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July 15, 2021 5:07 pm  #1


1010 Solidly Beats 640 On Barrie Storm Story

I have no idea what they were thinking at GNR640, but they got blown away Thursday after a major storm and possible tornado caused extensive damage in the Barrie area. NT1010 went almost full time on the story, carrying a presser about the weather and the carnage, taking calls from listeners, doing traffic and weather updates, talking with meterologists, etc. 

Meanwhile, over on 640, John Oakley was acting like he never even knew what was happening up north. He carried on with the usual topics, including doing his regular "Sound & The Furey" segment with Peter Tabuns and Anthony Furey, mostly on political topics. It was a weird juxtaposition for anyone who tuned back and forth, as I often do. 

You might have figured they would leverage some Global reporters or at least Anthony Farnell in the 4 PM hour, but nothing. 

I'm not normally very complimentary about RB's Doyle and Michaels, but when it came to coverage of this breaking story, they certainly took GNR640 by, well, storm.

[Edit: To be fair, Oakley finally got to the story after 5 PM, but by then the competition had solidly beaten him by more than an hour.]

Last edited by RadioActive (July 15, 2021 5:16 pm)

 

July 15, 2021 7:12 pm  #2


Re: 1010 Solidly Beats 640 On Barrie Storm Story

I have to wonder: How did 680 News cover this story? They ARE the all-news station, so I'd presume they also covered the hell out of it.

 

July 15, 2021 7:17 pm  #3


Re: 1010 Solidly Beats 640 On Barrie Storm Story

ckg927 wrote:

I have to wonder: How did 680 News cover this story? They ARE the all-news station, so I'd presume they also covered the hell out of it.

That depends. Did a local Rogers station change format? In the past that beat a bleeding and/or menaced audience.

 

July 15, 2021 8:48 pm  #4


Re: 1010 Solidly Beats 640 On Barrie Storm Story

Other than the Weather Network, CP24 likely scooped everyone.  They had the first bulletin of the "possible tornado" with heavy damage at 3:11 this afternoon.  One of their meteorologists, Chris Potter was live on air and also had video of the storm and damage. Chris lives in Barrie but not in the south area where all the damage was.   Pretty quick to air when you consider the tornado touched down 25 minutes earlier in south Barrie at 2:45.  Helps that they have a local TV station in town as well.  CP24 Tonight has Nick Dixon live from Barrie, talking to local officials with Reshmi Nair anchoring in Toronto. They are doing a good job of the coverage.  

Last edited by paterson1 (July 15, 2021 9:05 pm)

 

July 15, 2021 10:44 pm  #5


Re: 1010 Solidly Beats 640 On Barrie Storm Story

Meanwhile there's the once mighty news1010 breaking news e-mail notifications.

Used to be that one would receive 6-12 bulletins a day.

Today, as of 22:44, there is only one bulletin -- a tornado warning issued for central Ontario and the Golden Horseshoe issued at 3:02.  The last breaking news bulletin previous to this was on July 9.

 

Last edited by Peter the K (July 15, 2021 10:46 pm)

 

July 16, 2021 12:04 am  #6


Re: 1010 Solidly Beats 640 On Barrie Storm Story

I can add to this thread by asking why is CityNews @ 11 nothing more than the 6pm news repeated.
What was Global news doing? I never thought to tune in. (I ask because they own AM 640)
However, CTV (same company owns NT 1010) may be the clear winner on the TV side with someone LIVE on location, also live @ 12:03 am in Barrie. 


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

July 16, 2021 12:11 am  #7


Re: 1010 Solidly Beats 640 On Barrie Storm Story

Radiowiz wrote:

I can add to this thread by asking why is CityNews @ 11 nothing more than the 6pm news repeated.
What was Global news doing? I never thought to tune in. (I ask because they own AM 640)
However, CTV (same company owns NT 1010) may be the clear winner on the TV side with someone LIVE on location, also live @ 12:03 am in Barrie. 

Global Toronto was live this evening at 11 PM and they had a couple of reporters, including Anthony Farnell, reporting live from Barrie. 

 

July 16, 2021 8:56 am  #8


Re: 1010 Solidly Beats 640 On Barrie Storm Story

CTV was by far the leader in coverage of this in my opinion.  CP24 was had the breaking news bulletin with video and live report about 40 min after the tornado first touched down.  Local Barrie CTV had their own reporters and video covering the damage.  CTV National news had their own reporters covering the story live from Barrie.  Even CTV Toronto sent a reporter, Austin Delaney to Barrie to report live, in addition to everyone else that was there.  CTV News Network and CP24 live with separate reports all evening, and this morning. 

Also CTV/CP24 had their chopper in Barrie yesterday afternoon and evening with live shots of the damage.  A real advantage over City tv, CHCH and CBC who had no aerial shots, not sure about Global. They have a helicopter but other than traffic don't use it much, same with City tv.  Don't know why there didn't appear to be any drone coverage since usually it is not very windy after a tornado.  

 

July 16, 2021 9:07 am  #9


Re: 1010 Solidly Beats 640 On Barrie Storm Story

Agree with you about CTV leading the pack. They also had a few advantages. Their meteorologist, Bill Coulter, lives in Barrie and was at home in a nearby neighbourhood when the twister struck. That's quite a break - not only does he live near the site but he's a meteorologist. The perfect storm, if you will. 

Plus they also have CTV Barrie in the city. That means crews were closer to the scene than any other TV station. 

So I would have been surprised if they didn't outshine everyone. You have to be good. But sometimes, you also have to be lucky. On Thursday, they were both. 

     Thread Starter
 

July 16, 2021 9:28 am  #10


Re: 1010 Solidly Beats 640 On Barrie Storm Story

I knew Chris Potter from CP24 lives in Barrie.  He was the first on air yesterday with a phone report and video. Chris has been reporting the weather from his backyard in Barrie on CP24 for months during the pandemic.  Didn't know that Bill Coulter lives in Barrie as well.

 

July 16, 2021 12:12 pm  #11


Re: 1010 Solidly Beats 640 On Barrie Storm Story

Lots of coverage indeed about it.  Its unfortunate and now noticed that Barrie is for some reason in the worst path for weather,  be it summer storms or snow squalls.  The most "intense" area id like to say.

I was also thinking how CTV Barrie tower would react to a direct hit with a Tornado and the infrastructure around it.   In 1985 and now yesterday, it was missed twice (which is a good thing) but what if....  

The airplane incident I do know of in 76.