Why is it whenever there is a weather warning, instead of a silent scroll over my screen, either the sound goes off and the warning scrolls, or even more maddening, a voicee comes over the TV and broadcasts it RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SHOW?
This is annoying as hell, and I cant hear my favorite show!!!
Who’s brilliant idea was THIS?
It’s meant to save lives, you putz. 
They do it so that even if you can’t see the screen you can learn that a huge storm is bearing down on you. Those who can’t see so well also benefit, like me when I’m napping and my glasses have fallen on the floor (something that happens too often).
If you’re talking about what I think you’re talking about…
The broadcasting station has no control over that. The tones override everything and NOAA has control of your audio (sounds like The Outer Limits, doesn’t it?).
Yeah, but did you notice it rarely happens during commercials?
I started my stopwatch when I put up the initial post . . . and, yes, it is no suprise that some dope would post, WITHIN 4 MINUTES, the old "Well what if you are blind and can’t see the TV or eben better:
the WHAT IF I AM NAPPING ARGUMENT."
OK, if you are napping with the TV on, obviously the sound of the TV does NOT wake you up. SOOOOO . . (I HATE to be mean, but admite it, ADMIT IT, you drew first blood by calling me a “putz”) HOW-THE-HELL-WOULD-THE-NOAA-WAKE-YOU-UP?
And, not to sound un-PC, BUT . . . can’t we just all throw in and buy blind people weather radios? It would be worth it to me so that I can enjoy my TV show.
This must be changed. Immediately.
Umm, did you mean to post this in the Pit?
Is it really that big a deal? You’re telling me that if a tornado is coming at you and you go to the bathroom for 2 minutes and the screen blinks “TORNADO COMING TO THEUGLYHOUSE” but in order to satisfy you they don’t say anything over the audio, and by the time you are done peeing you get back to the TV just in time to see “TO UGLYHOUSE”, so you wait the 30 seconds to see “TORNADO COMING” so you run to the storm cellar but oops it’s too late because you were peeing that you’d be happier dead/mutilated than having your show interrupted?
[sub]This run-on sentence brought to you by the Punctuation Conservation League.[/sub]
Where the hell do you live that this is a constant problem?
I’m with Douglips. The messages are annoying but, around here at least, the stuff they interrupt TV shows for is the kind of stuff I’d like to know. If a tornado watch has been declared in my area, I want to be alerted to this fact.
I had a television show interrupted to let us know of a thunderstorm warning. The thunderstorm wasn’t actually near me; it was several counties away. It was also no worse than few-millimeter hail and high winds and, of course, heavy rain. No one died because of it. No one smart enough to stay inside during an incredible downpour was in any sort of danger.
To tell me this, they interrupted the climactic moment of the next-to-last episode of ER last season.
I gotta agree with the OP. It might be useful in some situations, but I think they overdo it.
LL
You could live in Southern California. We never seem to get interrupted by storm warnings. We just get earthquakes and they choose to announce themselves and usually at rather inconvenient times.
We do get flash flood advisories and the odd funnel cloud sighting, but I don’t think I’ve ever been part of a tornado watch or warning in Los Angeles County. (Not that they don’t occur.)
I live in Salt Lake City. The TV stations that cover most of Utah, and large chunks of Nevada, Wyoming, and Idaho, are all located here. We often see warnings for counties at the opposite end of the state, or in surrounding states, but these warnings don’t apply directly to the SLC area.
I imagine when you see such warnings, you’re seeing them because they know the station’s broadcast area covers the counties they really want to warn. And it can’t really hurt to know what’s happening (or maybe about to happen, possibly) to those around you.
Hah, this is nothing. The damn warning test system thing is about 50 times more annoying. In fact, here they have it for like 30 minutes straight. All audio from the show being watched is muted, so they can simply test the warning system. I payed $3.95 for a pay-per-view movie, only to have 1/4 of it interrupted by this crap.
The warning messages that are so annoying are the ones put on the cable provider, not the stations themselves. They block out the sound on almost every channel, play a horrible beep, then some poorly read message… then repeat it all a second time. Then do it all again ten minutes later, when the storm hits another county. Then a third county. [aside]In their defense, they claim they are required by the FCC. I have my doubts that the FCC forces them to play messages from counties nobody on my cable system is in. I think they run the messages at the same time on all the cable systems they (MediaOne) have here in SE Michigan[/aside]
And it’s more than just “annoying”, it actually prevents me from getting information on the storm. I live west of the local stations, so we’re the first hit. When the local stations are covering the weather, giving much more detailed information than the warning messages ever have, including “doppler 4000” or “doppler 7000” radar (channels 4 and 7 respectively :rolleyes: ), I can’t hear what they are saying, because the weather service has issued a warning for some other county, and that’s playing instead of the channel. I actually have to pull an old rabbit ear antenna out of the closet, and disconnect the cable to get useful information. How is this helping me again?
It’s infuriating.