"Our news director, Allen Beckner, was a huge information source, relaying new damage reports and new warnings."
KPTM (Cox Channel 10) was not to be overlooked during Thursday afternoon's storm coverage, despite operating with considerably fewer resources than its competition.
Chief Meteorologist Tyson Pearsall said a team effort, comprised of reporters, photographers, assignment editors and even the station's news director, made for a solid performance that kept viewers informed while the storm was bearing down on the metro.
"We originally had an expectation for severe weather today, therefore Elizabeth Merriman and I took the team approach to the forecast early this morning," Pearsall said. "We planned on phone interviews during the storm and fortunately, we were able to utilize not only Elizabeth in the field for live phone reports, but also several photographers, reporters and an assignment editor."
With Merriman in the field, Pearsall said KPTM news director Allen Beckner stepped in to relay weather warnings and damage reports to him while he stayed in front of the camera as part of wall-to-wall coverage.
"We felt it was necessary to not only share information about current warnings taking place in extreme eastern Nebraska and western Iowa, but also to regularly refer back to the metro to try and give folks a very clear idea that conditions were indeed improving," Pearsall said.
"Some may think the coverage can become repetitive, but today's scenario was serious and we needed to continually get the message across to those who feared the situation and had great concern," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment