*So I hear there's rain this weekend which means the obligatory live shots from Mill Valley with the creek in the background overflowing and genius reporters asking schmucks: "Hey, worried about flooding?" Uh, never mind.
*Love the giddy weather people who are now praying the forecasts hold up so they can have their 10 spots in the first twenty minutes.
*Bill Martin will utter "storm door" at least 16,000 times. With WEATHER AUTHORITY! *Waiting for the over/under on live shots from that crappy apartment building on the cliff in Pacifica. Right now it's 30.
*How many times will the weather mavens say something to the effect: "It's a good time to stay indoors." Thanks for the advice, very caring of you. (Pass the barf bag)
*Good house bet Monday Morning on KCBS: Susan Leigh Taylor: "You know, on my way into the city, I saw rain on my windshield." *I have a feeling Roberta Gonzales is going to be downright delirious --might want to alert Paul Deanno for overtime duty at PIX.
*When did Stan Bunger turn into a weatherman? Stan talks about the weather about as many times as Brian Murphy of KNBR says, "Yeah, yeah, yeah!"
* The Chronicle's Ben Fong Torres is gearing up for a really wet weekend: About to write his 27,645th piece on the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame.
*Storm Upside: ABC7's Mike Nicco can try, for the 7000th time, to correctly pronounce "mete-or-rologist" and not "meter-ologist." Sorry, Mikey, I know you hate me mentioning this all the time but for heaven's sake, do the right thing. You're in SF, not Akron. *I've got your live Doppler right here.
*"Atmospheric River": Sounds like a Philip Roth novel.
*That last line was for the KQED people.
*If Pete Giddings were around this weekend there'd be a virtual orgasm in the weather office at 900 Front Street.
*I miss Pete skiing down Heavenly Valley and the KGO cameras filming it.
*Speaking of Giddings, I remember the line from media critic, Bill Mann. Commenting on Pete's little kids fishing program, Mann said he heard Pete once scold a kid: "You'll NEVER fish in this town again!" (Psst, it's a joke, Pete.) *Add one more Giddings: for all his weather geek, I enjoyed and looked forward to Giddings forecasts --A. because he was usually right. B. he seemed genuine and passionate, and C. he could probably kick Lloyd Lindsay Young's ass.
*Helooooooooooooooooooooo Bakersfield!
*KGO Radio is planning "massive" weekend coverage of the big storm. Word is they're going to rerun "The Best of Brian Copeland" and 30 extra Kim Komando shows.
*KRON's really taking this rain deal big time: Management will only run patio furniture ad once every 10 minutes.
*Live shot updates from the assignment desk: Uh, Mill Valley, Russian River (reporter: "Damn, this river be flooding!) Ocean Beach (Reporter doing MOS with tourist from Sweden: "We get a lot of this so I don't know what the problem is." Reporter: "Uh, ok, back to you.") Pacifica: Reporter at pier interviewing local schmuck who decides it would be a great day to go fishing: "I didn't think it would be this bad." This is the kind of guy who will never be on Jeopardy.
*Time to dust off the "We have TEAM coverage" which was kidnapped five years ago by the rodents who were stuck in the old KRON building at 1001 Van Ness.
*Ronn Owens is preparing for the storm in a spectacular manner: on Monday, Ronnnnnnn will pique Spencer Christian with this diddy: "So, how does this rain really help us?" Upside: Ronn won't wear his short-sleeve Tommy Bahama, part of the 50,000 short sleeves Ronn has in his collection.
Memo to KTVU: More Rosemary Orozco, less Billy Martin: WITH AUTHORITY! *At about 12: 50 PM Sunday on the 40,000, KCBS traffic report, anchor will proclaim: "The National Weather Service has issued a small craft warning..." Memo to Coast Guard: anyone in a boat off the Golden Gate, Sunday deport to Modesto, immediately.
*Waiting too for some yahoo to say "We still have a drought." Of course said person was saying this perched under the igloo at Baker Beach.
*Another 415 Media irritant: the anchors on TV and Radio who use the word, "system", like "the next system is coming in Tuesday." Hey, it's a damn storm, screw your systems!
*BREAKING NEWS: Roberta Gonzales will be extra, extra, chirpy Monday on the 7: 20 AM weather exchange with noted meteorologist, Stan Bunger, igniting a certifiable high pressure system in the CBS building at 855 Battery. Officials have been alerted in all local city precincts.
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Steve Paulson was VERY conspicuously understated this morning talking about the weather. Sort of like a jaded meterologist, "Yeay, it's going to rain." Seemingly when Pam tried to interject with the "water cooler talk " (I actually like Pam Cook and the entire MO2 crew), he gave a stoic, "... Yes it will be wet..." CLASSIC. I enjoyed it LOL
ReplyDeletePaulson was very sick. Coughing and hoarse. Was out last couple days.
DeleteApparently you didn't notice that he's sick.
DeleteI heard him cough once or twice- like he has for months. Otherwise, no didn't notice he was sick
DeleteI'm worried about this storm. It was reported today that a record 95,102,000 Americans are not in the labor force; up 18% since Obama took office. A good majority of them reside in California. How will any of them be able to afford to pay for storm damage? We can only hope for the best...
ReplyDeleteThat means 2/3 of the American population is in the work force. Unless you think children and the elderly should be working, that sounds about right.
