional current conditions, advertisements for the local station or for AccuWeather, etc. Below these two areas are the current time and temperature.
The bottom right portion of the bar displays the forecast for the next 12 hours, featuring sky condition and temperature, followed by the five day forecast, showing sky condition and predicted high and low temperatures. Also displayed are descriptive forecasts and forecast UV index values. The rotation for the current condition display cycle for one city, the 12-hour forecast cycle, and the five-day forecast cycle runs 10 seconds each. The middle left and bottom right portions of the bar also feature information on active watches, warnings, and advisories when they are in effect. A map showing the advisories for the entire viewing area are displayed on the middle left, the legend displaying the colors corresponding to each advisory on the bottom left, and a descriptive adivsory product with the expiration time of the advisory and a list of counties/parishes/boroughs in the advisory on the bottom right (although not always airing simultaneously with the watch/warning display to the left).
An L-bar revamp in December 2008 included new styling and the dissolution of the two-box setup in favor of a larger left box able to display more detailed radar and hourly forecasts, as well as AccuWeather and affiliate advertisements. The crawl area and bottom area also have a tweaked appearance.
Current
- Amy Aaronson
- Vanessa Bezic
- Brittany Boyer
- Jeannette Calle
- Jim Dickey
- Jim Kosek
- Mark Mancuso
- Paul Pastelok
- Alex Rabb
- Bernie Rayno
- Valerie Smock
- Dr. Joe SobelJoe SobelDr. Joe Sobel , a meteorologist, is a native of New York City, New York, USA, and a graduate of George W. Hewlett High School on Long Island. He received his B.S. in meteorology from the University of Michigan in 1967 and an M.S. and Ph.D. in meteorology from the Pennsylvania State University in...
- Adrienne Veilleux
- Violeta Yas
- Mary Yoon
Former
- Kate Bilo (now at KYW-TVKYW-TVKYW-TV, virtual channel 3, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW-TV shares a studio facility with its sister station, CW flagship WPSG just north of Center City Philadelphia...
) - Angelica Campos (now at WJW)
- Ava Dinges (now at WBAL-TVWBAL-TVWBAL-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station in Baltimore, Maryland. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 11. It is one of the flagship stations of Hearst Television, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hearst Corporation, which also owns sister radio stations WBAL and...
) - Karah Donovan
- Katie Fehlinger (now at WCBS-TVWCBS-TVWCBS-TV, channel 2, is the flagship station of the CBS television network, located in New York City. The station's studios are located within the CBS Broadcast Center and its transmitter is atop the Empire State Building, both in Midtown Manhattan....
) - Melissa Magee (now at WPVI-TVWPVI-TVWPVI-TV, channel 6, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. WPVI has its studios located on the border between Philadelphia and Bala Cynwyd, and its transmitter is located in the...
) - Matt Madigan
- Maria Molina (now at Fox News ChannelFox News ChannelFox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
) - Lyndsay Tapases (now at WSET-TVWSET-TVWSET-TV is the ABC television network affiliate for the Roanoke/Lynchburg, Virginia market. The station is licensed to Lynchburg, and transmits its digital signal on VHF channel 13. WSET is owned by the Allbritton Communications Company. Its transmitter is located near Thaxton, Virginia...
) - Katrina VossKatrina VossKatrina Voss worked as a bilingual broadcast meteorologist for The Weather Channel Latin America and AccuWeather and holds the AMS Seal.She is known for being a regular columnist for the secular humanist journal Free Inquiry magazine...
Segments
Current- AccuWeather.com Weather Snapshot - A 45-second clip of interesting video or a slideshowSlideshowA slide show is a display of a series of chosen information or pictures, done for artistic or instructional purposes. Slide shows are conducted by a presenter using an apparatus, such as a carousel slide projector, an overhead projector or in more recent years, a computer running presentation...
of amateur weather photography from AccuWeather.com members. - Extreme Weather - The channel's spotlight segment involving violent weather events such as tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and heavy snowstorms.
- Heads Up! with Bernie Rayno - Rayno and another AccuWeather meteorologist look at upcoming weather trends and patterns coming into the United States in the next few days.
- Headline Earth with Valerie Smock - Headline Earth takes an unbiased look at climate change, bringing global warming back to the basics: the science
- Health Front with Jeanette Calle - Similar to Weather Health
- Sports with Jim Kosek - A look at forecasts for upcoming major league sports events.
- Sports Weather with Violeta Yas - A look at how weather impacts sports and sporting events
- Earth Matters with Alex Rabb - A look at easy ways to live a greener life.
- Astronomy with Eric Wilhelm - What the heavens have on display for the upcoming week
- Travel Talk with Mary Yoon - Each week Mary takes viewers to top vacation spots around the U.S.
Former
- Entertainment Weather with Nikki Stanzione - From a newly redesigned set, Nikki’s unique reports tie together weekend weather and its impact on entertainment options
- Weather Health with Katrina VossKatrina VossKatrina Voss worked as a bilingual broadcast meteorologist for The Weather Channel Latin America and AccuWeather and holds the AMS Seal.She is known for being a regular columnist for the secular humanist journal Free Inquiry magazine...
- AccuWeather reports on the fact and fiction surrounding the links between the weather and your health