The Beginning of the End of Television Weather?

Never Mind!!  Allen Media has reverse course and is rehiring all of the meteorologists. 




Allen Media, a Los Angeles-based group of small town television stations, has begun the process of laying off all of its stations' meteorologists. 
The layoffs, according to various reports, begin today and continue until March. Their viewers will lose the vital storm warning service that is especially important during tornado situations given the deterioration of National Weather Service tornado warnings. They provide a vital "second opinion" to NWS warnings. 

Allen Media's local television stations

Being based in Los Angeles, I doubt the owners of Allen Media Group realize how important this service is. The local meteorologists' replacement will be a new group of meteorologists at The Weather Channel (also owned by Allen Media) that will tape local forecasts for their newscasts. 

Of course, the Achilles Heel of this plan is when a derecho, tornado outbreak or major ice/storm blizzard occurs. It will be -- at best -- extremely difficult to provide quality service from 1,000+ miles away. And, that could endanger lives. 

I wonder if Allen might have made a different decision have viewing the essential weather and fire coverage during the recent fires in their home town? 

The larger issue is that, in many cases, local television is not doing well. Too many station groups were put together using huge amounts of debt which -- with rising interest rates -- is not viable. The economy has been weak since COVID and younger people are more inclined to use their smartphones for routine weather information. Owners are looking to save every dollar they can. But here's the problem: as a condition of their broadcast licenses, radio and television stations are required to operate "in the public interest."

The Communications Act of 1934 requires that broadcast licensees operate in the “public interest, convenience and necessity.” In this paper, Stuart Brotman examines the history of legislativejudicial, and regulatory interpretations of the public interest standard, and demonstrates that Congress, reviewing courts, and the FCC itself have been unclear on its meaning and application for decades. Brotman concludes by analyzing the most recent update to the law, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and identifying three critiques of the public interest standard that are worthy of timely review by the 115th Congress if it moves ahead with undertaking significant amendments to the Communications Act of 1934.

The FCC is empowered to lift the license(s) of station(s) that don't operate in this manner, although they have only done it on one occasion decades ago. The public interest requirement is not dependent on economic conditions. 

With local newspapers dying and local television groups in trouble, it raises many questions about how citizens will be informed going forward. 

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