Storm cancellations on radio, TV

[Bob Nelson <raccoonradio@yahoo.com>]

Remember the time--and it wasn't that long ago--
when you'd tune to a local radio station (especially
a news or talk one) and they'd follow their top of the
hour news with a long list of storm cancellations?

All the schools from kindergarten to college; public
and private. Organizations holding meetings; religious
groups; and even some work shifts at various
employers. That long list, alphabetical, and with all
those details: No AM kindergarten. No afternoon
classes. One hour delay. Early release.

Nowadays though, you'll hear something like this: "For
a list of storm-related cancellations, go to our
website at www.wrko.com". Yup-- no long list
(at least not during certain times of the day, and
not on some stations I've tuned to). So you can get
your cancellations via the Net--or certainly on TV,
with that scrolling list at the bottom of the screen.
(Thus freeing up stations to do other stuff, like
more talk, news, and yes, commercials!)

Yes, times have changed...and it also affects TV.
Instead of taking a few minutes and running a scroll
of the cancellations taking up the whole screen, you
have the scroll at the bottom of the screen. And yes,
they do this for sports results too. You'll have Ch.
4's Bob Lobel talking about the Red Sox game, as
scores of other games flash along the bottom of the
screen... instead of taking a minute or so at the end
of the sportscast to show all the results on full
screen.

We can still remember the days when they used magic
marker on an actual physical map to show us storm
fronts during the weather forecast. And the days when
stations ran that long, long list of cancellations
and postponements!