The Weather Channel

The Weather Channel 	The Weather Channel
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Launched 	May 2, 1982
Owned by 	TWCC Holding Corporation, a consortium owned by
NBCUniversal (Comcast)Blackstone GroupBain Capital (exact percentages unknown)
Picture format 	480i (SDTV)1080i (HDTV)
Slogan 	"It's Amazing Out There."
Country 	United States
Language 	English
Broadcast area 	National, affiliated services available internationally
Headquarters 	Atlanta, Georgia
Sister channel(s) 	WeatherscanNBCMSNBCTelemundo
Website 	wxch.nl
Availability 	Availability
Terrestrial 	Terrestrial
UHF-TV Inc.(Willmar, MN) 	34
Selective TV Inc.(Alexandria, MN)	50
Satellite 	Satellite
DirecTV 	362 (SD/HD)
Hughes Commucations 	555 (SD) 855 (HD)
Dish Network 	214 (SD/HD)
Cable 	Cable
Verizon FiOS 	611 (HD only)
AT&T U-Verse 	225 (SD) 1225 (HD)
IPTV 	IPTV
Sky Angel 	Channel 320
The Weather Channel (TWC) is a commercially-sponsored U.S. cable & satellite TV network that broadcasts weather forecasts & weather-related news 24 hours a day. In addition to it's cable TV programming, TWC also provides forecasts for terrestrial & satellite radio stations, newspapers & websites & maintains an extensive online presence.. TWC debuted it's high-definition simulcast on September 26, 2007.
On January 3, 2008, it was reported that the family owned Landmark Communications, parent company of TWC, may be for sale. On July 7 2008, NBC Universal announced plans on purchasing the channel & assets for $3.5 billion along with private equity firms The Blackstone Group & Bain Capital. The deal was made & closed on September 12th, 2008.
TWC was founded on July 17, 1981 by John Coleman. TWC went on the air on May 2, 1982. TWC got regional forecasts from NOAA & local forecasts from the NWS. In 2002, TWC has done forecasts from their headquarters in Atlanta, GA; but current weather & forecast model data is still provided by the NWS & NOAA & UV Index/Air Quality Index from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. TWC has no local meteorologists outside of the Atlanta Area.
In May 2007, TWC celebrated 25 years on the air with past TWC commercials & a special TWC 25th anniversary logo.
In 2008, TWC was embroiled in scandal after rumors abounded about now former OCM Bob Stokes sexually harassing another former OCM, Hillary Andrews. Andrews filed a lawsuit through Cobb County district court against TWC alleging the abuse by Stokes (which included statements like "Will you lick my swizzle stick" & saying that 'TWC' "covered it up"). In May, 2008, Andrews won her lawsuit & was awarded an undisclosed amount of money. During the proceedings, it was revealed that Stokes' co-anchor before Andrews, Lisa Mozer, was also harassed.
==Current TWC==
TWC uses special proprietary equipment that inserts local weather forecasts & warning information if it's viewed on a cable TV system. The original WeatherStar technology has been upgraded on most cable systems to IntelliStar, including Vocal Local to announce the 3-day local forecast. Satellite viewers see a roundup of local TWC forecasts for major cities across the US, as well as satellite & radar images & severe weather watch & warning maps when active. For both cable & satellite viewers, smooth jazz music plays in the background during these segments.
TWC produces a service, based on modified versions of WeatherStar technology, called Weatherscan on which a separate channel constantly displays local & regional conditions & forecasts along with TWC's logo & advertisements.
#TWC is headquartered in the Cumberland/Galleria area, immediately northwest of Atlanta, overlooking the "Cobb Cloverleaf" interchange from a high-rise in the Interstate North complex. TWC's sister channel in Canada is The Weather Network (TWN) in English & MétéoMédia in French, which use similar technology that is currently in use in the USA. TWC also runs websites in Brazil (Canal do Tempo), the United Kingdom (Weather Channel), France (Météo 123) & Germany (Wetter 123). Apart from it's stake in TWN/MétéoMédia, TWC only runs their US channel, although it does air a forecast for international locations.
A definitive history of the network, The Weather Channel: The Improbable Rise of a Media Phenomenon, by Frank Batten & Jeffrey L. Cruikshank, was published by Harvard Business Press in May 2002, on TWC's 20th anniversary.
