It’s that time of year…
Where all of our television and radio stations are chomping at the bit to boost their ratings by feeding us gloom and doom forecasts for Kansas City. It’s no secret that good news is generally brief and boring. Ah, but bad news – crises and disasters – that’s something you can talk about all day long. That’s how you get your ratings up so you can charge advertisers more.
Friday was a shining example of how powerful – and irresponsible – our weather people can be.
They told viewers and listeners all day and all night about a snow and/or ice storm and dangerous weather on its way to Kansas City.
But they were wrong. Dead wrong.
For those of us who closely follow weather reports at this time of year, we were well aware of the weekend report a few days earlier. It went like this, Friday possible light rain with a high of 40 degrees. Saturday would be a bit cooler with little or no precipitation. As it turned out, this was the correct forecast.
We’re all well aware that the last 30 days or so have been unseasonably bitter and cold at times. That in and of itself had already taken a bite out of evening activities like shopping and dining and entertainment venues had slowed accordingly.
And a big winter storm, the second in the last two weeks, was making it’s trip around the metro. It appeared the forecast of light rain and fairly mild temperatures was the correct forecast.
Ah, but then the ratings bug bit.
There was a chance of the temperatures dropping as the rain fell and it could turn to ice. There was even the slight possibility of light snow later in the evening, possibly an inch or two.
I was up early Friday to do radio and television, my usual routine on Friday mornings. I do five radio shows and one television show between 7 am and 11 am. I drive a small sports car that doesn’t do well in the snow.
I was also concerned that we had a big star at our comedy club – Louie Anderson – and that bad weather could damage attendance and seriously impact our weekend business.
Not just our business but hundreds of other restaurants, theaters and shopping centers would be affected.
Then the unthinkable happened.
The local media put on a full court press talking about ice storms and snow storms that were seemingly happening at that very moment. I was out driving and thought maybe I missed something. Looking out my window, it seemed to be about 40 degrees with little to no precipitation and certainly no snow or ice.
I complained at every station but the weather men told me they were closing highways like I-35 and I-70 because there were an increasing number of accidents and it would only get worse as the day progressed.
And since there was no really bad weather in the metro, the news was showing pictures of accidents in surrounding cities and towns, not ours.
My favorite was one DJ saying that going out that night would be like taking your life into your hands and wherever you were between 8 and 9 PM was where you were spending the night because you wouldn’t be able to travel in the impending ice blizzard.
Bottom line, nothing happened.
I was out all morning. You could have driven 150 miles an hour on any major street and slammed on the brakes and you would have been just fine. The temperature hovered around 40 degrees most of the day, there was no snow and the streets were excellent.
All while I watched people cancel Christmas banquets, businesses shut down early, and business for Stanford’s and other nightclubs was anemic.
The responsibility of our news and weather departments is acute.
They do this all the time. I believe they knew at some point early on that the weather they feared was not going to materialize and yet pushed forward with their doom and gloom forecasts costing the city millions of dollars.
This is the Midwest and there are going to be be snow days.
But really, not more than a few that should keep us homebound. Except for the cold temps, this winter has been very mild so far. For our news and weather people to shut down the city with overblown claims of bad weather was irresponsible.
Thousands of people count on that business to pay bills and even buy Christmas gifts. These men and women who reported those false weather issues truly are the Grinches Who Stole Christmas.
Shame on you guys, you knew better.
/Recalls numerous videos of car accidents all over the metro Friday morning.
So the weather forecasts caused the bad turnout for Louie Anderson? Uh sure.
Yea, he was huge in that thing, you know,,,,that thing.
seems that Sporting KC had no problem attracting a full house there at the
Legends , plus thousands in the parking lot, on a far worse night ..
but.. they have an interesting product.
I’ll bet this was a 90-minute edit right here, buddy, and I feel for ya Hearne.
Between about 6:30am and 8 am there were slick spots on neighborhood streets, but on my 14 mile drive to work I saw no accidents. How the streets were to become worse with rising temperatures is a mystery. Fuck the drama weather queens. Makes one miss Katie Horner. Well, not quite.
My driveway was icy at like 7 a.m. but the streets were totally OK.
