Has laid off Chief Meteorologist Matt Laubaun and is laying off the entire meteorological staff. Weather will now be a feed from The Weather Channel in Atlanta. Just WOW!
WTVA in Tupelo
- Thread starter Dawgbite
- Start date
Yeah people are big mad. Wtva will fold all together without the meteorologist group. WCBI has to be chomping at the bits.
If I am Matt I go independent. I would pay to have his feed.
I have always wondered how much WCBI would pay to get rid of Matt. He has single handily destroyed them.
I was just coming here to post this. I talked to someone I know that used to work at WTVA. He said that it was explained to the higher ups in Allen Media that with the amount of tornados in our area people will die because of this decision and they pretty much said they don’t give a ****. Everybody in Northeast Mississippi knows to turn on Matt during bad weather and before him Dick Rice. Countless times I’ve watched and he will say “If you are in x location you have about 15 minutes and the storm will be on you”. That is irreplaceable. No app can replicate that. He could look at all the info and see a possible tornado just based off radar and start sounding the alarm. He would put up its path and all the towns in the way and what time it would get there.
I feel confident in also saying that people will absolutely die because of this. But from what I was told meteorologists are the highest paying jobs at these networks and Allen just wants them gone. They were asked what they are going to do about severe weather outbreaks and the answer was “We don’t know yet”.
I feel confident in also saying that people will absolutely die because of this. But from what I was told meteorologists are the highest paying jobs at these networks and Allen just wants them gone. They were asked what they are going to do about severe weather outbreaks and the answer was “We don’t know yet”.
Get use to it. This type of thing is going to start happening over and over again. You better have a trade to fall back on. My job will absolutely be gone when they figure out how to make Ai affordable.
Matt is honestly a true hero. His reporting saved my Grandparents. He spotted a tornado before there was even a warning.
I can tell you this is an industry that is struggling big time right now. The industry as a whole is over leveraged and retransmission rates are getting lower and lower due to cord cutting.
I got in a closet under a mattress about a year and a half ago because of Matt. He probably saved my neighbors life. This is truly a sad day.
Our chase team works personally with Matt and the others. This wasn't a massive kick in the nuts when we found out. There's not a lot I can say regarding this so I won't try. But I will say Matt and company are the best in the business and their number one concern was public safety and saving lives. I know there was a thread a few days ago complaining about him being on the air during a football game, but if he thinks he can save one life he's going to do it and our chase team was there to help him do that by providing all the real time info we could.
What does local weather look like going forward? Do we see local businesses residents supporting him on YouTube? We got to have him, Atlanta does not have the understanding of our area and local landmarks.
I don't depend on that channel much any more, but, They don't have to take over the whole damn screen to get the message across.
Yes, a Pet Peeve.
Local advertisers probably will have to pull out. You are underestimating how popular Matt is in the area.
To elaborate, just about everyone in NE Mississippi credits him with saving their lives or the lives of someone they know. That kind of makes people fiercely loyal.
Not really sure what is next, but you're right. Somebody is in a studio in Atlanta can't do what he does. With them it's just a job. With Matt it's a deep seated passion and concern for the people here. That can't be duplicated. You don't have the same level of concern when it's people you've never met in towns you've never visited.
They aren’t going to tell people in Old Union or Ryan’s Well exactly what time the storm will hit them either. Most of them don’t even know where the State of Mississippi is.
I don't watch the local news and only see the weather when they break in while I'm watching a game Fox or CBS (which is not often). Folks under 70ish can likely monitor weather from their phone or laptop via streaming or a website (I use weather underground); however, older folks will certainly be in a pickle, hopefully TWC can do a decent job, but doubtful they'll be as dialed in and certainly wan't know local landmarks and will mispronounce local town names, etc.
I started following Max Velocity on YouTube recently. He went over 800,000 followers a few weeks ago. He doesn't do local but does do major events so if it's tornadoes, winter storms or other major events in your area he covers those
It’s not just old folks. Matt is so detailed when he is in storm mode. I’m pretty savvy on weather apps and sites, but Matt was so much better than any of that. I always kept up on line and but when it got down to crunch time it was time to tune in to Matt.
If there’s a severe weather outbreak Ryan Hall does a good job too.
WCBI is the worst TV station I've ever had in a market where I lived. They have a long way to go to get even mediocre
I am a big Ryan Hall fan. He is the YouTube weather Goat!!
The problem using phones is not being able to read radar. Matt has saved lives, including my grandparents and friends because he picked up a tornado minutes before they issued a warning.
I know you said where you lived, but Greenville MS market is the worst I’ve ever seen. Looks like they just get someone off the street to read the teleprompter.
He told me when the tornado was at the crossroads about 300 yards from my house. Some guy in Atlanta isn’t going to do that. I’m not a fan of WCBI but looks like they may be the only game in town.
Exactly. You can’t just open a weather app, look at the radar and say “Honey looks like a tornado might be forming around Walnut. It should be to Corinth area 6:15, Glenn at 6:20, Burnsville at 6:30, Iuka at 6:40”. What he did was irreplaceable. No weather app, no AI, no guy in a studio on TWC or YouTube will ever be anywhere close to as detailed as he was when it comes to the small towns and communities in this area.
I understand, I personally still wouldn't watch local weather (unless it interrupted a sporting event I was watching).
It only takes once to change your mind. I’ve been through it more than once.
I don’t either but I know how to read a radar and look at the velocity as well but tv meteorologists are invaluable.
Dude I'm almost 60 and have lived in the 'Sip most of my life. I've been through much bad weather. In the 70s a tornado hit my grandfather's house who lived about 100 yards from us and Katrina downed a tree about 10 yards from my house. Wind gusts have destroyed out structures at my house and I've had several shooting houses destroyed by storms. I've got caught in a terrible storm on the Rez (would have capsized, but fortunately was close to Safe Harbor Marina). Two years ago I had my roof replaced due to hail. I'm one of those, "when you time is up, it's up" folks.
The one thing I don't eff around with is lighting. I head inside quickly. As you Airmen know, nothing can stop the USAF except lightening in 5.
Like I said, it only takes once, doesn’t have to be you personally in the line of fire.
He is almost on the same level as James Spann in Birmingham. If he goes solo like Ryan Hall, I imagine he will make enough money to keep going. I have been following him since he alerted people in Smithville that they were about to get hit in the 2011 storm. He recently alerted the people in Amory as he was following that storm live on radar. I watch his feeds online to keep up with my friends and family back home. I hope he has someplace to land because he is excellent.
Hopefully, you can read that I've been through more than one and I'm not going to start watching the news/weather. My 89 year old mother, living in the middle of BFE, doesn't even have local channels or internet, all she gets is direct TV/dish. I'll venture to say that even though she's lived here her entire life, she'd never intentionally watched a newscast. She can tell you about anything on the Hallmark Channel or Animal Planet though. Some folks just aren't scared of weather, we respect it and understand the danger, we just aren't fearful of it. This may sound strange, but I almost get wood over Hurricanes. Yes I understand how destructive they are (I rode out Katrina in Jxn and deployed to the coast a couple days after landfall), but I love them.
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