DeleteRecord highs of unemployment are never a good thing.
DeleteAccording to the BLS, when President Obama took office in January 2009, 80,529,000 Americans were not in the labor force, the highest number on record. That number rose steadily during his two terms, reaching a record 95,055,000 in November 2016, then setting another record (95,102,000) in December.
Reporters will ask motorists "what do you think of this rain?" in the same way as they ask people at the service station "What you do think about the price of gas?" with the same kind of answer -- "Uh... wow...it's pretty high...ha ha"
ReplyDeleteSunny here today in the east bay...
ReplyDeleteAnd where is Pete Giddings when we really need him? His Kentfield neighbors miss him....not!
ReplyDeleteYour take on the weather is right on! One sight that we'll definitely see is some reporter, fully dressed in rain gear, reporting what is actually from where he/she is. Should stay somewhere safer, obviously.
ReplyDeleteTime to quit bad mouthing Ben Fong-Torres. He writes a good column covering items that you don't. Not many cities even have a radio columnist.
For the best radio info, check out Don Barrett at laradio.com. He was in the same financial situation as you several years ago. He "retired" a couple of times, but now is still providing Los Angeles radio items on a regular basis without being so negative.
Wrong on Benny Torres. He might as well not write a damn thing. It's all self-serving fluff. If he wants to strut like a rooster in the hen house, he should start a web site. But who would read it? There's no there there.
DeleteVery true at 2:36pm.
DeleteThat guy has been living off his past for over 40 years.
Ben Fong Torres, the very definition of the expression overrated.
There is a flash flood watch in my pants.
ReplyDeleteYou left out "Arkian". I kind of like biblical hyperbole. Makes rain fun.
ReplyDelete*Breaking News* Rich just gave the one finger salute to the over-excited "weather" peeps.
ReplyDeleteSpencer Christian.
ReplyDeleteA man who knows absolutely nothing about the weather.
Why he is still employed by KGO TV is beyond me.
But wait! Little Ronn (Mr Cool) Owens is sure to consult him about the upcoming storm.
When you can spell your name with two n's, well hip is hip.
I was watching one of the weather channels and it did sound as if I needed to build an ark yesterday. However, this same channel has some goofy chart that gives numbers 1 to 5 to various storms. The big one coming in is rated a 3. The last big one was a 2.
ReplyDeleteI remember storms that had the Golden Gate Bridge swaying back and forth due to the wind and rain. These storms have been rain. Therefore, I may do may Saturday shopping in the PM instead of the AM. Its been nice actually hearing rain on the roof and windows. PS. The drought is over. Thank you.
Rich. Great column. glad to have you back. I laughed out loud a few times reading your weather cliche's the weatherman say. Agree on Fong=Toress column in the Chronicle Pink Section. Does he know that there is an entire new world of sattelite radio? Do you? No, Ben, like you said, just wants to write about old time DJ's from the 60's who are in the Bay Area Hall of fame. Great to have you back Rich!!!
ReplyDeleteAm also LOVing 'Atmospheric River'...poetry! Waiting for someone to post the Bread and Milk YouTube video. (Vic DiBitetto (?) spoofing empty store shelves and panic ahead of possible storms)
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of Kim Komando, isn't she really a he?? Not that there's anything wrong with that!
ReplyDeleteIf you have never been flooded or suffered storm damage, you don;t know how important these warnings are. This storm coming in is going to be a bitch. Don't forget - it is the reporters' job to report. If you don't like what you are hearing, change the channel.
ReplyDeleteIF you are high and dry and warm this coming week, consider yourself lucky. If the power goes out and a power line blocks your street, but you were able to get food, firewood and booze stashed in the pantry beforehand because of the warnings, then consider yourself lucky. Where has all of the common sense gone to?? Sidebar - it is the message, not the medium.
The only thing weather on TV is good for is emotional commiseration. Reporters can show people crying, just like you maybe are over too much rain. For me, life's too short to have to endure that. I just want to know what kind of weather I'm in for over the next short amount of time. The absolute best quantitative weather information, focused to your zip code, is online at accuweather.com. You get a bar chart to show the conditions for your zip code for the next two hours, and a minute by minute forecast for that time period, along with a great radar weather map and not some generalized zoomed-out glob for the region, but a zoomed-in tight view of your zip code. In my experience, all of this information is remarkably accurate. If the bar chart says it will stop raining at 10:41, it stops raining at 10:41. It's amazing. You can also get hour-by-hour forecast conditions for the next 3 days, again for your zip code.
ReplyDeleteWhen I want to see other people whine or jump for joy over the weather, TV is great for that. But please.
Lloyd Lindsay was a trooper, going on the air with a toothache like that.
ReplyDeleteAlready the "all day Saturday rains" haven't started half way through the day.
ReplyDeleteMy feeling now is..lots of rain Sunday..but before- like now- and after rains will be in normal winter showers.
I like Kim Komando, but it seems as though she is the only one running a non-politics talk show these days. Her and the Vita-Meata-Vegamin Sellers being asked carefully crafted questions.
ReplyDeleteMost my favorites are gone or scattered to and fro.
KRON has not been a 24 hour news station for years!! They advertise themselves as The Bay Area News Station.
ReplyDeleteALL the main anchors on ALL the local stations were working this weekend.
ReplyDelete