Variety reports:
Handing out pink slips to dozens of beloved small-market local TV news weathercasters would be ill-advised even in the best of times. But to do it right as unpredictable and dangerous weather disasters tear across the country this month — from wildfires in California to a historic freeze in the south — was particularly tone deaf.
And yet, that’s what Allen Media Group did last week, announcing that it would be getting rid of trusted local weather anchors in a cost-saving move. The idea was to just feed forecasts from its Weather Channel hub in Atlanta to the company’s stations across the country.
Allen Media Group said it might move some of its local meteorologists to Atlanta, but for the most part your local forecast would now be handled by someone hundreds, or even thousands, of miles away from the community served by the station.
Read the full article.
Facing Backlash Over Firing Its Meteorologists, Allen Media Group Learns an Important Lesson: Take the ‘Local’ Out of Local TV At Your Own Peril https://t.co/sLNK90kOZP
— Variety (@Variety) January 25, 2025