On July 6, 2008, NBC Universal, Bain Capital & Blackstone Group agreed to purchase TWC from Landmark Communications. Currently, NBC Universal owns NBC Weather Plus, a rival service carried by & featuring content from it's local affiliates; if the purchase goes through, it will likely result in a consolidation of the 2 networks.
From November 2008 to February 2009, The Weather Channel laid off seven long-time on-camera meteorologists: Kristina Abernathy, Eboni Deon, Kristin Dodd, Rich Johnson, Cheryl Lemke, Mark Mancuso and Dave Schwartz (Schwartz would return to TWC in April 2014[11][12]). With the exception of Deon, all had been on the air for more than ten years, and three of them had been employed by the network for more than twenty years. In July 2010, The Weather Channel terminated Bill Keneely, the last of the original on-camera meteorologists who appeared on the network's first broadcasts in 1982. In December of that year, the network also laid off on-camera meteorologist Nicole Mitchell, who later would file a lawsuit against The Weather Channel in 2012, alleging that she had been terminated because the channel's new owners disapproved of the time required by her simultaneous duties as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force Reserve as one of the "Hurricane Hunters" team;[13] such reserve duties are protected by U.S. law (Mitchell now serves as the chief meteorologist at Al Jazeera America, which for a time also employed Eboni Deon).
Inevitably, the merger of NBC on-air meteorologists began in May 2009. Former NBC Weather Plus meteorologist Todd Santos joined The Weather Channel on May 2 of that year. Al Roker of NBC's Today began hosting a one-hour morning program called Wake Up With Al, alongside meteorologist Stephanie Abrams later in the summer. However, for New York City-based forecasting operations (those utilized for forecasts on MSNBC and CNBC, for instance), the former NBC Weather Plus forecasting, radar and graphics systems remain in place, with banners changed to fit The Weather Channel's graphics scheme. On September 10, 2009, The Weather Channel co-founder Frank Batten died.
In January 2012, David Kenny took over as chief executive officer of The Weather Channel, replacing former AOL executive Mike Kelly, who had been appointed as the company's CEO in the summer of 2009. Although all operations, sales support and marketing and the bulk of employees are located in the headquarters in Atlanta, Kenny declined to move there, and continues to live and work from his home in Boston, visiting Atlanta once or twice per quarter. This is counter to general company policy which discourages telecommuting for the majority of employees. Later in 2012, The Weather Channel's holding company changed its name from The Weather Channel Companies to The Weather Company. The company also purchased competing weather service and website Weather Underground the same year. On March 10, 2015 Verizon FiOS dropped The Weather Channel and WeatherScan for their rival, AccuWeather. It is unknown if this will be permanent.
On September 9, 2015, the channel announced a phased overhaul of its programming schedule during 2016, in which the channel would gradually shift its focus back towards a forecast-based lineup; the channel cancelled Wake Up with Al (due to the prohibitive costs of renting the Rockefeller Center studio) and announced that AMHQ would be reformatted as a weather-focused program (eliminating lifestyle segments), with Stephanie Abrams taking over as host while original host Sam Champion will become a contributor for its prime time schedule starting November 2. The network also announced it would no longer greenlight original long-form programming, and expand live forecast programming on its schedule throughout 2016 once all remaining long-form programs already in development conclude their runs. In a memo sent out to network staff by Weather Company CEO David Kenny, it cited the refocusing towards weather-based programs was done on the basis that "our most passionate fans come to us for the weather and the science behind the weather, not our original shows." Around 50 TWC employees - including production, engineering and financial staff – were laid off, and the television channel's budget was reduced to focus investments on the company's internet and mobile properties.
In August 2015, reports surfaced that The Weather Company's owners were considering a sale of all or part of the venture, having hired Morgan Stanley and PJT Partners to explore their options. On October 28, 2015, it was announced that IBM would acquire most of The Weather Company's assets, including weather.com, Weather Underground, the related mobile applications, and their underlying data platforms, for an undisclosed amount. IBM plans to leverage its Watson technology as part of the acquisition, foreseeing its use for weather analytics and predictions. The deal, which closed the following January, does not include The Weather Channel itself, which remains owned by TWCC Holding Corporation, a Bain/Blackstone/NBCUniversal consortium, and entered into a long-term licensing agreement with IBM for use of its weather data and "The Weather Channel" name and branding.
