Always interesting to see how people respond to long form tornado coverage on ABC 33/40… a few examples:
“As usual, you and the weather team did an outstanding job during our severe weather outbreak yesterday. I know it has to be very tiring to be in front of the camera and on the air for such an extended period of time, but I certainly appreciate it and I’m sure countless others do also. I am also grateful to the station for allowing you to do this as I am sure it suffers a significant loss of advertising revenue during these times. If it is any consolation for this loss, ABC 33/40 is my single source for news, weather and sports on routine days.”
“JAMES SPANN IS A BLABBERMOUTH!!!!! I have spent the last 20 plus minutes listening to him say the same thing over and over and over. Then he will say, just a recap and then go on and on and on and on and on………………………………………………………………………………….. I understand we need the weather info, however, most of the time is spent discussing a thunderstorm! I am about to turn the station off and never turn it on 33/40 again.”
“I was watching James Spann reporting the severe weather tonight and I noticed a spot of hair in the front of James Spann’s head on the top in the middle of his head why doesn’t he just shave that spot off I mean Mr. Spann is going bald anyway why not just let the spot of hair go Mr. Spann just let it go its 2007 and its cool to be bald don’t be afraid just shave it off and let it go let it go let it go nobodys going to even notice that its gone because you are the worlds greatest meteorologist and they won’t see it because they will to busy basking in your supreme greatness. James Spann is the undefeated,undisputed world heavyweight champion of meteorologists.”
You never know what floats through the e-mail inbox around here. Bottom line is that our promise remains unchanged… the same one we made when ABC 33/40 signed on the air in September 1996. If a county in the DMA (Birmingham market) goes under a tornado warning, we will go on the air and stay on the air until the warning has expired.
Overnight ratings from last night show that again ABC 33/40 was dominant during the severe weather coverage period (4 until 7 p.m.). At 6:00, we had a 25.8 rating and a 38 share; more than the combined audience of WBRC and WVTM. We have very good competition in this market, and it remains a very humbling experience to gather these kind of audience numbers during severe weather. We understand our responsibility, and continue to take it very seriously.
