Local meteorologists could face layoffs amid new initiative with The Weather Channel : NPR

Meteorologists at 27 native TV information stations are dealing with uncertainty about their jobs after Allen Media Group introduced a brand new native climate initiative with The Climate Channel.

The group, which owns TV stations in 21 markets throughout the nation, mentioned Saturday it’s rolling out a brand new format for climate protection that can have “extra visible storytelling capabilities” throughout its stations in 2025.

The transfer comes as the published trade, significantly tv, seeks new methods to have interaction audiences because it navigates waning viewership amid twine chopping and the rise of streaming platforms.

The plan entails meteorologists at The Climate Channel in Atlanta producing content material for native stations throughout the nation. The group beneath the brand new initiative will probably be led by Carl Parker, a meteorologist at The Climate Channel, and embrace some meteorologists from native TV stations shifting to Atlanta, the media group mentioned in a press release.

Extreme climate will stay a precedence, the group mentioned, and the brand new format will “enhance reporting capabilities, particularly in high-stakes climate conditions.” It can additionally guarantee “probably the most correct, well timed, and interesting forecasts for communities throughout the nation,” in keeping with the discharge.

The corporate wouldn’t publicly element how the change would have an effect on meteorologists at native TV stations.

Meteorologists at some stations say they anticipate to be impacted by the choice. There are additionally stations dealing with ongoing layoffs that were announced in early 2024.

“By now most of you will have in all probability seen the chatter about Allen media letting native meteorologists go, nicely I’m one which will probably be affected by this,” Amber Kulick, a meteorologist with WAAY-TV in Huntsville, Ala., a station owned by the media group, wrote in a social media post. “For now I’m nonetheless on the station however I’m in search of my subsequent profession alternative.”

Josh Franson, a meteorologist with KWWL-TV in Iowa, mentioned he’s amongst these dealing with layoffs at his station.

“Hey guys, If you have not heard the latest information in regards to the layoffs, I needed to share that our station is a kind of impacted,” Franson wrote in a post on X. “To my viewers and people of you who’ve been on Frannys Report since day one, thanks.”

Zach Stanford, a former state coordinator for disaster data and catastrophe intelligence for the Oklahoma Division of Emergency Administration, mentioned native meteorologists are the “apparent alternative for life-saving native climate data” and serve essential roles in sharing different data corresponding to wildfire perimeters and evacuations.

“Native meteorologists on TV are a trusted face, not solely as a result of they know their science, but in addition as a result of they are a member of that neighborhood,” Stanford advised NPR. “The neighborhood element needs to be thought by to make it possible for that essential service is just not misplaced.”

Allen Media Group took possession of The Climate Channel in 2018.