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

Meteorologists at 27 native TV information stations are going through 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, stated Saturday it’s rolling out a brand new format for climate protection that can have “further visible storytelling capabilities” throughout its stations in 2025.

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

The plan includes meteorologists at The Climate Channel in Atlanta producing content material for native stations throughout the nation. The staff underneath the brand new initiative can 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 stated in a press release.

Extreme climate will stay a precedence, the group stated, and the brand new format will “enhance reporting capabilities, particularly in high-stakes climate conditions.” It is going to 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 count on to be impacted by the choice. There are additionally stations going through ongoing layoffs that had been introduced in early 2024.

“By now most of you may have most likely seen the chatter about Allen media letting native meteorologists go, nicely I’m one which can 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 submit. “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, stated he’s amongst these going through layoffs at his station.

“Hey guys, If you have not heard the latest information concerning the layoffs, I wished to share that our station is a kind of impacted,” Franson wrote in a submit 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, stated native meteorologists are the “apparent alternative for life-saving native climate data” and serve vital roles in sharing different data reminiscent of wildfire perimeters and evacuations.

“Native meteorologists on TV are a trusted face, not solely as a result of they know their science, but additionally as a result of they seem to be a member of that group,” Stanford instructed NPR. “The group part must be thought by means of to make it possible for that vital service just isn’t misplaced.”

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