You know what we mean. So we sit through the happy talk, the pointless footage of an explosion in Podunk, Neb., the cute kids in the pumpkin patch, and the interminable commercial breaks. Just give it to us. Just tell us if it's going to rain tomorrow. Of course, there's a reason they make us wait until the end of the newscast every night.
Weather drives the local news.
According to Kerry Oslund, news director at KOIN, it's a prime reason viewers tune in and the main reason they stay. Not surprisingly, then, stations compete fiercely to give good weather. Probably the most heavily promoted piece of equipment in town is KGW's Live Doppler 8000. It's a radar that shows instant weather, as opposed to the slightly delayed yet equally incomprehensible images the National Weather Service feeds to the other two local stations. Zaffino is proud of his Doppler.