Classiest Fans in the Nation - A Storm Story

Have you ever wanted to know what it would be like to live a nightmare scenario? Have you ever thought to yourself how awful it would be to be in the middle of a firestorm of criticism...doing nothing more than your job...during a time of crisis...taking heat and venom from the very people you're trying to serve?

Enter KETV weatherman John Campbell.

Mr. Campbell was on duty on the night of September 16th on KETV in Omaha, the city's ABC affiliate. Doesn't sound like too hard of a job does it? Read some charts? Put together some scripts, maybe a graphic or two. (I personally think he's an outstanding weatherman for what it's worth).

Anyhow, imagine how young Mr. Campbell must have felt as storm clouds began to rumble across the Omaha metro area....meanwhile, about a million or so rabid Husker fans are watching their beloved team get beatdown by a superior USC team on the station's telecast. Now the clouds are building quickly as the National Weather Center starts to issue Tornado warnings for the Omaha area. Do YOU want to be the guy to interrupt the game? Especially when the game was relatively close at the time? (Who am I kidding? USC had barely walked out of the tunnel, and it was 14-3.) When the tornado warnings finally were issued for the Omaha metro area, the station made the decision to split the screen between the weather personnel, and the game. The severe storm coverage only lasted 20 - 30 minutes or so, and KETV returned to the game in full screen for the second half.

Anyhow, you'll be STUNNED to read Mr. Campbell's politically correct blog entry on the station's website, where he states how difficult of a decision it was, and how he received death threats and the like. I've attached the link, as well as the actual text from the blog itself. Please take this into consideration the next time you hear about how the "Classiest fans on earth" "love their team" so much that they'd actually phone in death threats to a guy who is just trying to save their ass and give them warnings. Yes, I realize this is a week or two late...but just goes to show you how "classy" fans handle their team getting their ass punked on national TV.

When in doubt...take your frustrations out on the guy trying to save you.

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http://www.ketv.com/weatherblog/index.html

Sunday, September 17, 2006

That was horrible...

Last night was by far the worst thing that could have happened. I mentioned yesterday the great balancing act, unfortunately there wasn't much to balance once a tornado warning was issued for both Douglas and Sarpy county. The possible tornado (with confirmation from the Omaha Fire Dept. in southwest Omaha) was near the 180th and Harrison area.I want to set the record straight that it's our policy to cut-in when there is danger to the public and this was definitely the case last night. We worked hard to keep the game going in the double-box system.

I did not want to cut-in, but the situation warranted it. I apologize for the people trying to watch the game. I really do feel bad for the the interruptions.At the same point, while I feel horrible about interrupting the loss, I found the reaction by some people horrible too. Again, I wish I could change how things turned out. However, it's never fun getting death threats or having people calling me things I wouldn't even call Hitler or when people wish me a "slow and painful death". And for those saying we were doing it as a ratings ploy. That's not the case either. From a ratings perspective, it wasn't smart for us to cut-in during the game. That would not boost our ratings. We cut-in because of public safety and for no other reason. While it is also true that there were other channels broadcasting the information about the tornado, very few people were watching them.

The people living in Gretna or on 180th and Harrison were watching our station and in the end it is our policy. Always has been and always will.We're lucky there wasn't worse damage, but when the warning just comes out and you're on-the-air there is no possible way to know whether there is a significant tornado on the ground or not. Sometimes a radar signature that looks perfect for a tornado will produce nothing. Sometimes there's little indication of rotation in a storm and a town suffers damage.

Speaking of damage, those reports can be problems as well.. Sometimes when there is a warning, you'll get so much information about damage and such it is overwhelming. However, there are other times when you get no reports and when the tornado is long gone and then you find out a community is gone. That was the case during the Hallam Tornado a couple years back.I'm not going to post any comments to this post. I've heard quit a few already. (We also had quite a few emails saying that we were being inconsiderate by not giving full-screen storm coverage for the metro tornado warnings, because it was "much more important" than a football game.)

Again, I really do feel sorry. I would have rather watched the game too and I'm sure everyone that was here would have wanted the same.

Cheers,
John Campbell
StormTeam Meteorologist


(Special thanks to Sean Weide for uncovering this story in last week's reader's media notes blog)
http://www.thereadersmedianotes.blogspot.com/


(LATE EDIT)
Here is Sean Weide's blog entry that sums up the situation very well. Note the Husker fan replies to his blog entry.
http://thereadersmedianotes.blogspot.com/2006/09/severe-weather-coverage-cuts-into.html