===Overseas Versions===
Over the years, attempts to broadcast international versions of TWC (apart from Canada's TWN/MétéoMédia & the Australian version of TWC) have failed. TWC also operates websites for online localized forecasts in Brazil, France, Germany, Latin America & the United Kingdom, but some of these sites appear to have not been developed further since 2003. TWC also shares radar & forecasts with the Canadian The Weather Network, particularly for TWC's Canadian forecasts.
A UK version of TWC ran from September 1, 1996-January 30, 1998, when it was closed due to low viewership. TWC also ran The Weather Channel Latin America, which operated in Spanish in Mexico, Puerto Rico & South America, this version of TWC is still on-air. The service's 3 original anchors were Paola Elorza, Sal Morales & Mari Carmen Ramos who left the channel within a year of it's launch & went on to work for Univision in Miami, Telemundo in Los Angeles & CNN International.
==TWC's Logo==
TWC's original & most recognized logo was a blue rectangular box that debuted on TWC’s first broadcast on May 2, 1982. This logo was revised in 1996, with the corners less rounded & the logo slightly flat (this is like a revised version of Burger King's logo when it happened in 1994). The URL text weather.com was permanently added underneath the logo in 1999. In August 2005, the logo was overhauled again; the blue rectangle’s corners are straight with no white trim on the edge & "The Weather Channel" text is now in title-case & left-justified, similar to TWN in Canada. A 25th anniversary logo used in 2007 featured a white rectangle edged in blue connected to the current logo with "25 YEARS" inside it in blue.
==Local On The 8's==
See also:
*WeatherStar Jr.
*WeatherStar III
*WeatherStar 4000
*WeatherStar XL
*Weatherscan
*IntelliStar
*IntelliStar 2
*IntelliStar 2 Jr.
*IntelliStar 2 xD
The Local on the 8's (also known as the "Local Forecast" or "LOT8's") is the part of TWC's programming where viewers see the current conditions & local forecast for their respective area @ times ending in "8" (e.g., 9:18).
Before this was implemented, the local forecast was seen about 8 times an hour @ various times, depending on the time of day (more in the morning, less @ night). The concept of Local on the 8's debuted in 1996, although it's initially implemented in mid-1995. TWC's Local on the 8's has confused some New York metro viewers & listeners into thinking it's owned by CBS Corporation, because WCBS-TV (CBS 2) & WCBS-AM (WCBS Newsradio 880) have a similar slogan for TV & radio broadcasts called "Traffic & Weather on the 8's" (TWOT8's).
Any cable company that carries TWC can install a WeatherSTAR/IntelliStar unit in a cable headend & receive the information, which is then shown to viewers via local insertion.
As of 2006, the majority of cable companies use the IntelliStar (the network's latest STAR system), which is capable of generating graphics for Weatherscan. IntelliStar cable viewers can see current weather conditions for their location & surrounding areas, weather forecasts, doppler radars of the region, almanac (tidal information for most coastal locations), air quality conditions & in larger media markets, traffic conditions supplied by Traffic Pulse (which in turn gathers such information in real time from various intelligent transportation systems operated by the department of transportation in various US states). Some viewers also see forecasts for popular vacation destinations that are within "weekend getaway" driving distance. Some cable companies, on the other hand, continued to use the XL, 4000 or Jr. units until they were replaced for IS2 Jr. units.
Due to the unique circumstances involving satellite TV, things are different for it's viewers. During this time, the segment includes hourly forecasts for 20 major cities, 3-day forecasts for 40 US cities, satellite loops & composite radars of the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Northwest & Southwest. At :28 & :58 after the hour, the Northwest & Southwest satellite/radars are replaced by one showing the entire West.
DirecTV viewers do see an IntelliStar-generated "lower third" graphic @ all times except during TV commercials. This cycles through current conditions (sky & temperature only) & today or next-day forecasts for major US cities, as well as major airport delays. As of November 8, 2006, Dish Network viewers are now able to view local weather conditions & radar on TWC on DiSH Home Channel 100, based on their billing ZIP code, along with access to weather in other cities.
