On May 9, severe weather struck the Evansville, Ind. area. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Brandon Ridge, the creative services director at WFIE, the NBC affiliate in town, and his staff put together this proof-of-performance (POP) spot and explained how the station covers severe weather. “Here at 14WFIE we start talking about severe weather chances days […]
On May 9, severe weather struck the Evansville, Ind. area. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Brandon Ridge, the creative services director at WFIE, the NBC affiliate in town, and his staff put together this proof-of-performance (POP) spot and explained how the station covers severe weather.
“Here at 14WFIE we start talking about severe weather chances days ahead of time and we knew for this particular storm that it had all the right elements to become severe. We ended up with a macroburst that had straight line winds estimated up to 120 mph. We were prepared though because we were on-air alerting viewers of what action to take and when, days ahead of time on the front end and then minutes in advance as the storm was moving through. We never neglect the possibility it could be the next big disaster and that we need to prepare our viewers.
“We really promote ‘time’ as a strength. As I said before we start talking about storms days in advance so that people need can be prepared. We have three stages of weather:
- BE AWARE: Several days out, be aware that severe weather may be possible within the next several days.
- BE ALERT: 24 to 36 hours prior to event. Be alert for watches/warnings, review severe weather plan, make sure you have a way to get the alert.
- TAKE ACTION: When warnings are issued or severe weather is imminent.
“Every station in the country doesn’t know when the next tornado will hit, but using a system like this gives the viewer something tangible in regards to how much to be paying attention to any possible threat. This has worked in the past with other storms, and this time was no different. What was impressive though was how after the storm, the entire station worked together.
“Promotions producers were shooting footage for news, engineers were firing up generators and dialing in live shots from all over, reporters were going everywhere even though there were downed power lines all over the place. Even though we practice for it every day, to rise to the occasion and cover an event like this on-air, online, and on social, it was very inspiring.”
14NEWS – May 9 Storm from 14Production on Vimeo
14 News, WFIE, Evansville, Henderson, Owensboro
Comments (0)
Reader Interactions