Sidewalks, driveways, and streets had a slick glaze of ice on them early that morning here in Brookside. I went out to walk my dog at 7 and almost fell as soon as I stepped onto my porch, so I turned around and got my yaktracks. (I’m from ice storm country, so I am prepared for that, but those things are handy on packed snow, too, even if your winter boots have a lot of tread—-have to take them off before you set foot inside, but I do recommend them if you don’t have any. Sporting goods stores and some hardware stores have them, about $25 per pair.) I made it a point to move all of the newspapers to the doors of my elderly neighbors who subscribe because even a few steps on that ice was dangerous. But all of that was gone by 10, and the streets didn’t seem nearly as slick as the sidewalks and driveways.
I like the Fox 4 weather team, and in fact they usually are calm during the storm. I have no use for Lezak most of the time because he hypes up everything, and I don’t need the anxiety, nor do I think severe thunderstorms and tornadoes are awesome—-those storms kill people and destroy homes and businesses, so I don’t think it’s appropriate to be happy about them. But I think part of the issue here is that the forecast did change, and the Fox 4 team said all along that it was unclear exactly what would happen and that we might not know until the night before. I keep a close eye on the weather year-round, and I did notice that the night before, around 11, Fox 4 updated their site and said that while there would be some slick areas, it wouldn’t be much and wouldn’t last long. NWS said the same. I think that too many people check the forecast once, in the morning, and expect that to hold for the next day or so, but that’s not always the case with storms because they just don’t work that way.
I stopped watching local TV news years ago. I do not need to know what the overnight ‘count’ was to exist.
The weather people — all of them — are idiots. I can look at radar now and a couple of web sites and get more information than any of them give in their multiple teasers throughout their 30 minute commercial fest.
The last good weatherman was Katie Horner who informed people and didn’t kiss the butt of JoCo whiners.
Hater MJ, Friday the city was shut down, Stanfords was one of the FEW places in town that had any crowd at all, our first show was decent, the second slow, Saturday with no bad weather call his first show sold out and second was close…he is a BIG STAR, no doubt and nobody will argue that…nobody…hence the made up weather report hurt hundreds of venues not just ours, I know I spoke to them, in Westport and other areas all dead…empty…no reason, just a bogus report…very unfair. To All.
What a load of crap. We had a 45 minute wait at la bodega and the casino was so packed that I looked at my girl and said “I’d rather go home and go to bed”. That is what we did and it was a good night. Hope your talent got their money up front.
Yep hater the city was on fire, packed everywhere. I think most readers here know what it was really like…dead.
Yup, I am a hater. Not. Just tell as it was. It was cold and nobody wanted to stand in line at your jerky club to see the guy the admitted to being second to Dave Naster tossing fire.
Dope dealer Bubba give it a rest huh, you’re not really trying to put down mulit millionaire, star in Vegas, household name comic Louie Anderson are you? I mean you weren’t even a good dealer, banned from Stanfords, a pill pusher with your little hooker gal, come on now. Don’t put down people with that kind of success, what have you done?
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/99135163/stanford-and-sons-feature-film?ref=live
Hater boy, that project, which as you can see is pretty damn funny, was pulled after a couple days, cause TJ wanted to change it. That’s all…that was some time ago. But thanks.
I hope 3 poor souls got their money back.
Since the football notice, picks, was a few stories back here is the update. We got 3 of 4 this weekend. Notice half of those were just straight up picks no tease. I kept an eye on the tease wins, 3 out of 4 would have won anyways, interesting. So my overall record is now 53-32. Very good. With playoffs and bowl games coming up it gets harder. Teams are closer in strength for the most part. We’ll see.
A fun win for the Chiefs yesterday. Big offense, poor defense again, yes I know we had some turnovers but our secondary is way below average. A problem for the post season. I do notice our run D is much better, especially in the first 3 quarters of games. We have no pass rush and haven’t for about 8 games. We need someone next year to help do that, right now Tamba and Houston are questionable in that area. I think Hali is just plain good, but his big pass rush days may be ending. Houston is hot and cold, been cold up til he got hurt, but he wasn’t getting any sacks. Without that rush, our D is very weak, it may cost us that big game coming up. Alex Smith is the number 3 best quarterback in the AFC. Nice. Still a good year for our KC Chiefs, playoffs maybe a win there. Hey at least we have Sundays to look forward too for a change.
I agree that the local news goes crazy over any potential snow or ice. It is frustrating and they are rarely correct in their prediction. I wish that my job allowed me to be wrong that often.
Question though for CG, where were you getting this forecast “It went like this, Friday possible light rain with a high of 40 degrees. Saturday would be a bit cooler with little or no precipitation. As it turned out, this was the correct forecast”
I was checking weather.com, weather underground and the national weather service and they were all calling for snow, ice and basically the end of the world.
