1 of 1- RadioActive
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Attn. CTV: Stop "Toying" With The Weather
I'm not a Grinch, honest. I'm just a viewer who wants to get the weather forecast, especially in the more uncertain winter months.
So while I think CTV's annual Toy Mountain campaign is a wonderful charity, may I humbly suggest you do all the endless promo stuff surrounding it - including interviewing donors, organizers, sponsors and God knows who else - AFTER the weather? The endless shilling by sponsors of this thing is shameless, as they get their company name mentioned over and over and over again.
Frankly, I just want to see what's coming tonight and tomorrow. What really bugs me is when CTV's Lindsay Morrison drones on with her guests, before turning to the camera and saying, "But I guess we've got to get to the weather..."
Don't make it sound like a disappointment that the very job you were hired to do is such a chore! So how about this - explain why you're on location, then do the weather first. After that, you can spend as much time as you want talking to every single person in the room. But deliver what you're there for and stop making viewers wait for one of the most important features of the entire newscast! That's all I really want to see.
- Binson Echorec
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Re: Attn. CTV: Stop "Toying" With The Weather
This is what happens when you introduce a sales/client aspect into a newscast. You're forced to sit through whatever while you wait for what you want, the weather.
Yes, it's a good cause. No, I don't care that you're on location with Mattel nor do I care what their CEO has to say. Run separate promos during the newscast's commercial breaks. Stuff like this really shouldn't be incorporated into the actual newstime.
Last edited by Binson Echorec (Yesterday 8:14 pm)
- RadioAaron
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Re: Attn. CTV: Stop "Toying" With The Weather
In a time of minute-by-minute measurement, the weather is still a pretty good carrot.
- torontostan
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Re: Attn. CTV: Stop "Toying" With The Weather
Pretending that anyone in the advertising demo cares about the weather report is laughable. Change the channel, or do what anyone under 50 does and get your weather on an app
- RadioActive
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Re: Attn. CTV: Stop "Toying" With The Weather
Ageist much?
My weather app is terrible. Can't find one I like. I prefer to see the Futurecast maps, so I can slow them down and check out the exact (or as close to it as possible) timeline of approx. when the storm is expected to hit. So I'll use the TV forecast, thanks. Except when they stand right in front of the clock, blocking it so you can't see the timeline at all.
What, exactly, is the point of showing a clock if you're going to stand in front of the bloody thing every time?
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Thread Starter- RadioAaron
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Re: Attn. CTV: Stop "Toying" With The Weather
It's not ageist; it's pointing out that a content type doesn't deliver audiences advertisers are looking to cater to.
- torontostan
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Re: Attn. CTV: Stop "Toying" With The Weather
Well then it sounds like you can't find a newscast that you like either. One has to look inside oneself on occasion
- RadioActive
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Re: Attn. CTV: Stop "Toying" With The Weather
torontostan wrote:
One has to look inside oneself on occasion
Thanks, Mr. Carney. I'll let Rosemary Barton know.
But I will admit I have problems with all the local newscasts. Given the market size and the talent available, they should all be better. Especially CTV. But they're not.
The other thing CTV does, mostly on their noon show, is waste viewers' time with Jessica Smith attending a new art exhibit or a mural unveiling or some other community event. These segments, while seemingly great for P.R., are generally uninteresting and certainly not real "news", as the artist drones on and on about his or her "vision" and what they're trying to say with their sculpture/painting or clay pot.
A more pretentious waste of airtime you will rarely see, and not only do they often go on as a time filler for up to four or five minutes, you sometimes don't actually get to see the art they're talking about until the segment is nearly over. So what, exactly, is the point?
And to add insult to injury, they almost always do this right before the one thing I really do want to see - the weather! Which brings us right back to where we started...
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Thread Starter- mace
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Re: Attn. CTV: Stop "Toying" With The Weather
Ageist much?
My weather app is terrible. Can't find one I like. I prefer to see the Futurecast maps, so I can slow them down and check out the exact (or as close to it as possible) timeline of approx. when the storm is expected to hit. So I'll use the TV forecast, thanks. Except when they stand right in front of the clock, blocking it so you can't see the timeline at all.
What, exactly, is the point of showing a clock if you're going to stand in front of the bloody thing every time?
I use two weather apps.Clime and MyRadar. Both apps allow you to zoom in on specific streets, so you can see when the rain [green] heavy rain [yellow] torrential downpour [red], snow [blue] and freezing rain [pink] will hit your neighbourhood.
- torontostan
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Re: Attn. CTV: Stop "Toying" With The Weather
One has to look inside oneself on occasion
Thanks, Mr. Carney. I'll let Rosemary Barton know.
How dare you, I came up with that myself! Just as any revolution eats its children, unchecked market fundamentalism can devour the social capital essential for the long-term dynamism of capitalism itself. -torontostan, 2025
- TomTV
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Re: Attn. CTV: Stop "Toying" With The Weather
RA, switch over to CityNews and watch meteorologist Natasha Ramsahai at 5pm/6pm if she's working that day. She sometimes covers the early mornings on BT, but most of the time she handles the evening weather and I've found her to be better than either Global or CTV.
I'm always impressed that she will regularly make custom animated graphics to explain various weather phenomena (I don't really recall the other two stations going to that trouble, especially not CTV) and I think she has a pretty good track record of getting the Toronto weather right.