Weather on national radio...
I agree with you entirely Tudor, that there are other points which could be
raised about the presentation of weather information, and a lack of time is
definately one as is the over-use of cliches.
The problem is that 'I' as the listener, while very interested in the
weather generally, also wants to know what the weather is going to be like
in my particular locality. For the record, I live in northeast England, so
when I hear the weather presenters passing comments like "it looks like it's
going to be a cracking day tomorrow" or "we could see temperatures reaching
27C this coming weekend"... I have to often work it out that the 'we' bit
refers to the London and south-east area of the UK and not 'we - the UK'. In
that sense, the presenter is not talking to the population of the UK, he is
talking only to the people of the south-east. Now, I appreciate that this
may seem a petty point to make, but if the same weather presenter's studio
was based in say north-west Scotland, and he was to come on and say
something like 'well, I'm affraid it's more of the same for us this
weekend... wind, rain and a bit chilly...' you would soon realise how
pointless that is to you living in the southeast. It would be acceptable on
a local radio station, but not a national station.
Another area of confusion is trying to work out whether the general weather
information being given is for England or the UK as a whole. It isn't always
clear when the presenter refers to the 'far north' or 'across northern
areas' whether he (or she) is referring to northern England or Scotland. If
they made a point of suffixing 'England' or 'Scotland', that would solve the
problem, but they all too often don't bother, so the weather predictions
become meaningless.
Regards... David Allan (Tyne & Wear).
"Tudor Hughes" wrote in message
...
On Jun 5, 9:09 pm, "David Allan" wrote:
It's about time that national radio presenters broadcasting from London
were
advised that the weather in the various corners of the UK is often
completely different from their neck of the woods!
Regards... David Allan.
They know that and the forecasts reflect it. They've got to
broadcast from somewhere, after all. There are far worse things to
complain about, such as the lack of time and the presenters' use of
elaborate clichés when one word would do. One word we don't need is
"outside". Yep, that's where the weather is.
You don't say where you are posting from - presumably not the SE.
Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.
|