===Music===
The Weather Channel released its own smooth jazz CD in 2007, The Weather Channel Presents: The Best of Smooth Jazz, based on collections of popular music played on the "LOT8's" segments. It peaked @ #1 on Billboard's Top Contemporary Jazz charts in the same year. Artists included on this CD are Joyce Cooling, Dave Koz, Paprika Soul, Four 80 East, Jeff Lorber, Pieces of a Dream, Chick Corea, Jeanne Ricks, Ryan Farish, Mark Krurnowski, Najee & 3rd Force. In 2008, their second compilation CD containing their most requested music was released, titled The Weather Channel Presents: Smooth Jazz II. Artists on this CD include Russ Freeman & The Rippingtons, Jeff Lorber, Ramsey Lewis Trio, Bradley Joseph, Bernie Williams, David Benoit, Spyro Gyra, Norman Brown, Chris Geith, Joe Sample, Charlie Parker Quartet & Eric Marienthal.
Other artists that can be heard during this segment include Trammell Starks, The Rippingtons, Moby, Alter EKO & Chris Camozzi.
==Radio & Newspaper==
TWC provides forecasts on Sirius & XM satellite radio in the US. They run regional forecasts on 1 station & a block of local weather & traffic for many metropolian areas. TWC also has content partnerships with a number of local radio stations in the USA to provide local forecasts, using announcers separate from the TV service. For some affiliates, TWC actually provides a limited amount of live coverage during local severe weather. Similarly, TWC also provides weather reports for a number of US newspapers, including a half-page national forecast for USA Today.
==Online services==
TWC provides numerous customized forecasts for online users, including home & garden & event planning forecasts. They also provide WAP access for mobile phone users, desktop widgets for quick reference by computer users & customized weather feeds for individual websites. They follow a two-tiered service model, with the free service bearing advertisements & their pay ("Desktop Max") service lacking ads & having enhanced radar & mapping functions. Cell Phone customers can even have their local forecast sent to their mobile handsets from TWC for a fee via SMS by sending a text message with their ZIP code to 42278 which spells 4cast. Other services include Yahoo!, in which the weather pages are produced by TWC. There is an app on phones. Online services were bought by IBM.
==TWC HD==
On September 26 2007, DirecTV launched a 24-hour simulcast of TWC in HD. At this time, no programming was actually presented in HD except for a national "satellite" version of the Local On The 8s'. On October 1 2007, 2 new HD programs, "Epic Conditions" & "Weather Ventures" premiered. A new HD series, "When Weather Changed History" premiered on TWC on January 6, 2008.
Throughout the final months of 2007-early months of 2008, various cable companies had started to add TWC HD to their cable lineups, including the Boston, MA; Austin, TX; San Antonio, TX & Baton Rouge, LA markets. TWC in HD was added to DISH Network systems on May 13, 2008.
The very first LIVE broadcast of TWC in HD came on June 2, 2008 in a new studio facility built next to the current one. Dubbed the "Studio of the Future", it is powered by Cisco Systems technology that is entirely eco-friendly, echoing it's commitment to the environment via the Forecast Earth initiative. The complete transition to HD will be completed by the end of August 2008.
==Slogans==
*1982-1983: We Take Weather Seriously...But Not Ourselves.
*1983-1984: The Cable Television Network for America's Lifestyle.
*1984-1986: Weatherproofing America.
*1986-1991: You Need Us The Weather Channel for Everything You Do.
*1991-1996: Weather You Can Always Turn To.
*1996-1998: No Place on Earth Has Better Weather.
*1998-2001: Keeping you ahead of the storm.
*2001-2005: Live by It.
*2005-2008: Bringing Weather to Life.
*June 2-late 2008: The Weather Has Never Looked Better.
*2013-2020: It's Amazing Out There.
*2020-present: Get Into The Out There.
==See also==
*Weatherscan
==External links==
*TWC's Official Website
*TWC's Official URL Shortener
*TWC Classics: More on TWC from 1982-1999
*TWC Classics Message Boards
*Yahoo! Weather which is sponsored by weather.com
*Weather.com - LOT8's Music
*TWC Today: More on TWC from 2000-present
*TWC Today Message Boards
*Interactive tour of TWC's new HD studios