I agree, weather guessers are full of crap. They have to bring the drama because everyone can check the weather on their phones. They need something to bring in viewers. I had the same thing as ADMIN, slick driveway, that is all.
Well, I also had a slick driveway at 7 a.m., with the freezing rain continuing to fall and causing all sorts of problems, including the shutdown of a big stretch of I-35 in JoCo.
Unlike you and the admin, I used my head and an unused vacation day, not being that curious to see what kind of shape the streets were in.
More power to ya!
Not everyone gets a vacation day – or wants to squander it on a suspect forecast, when it’s like 40 degrees outside. But hey, if you had fun, vacation away.
Admin? It wasn’t 40 degrees outside Friday. It was in the teens early in the morning, with the high predicted around 34. It actually hit 36, so they were two degrees off. And you can look it up.
And pray tell, where did you have to go Friday morning? To the offices at KCConfidential in Corporate Woods?
I had a job to go to, the streets were dry, no reason to waste a vacation day when we will get worse weather later. The streets I drove in in O.P, Leawood, Lenexa, and Olathe were dry. I drove on Westbound 435 to Southbound 35 and it was dry. Made it safe, used my head.
Why just lay the blame on the media? The National Weather Service issued a Winter Storm Watch as well. Just poor forecasting except for KSHB which stuck with just 1″-2″ of snow, not the 3-6 inches that the NWS forecasted.
Agreed. This is just a case of Glazer being pissed that his place was not a complete sellout. I love the part where he writes this:
“For those of us who closely follow weather reports at this time of year, we were well aware of the weekend report a few days earlier. It went like this, Friday possible light rain with a high of 40 degrees. Saturday would be a bit cooler with little or no precipitation. As it turned out, this was the correct forecast.”
That is total BS because EVERY forecast was calling for at least 1 to 2 inches of snow. He never mentions where these other mysterious forecasts came from, just states it like a fact because he knows everyone loves to criticize the weather guy. Please enlighten us because I would like to know of a better source for my local weather.
It was from a “teaser” weather site.
Ok Dumb dog…I watched channel 20 weather all early in the week for two days they had it Friday around 40 and possible light rain, Saturday cooler 30 and no moisture…thats where. Latter doggie.
Who are you call dumb dog? Jess or someone else? I assume you mean the weather channel by “channel 20” but not sure since every cable provider has different channels.
If you are referring to the weather channel, that is not true. They were not calling for “Friday around 40 and possible light rain, Saturday cooler 30 and no moisture”
Ok, it is Friday now, tell us exactly what the weather is going to be like on Saturday and Sunday? Come on, money where your mouth is Mr. Weather.
Anyways glad most of you agree, it was a bogus call by our news guys. They will do it again, we will listen again and they will be wrong again.
All I want to know is what would it take to get Lezak out of here. He has more than ran his course. Let that new hottie take over NOW. He can take his buddy Jack Harry with him!
Wonder if I can sue for defamation of my web persona? Craig you have no clue who I am. I have never been involved in drug transactions other than the odd dime bag of weed here or there years ago yet you make up that I a drug dealer as some sort of slur. Ironic considering your history with drugs and the law, regardless of spinning it that you were on the good guys side. I spent at most $10 in Standford’s in the early ’90’s once and decided it was as lame as you comparing your Lotus to a Ferrari and never returned.
Sorry, you cannot sue a moron. It is like fighting corky, it always ends bad and you cannot win
Well hater bubba that explains it, last time you were at Stanfords was in the 90’s so maybe you don’t know much of what goes on here since you haven’t been in for a couple decades, huh. I was told who you were by two people who both said you were a low level pill pusher. Maybe they were wrong, don’t know. I know a bubba who is, maybe you are a different bubba. Whatever it is you are a hateful person, as many comment haters are, and I don’t care what you think. Nobody really does. As for sueing me go ahead please do…you are an idiot and that’s what your legal claim would be, ONE FROM AN IDIOT…PEOPLE WITH FAKE NAMES HAVE NO CLAIM TO ANYTHING. You are one of many cowards who hide behind a fake name and are always negitive. Some people use a pretend name and are decent. Not you. Never a good word, always an attack. You are one of many who do this on tons of sites.
Interesting, Bubba. You call me every name in the book plus a liar, yet use a fake name. When you get it back, as a non person who nobody on here knows or cares about, you become quite upset…see how that works…clearly whoever you are, you are an angry upset person. See a doctor and get some mental help. Best advice I can give, reach out for help. Sounds like you might need some. Good luck.