skilletlicker
Head Chef
I don't know what it's like in the rest of the country but around here people are obsessed with the weather. For the 6:00 and 11:00 local news, weather dominates. In the beginning of the 35 minute broadcast, there is a weather report, then there's another weather mention. About half way through the broadcast, there is the main weather report. Then at the end of the broadcast, there is another mention of the weather.
Also, why does the news have to be 35 minutes long? Why not a half hour?
Around here the formula is every major TV Station employs at least four full-time weathermen or Meteorologists. They always get 30-second promotional segments at the beginning and end of every show as well as before and after every commercial break. So that's about five-minutes of air-time advertising their three-minute weather report during which they explain it will either be hot and humid or cold and rainy depending on the season. Of course if there should actually be lightening at any time during normal extended business hours, all regularly scheduled programming is suspended and the weathermen take over the broadcast airwaves completely.
Why does the local news have to be 35 minutes long? Well, we've already taken up 15 minutes for the weather. And you have to give at least 10 minutes to the grieving widows and parents of shooting victims. A half-hour of local TV news, being only 22 minutes long, how else could they cover sports?