Flying By The Seat Of Their Pants
On the 10pm news, KTRK-13's Dave Ward announced that they were "flying by the seat of their pants" with their coverage of the power blackout in eight or so counties surrounding Houston.
Then the live remote with Jessica Willey proceeded to go to green static intermittently. It looked nice with her lavender suit.
During the break, however, KTRK-13 reminded they are still number one in the morning.
This is more fun than it should be.
(Update): Oh dear, they're giving Ted Oberg lots of talk time. He just started carrying on about the Texas Power Grid, and how we're Texans and don't need power from other states! They should go back to Jessica and intermittent green static.
(Update 2): Now Ilona Carson is reporting via phone from Conroe. They are showing DAYTIME stock footage of Conroe! In case you've never seen Conroe.
(Update 3): Now Ed Brandon is drawing on the weather map and illustrating the power outage!
(Update 4): KHOU-11 left their power outage coverage to run a good report by Jeff McShan on the HPD manpower shortage. Nice work, KHOU!
(Update 5): The power outage coverage seems to be winding down.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/15/05 22:11 | Media Matters | Technorati
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Comments
KRIV-26's power outage coverage was amusing, especially when they sent SkyFox to show us...the big black area where The Woodlands is. It was scintillating TV viewing!
Posted by Anne @ 07:22 on 06/16/05
You're watching local news because . . .
why?
Posted by TP @ 10:40 on 06/16/05
It's amusing what amuses you, sir.
Posted by Mr. Hutchison @ 11:10 on 06/16/05
You know what's worse? He popped up some popcorn after the show started. He was THAT entertained. :)
Posted by callie @ 17:08 on 06/16/05
We were thinking it must have been a very slow news day for THAT much power-loss coverage. It would be different if their power was down for more than three hours (according to reports, it went down at 7p, and we were watching the 10p news).
But what did entertain me, as well as scare me, was that people were calling 911 to ask what to do with their frozen meat!
OMG! Tying up the emergency phonelines for frozen meat that hasn't even had enough time to partially thaw? Are those people DAFT?
Hints:
Since it's hot, you won't be needing blankets, use those to insulate your fridge/freezer.
Only the food prep person of the family is allowed to open the door to keep in the cold (kids waste a lot of time opening the fridge many times a day, then taking their time deciding what they want).
Move the meat (and expensive condiments) to an ice-cooler covered with lots of blankets, or partially buried, and purchase over-priced ice.
If the meat starts to thaw, can it with a pressure cooker (hopefully someone near you has a pressure cooker and a gas stove).
After Alicia, my parent's didn't have power for 10 days, and I heard some went even longer before theirs came back on. We didn't think of the canning thing back then, but she did pack the meat in a cooler and insulate it.
I snagged, with their permission, some ice from my current job before they figured out the ice they had left in their ice machines was a precious commodity. But luckily my power came back on the 2nd or 3rd day, and she loaded me up with LOTS of ice trays (hers as well as neighbors), and I had to make daily ice deliveries for a few days till it was easy to buy again.
Now this won't apply to last night since they had no warning, but should a hurricane look like it might head our way, fill lots of 2 liter cola bottles with water and freeze them. That with blanket insulation should buy some extra time to avoid the canning thing. Plus you'll have cold potable water to drink as you thaw one at a time.
Posted by Sherri @ 17:17 on 06/16/05
excellent advice Sherri, back during Alicia, my parents had a motor home complete with generator and working fridge. AND a 1/2 ton chevy pickup with a monster winch on the front. AND chain saws... between cutting and dragging limbs off things and plugging peoples freezers into the motor home, we were busy as beavers for two weeks......
Posted by Rorschach @ 12:40 on 06/21/05
LOL I find this entry hilarious, especially because I've interned at Channel 13 and seen exactly what goes on during slow news days. You have to fill that time with something, Sometimes that something is road closures, other times its power outages.
Posted by Leslie @ 09:11 on 06/26/05
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