The drippy smooth jazz that for years has played in the background of the Atlanta-based Weather Channel's "Local On the 8s" segments has been replaced with soft rock songs people can actually hum instead of going numb.
"I think we've been doing an injustice to our viewers playing, for the lack of a better word, elevator music on the segments for all these years," Geoffrey Darby, the cable network's new executive vice president of programming, said Thursday.
Big deal? You bet. The channel's old sound was so popular with listeners that the network released two CD's of "Weather Channel Smooth Jazz," the first going all the way to No. 1 on Billboard's Current Contemporary Jazz Album Chart.
But all that non-interruptive smoothness let the channel programming slip too far into the background, which wasn't great for the audience or the network's advertisers who prefer viewers who are awake.
"People would have it on but they wouldn't be watching and they wouldn't be listening," said Darby, who pushed for the change after joining the network in February.
"We wanted music that would get their attention — and this has."
So now, instead of hearing Spyro Gyra in the background while the announcer is intoning the latest local weather update ("Sunny and 75"), listeners hear tracks from the Rolling Stones ("Can't You Hear Me Knocking") and the Allman Brothers Band ("Blue Sky").
Darby said the new sound can't be "too dramatic" or thematically intrusive. So don't expect the Doors' "Riders on the Storm" with the next tornado alert.
So far, the switch has received an "eighty percent approval rating" from viewers, said Darby, whose favorite comment was from the viewer who wrote: "I can't believe I just heard Devo on the Weather Channel — that is so cool."
And breezy.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
