The Weather Channel
weather atlanta
weather atlanta: The Weather Channel
weather atlanta: The Weather Channel
List Price: $ 29.95
Now :
Twenty years ago, who’d have believed that millions of viewers would follow the twists and turns of storms developing across the globe with the rapt attention once reserved for thriller movies? And that a single television channel could simultaneously inform and entertain us, enrich our lives and, at times, help save them? This is the remarkable story of The Weather Channel, a cable network that succeeded when almost all the experts predicted it would fail. Told by one of the key figures in the network’s success, former Chairman and CEO Frank Batten, this is at once a deeply personal account of high-stakes entrepreneurship and a fascinating case study of a media business both experiencing and driving major change. There are colorful personalities-from the on-camera meteorologists to the whiz kids recruited to help build the company’s core technology. There are adventures and dramas-from the glitch-filled national launch that was saved by luck and a mysterious stranger to The Weather Ch
- ISBN13: 9781578515592
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
An Invaluable Component of “The Age of Information”,
Although I agree with others that tighter editing would have eliminated repetitions and the photos provided should have offered a better visual presentation of the channel’s development and (especially) its operations, I still rate this book as highly as I do for several reasons. First, Batten (with Jeffrey L. Cruikshank) provides a compelling analysis of the challenges and problems he and his associates had to overcome to achieve the improbable business success of “a media phenomenon.” Also, after having read this book, I had a much better understanding and appreciation of the value of what the Weather Channel now offers in this so-called “Age of Information.” What if advanced warnings about severely inclement weather had been easily accessible in years past? How many lives would have been spared from natural disasters such as the hurricane which devastated Galveston Island in 1900?
For many people I personally know (including my wife), the Weather Channel is “must viewing” at the beginning and end of of each day. For them and countless others, it is the modern day equivalent of a crystal ball. For business travelers, which clothing to pack? For parents, what should the children wear to school? For those about to be involved in an outdoor activity (e.g. a Little League game, family picnic, or round of golf), “what’s it going to be like?” Of course, born and raised in Chicago, I know how unpredictable the weather can often be. Years later, while living in Boston, I recall an elderly woman who called the meteorologist at a local television station to complain that “I now have four inches of `partly cloudy’ in my basement!” In this book, Batten brilliantly achieves two major objectives: To tell a unique “business success story,” and in process, thereby to explain why the Weather Channel has become so important to so many people.
Was this review helpful to you?
|An outstanding business book,
I’ve been a friend and admirer of the author for almost thirty years. But I can be objective enough to say that you won’t read a better business book this year than The Weather Channel. It tells an amazing story: how a very small company, centered around the newspapers in Norfolk, Va., and Greensboro, N.C., took a gigantic risk. Competing with the largest communications companies, Landmark Communications started one of the first national cable channels. And almost failed (you can’t come closer to failing than this one). And, in the end, succeeded gloriously.
Though the impossibly modest author almost paints himself off the stage altogether, you will also meet one of the most decent and admirable executives in American business, Frank Batten. