It has been a while, blog, and while the subject of this next one might be a bit off-kilter, it is something I find rather...me about myself that I just can't withhold.
Growing up, I was a huge Weather Channel fan. I watched it all the time. In fact, as recently as a few months ago, the Evening Edition jingle from the 2003-05 years was my text tone. Their motto in the early 2000s "Live By It" was like a calling. Weather was life no matter what.
I watched what was channel 32, which then turned to channel 53, every night. It was very much like a companion every night at 9 when Evening Edition came on after Storm Stories (Speaking of Storm Stories, ever notice how every storm that ever happened in PA happened during that show? Always bothered me).
I was so obsessed with the channel that to this day I am searching for a song played on the Local on the 8s back from May of 2005. I still can't find it, even after combing online archives. Maybe someday.
Weather was my thing. I once wanted to be a broadcast meteorologist, and I surrounded myself with facts about weather, specifics on what made a severe thunderstorm a severe thunderstorm (I still know that to this day) as well as the Fujita Scale (now Enhanced Fujita because go progress) and the Saffir-Simpson Scale.
My 8th grade science teacher, Mrs. Greshock, had so much faith in me becoming a top meteorologist. Penn State is where I wanted to go, and weather was going to be my life. I received an exception at the age of 14 to earn the right to become a trained spotter for the National Weather Service (techincally, still am), recorded a video during an Earthwatch expo courtesy of NBC 10 (I wore yellow on-air...now I know, a no-no), I toured Mount Holly NJ's National Weather Service office...
I just surrounded myself with something I found ever so fascinating—and fear-inducing.
That brings me back to The Weather Channel. During a rather historic 2005 hurricane season, and on a trip out west, I was glued to TWC's coverage rather than go to the hotel pool or enjoy something else. I wanted to know what was happening. I wanted to learn.
Hurricane coverage always fascinated me. I want to be out there, I thought. I want to be helping people, bringing them what it would be like to be out there.
During the tornado outbreak of 2003, I spent all night watching TWC. Dr. Greg Forbes was like a hero. I then learned how to spot a hook echo, or to use the velocity signatures on a Doppler Radar to show rotation. I always listened to him to learn something new. I always did.
Any time I saw "strong storms" in the forecast, I worried like crazy. Cold fronts coming through the mid-Atlantic were very regular. How was young me supposed to figure that out? I heard of tornado outbreaks, hurricanes...I wanted to know about what I feared. I went from fearing weather to respecting its sheer power. Every storm that goes through gets me amped, even to this day.
I thought it was the coolest thing ever that the local forecast changed from speechless to actually speaking to you. The day that was as much as previewed, I kept TWC on my TV for hours. I remember that day specifically.
As I mentioned before, this channel was like a companion. The Weather Channel was like a good friend. I always liked turning on my TV at 9 to find Paul Goodloe and Jennifer Lopez on my TV. It was regular. It felt like home.
Surprisingly, I can say now that I hate that channel with every fiber of my being. What have you become, old friend?
First, after being acquired by NBC, and then in turn, Comcast, the channel just went straight up to hell. Graphics changed. Personnel changed. The jingles changed. I tried to stay faithful, but it felt more like a news program. They got away from what made it so special. Especially after tangling with NBC, they shoved politics and other such nonsense down my throat.
I tuned in to watch TWC for the weather. That's what's in the title.
TWC went through another major overhaul as of a few days ago. One look at it was childhood crushing. The bottom scroll went from simple text and icons to a running scroll of weather headlines, new indecipherable graphics and an entirely new font. On TWC's HD channel, a right side panel is fraught with clutter. Air travel statistics from all around the nation ubiquitously assault you.
The local forecast went from welcoming and regular to a Windows 8 ripoff. It wastes two seconds trying to be clever with a greeting. Radar maps look like a four year old scribbled it on white canvas. The song is the same every time. The graphics look like that same child drew them. It's awful.
If they took away the severe weather beeping for warnings, I will flip a lid.
And what is this Prospectors show crap? There's no overnight weather show on TWC like Overnight Outlook anymore. It's filled with some half-hearted dramas. Storm Stories was captivating. Coast Guard: Alaska? Heavy Metal Monsters? Get that crap off my Weather Channel. You're telling me there's no meteorological input for the late-nighters? I'm sure Comcast has enough money to pay someone to do it. I'd do it.
People watch the channel to figure out what to prepare. That's what I hope to find when I turn it on in the rare event I do nowadays. I never find it.
Yeah, there may be an app for that, but nothing replaces what that channel used to stand for.
Did I quit the weather aspirations because of this channel's decline? No. Trigonometry was the only final I ever failed in my school days, and I figured I couldn't touch calculus if math felt like a chore. I remember the director of the Mount Holly office saying math would become your life. I didn't want that anymore.
But it would not be hyperbole to say that watching the new version of The Weather Channel was like watching your childhood passion get crushed under the boot of change. Of ubiquity. Of corporate pandering. It just sucks.
I'm guilty of nostalgia, but I'm not guilty of feeling this way. I want TWC to come back to the way it was. I miss the old times where I thought "ABE" on the radar was us (it wasn't) on the old orange and blue local forecast. I miss knowing the forecast daily. I miss not freaking out about snowstorm forecasts. I miss loving weather.
Mostly, I miss the channel that inspired it all before it all went to hell. Maybe someday it will come back...
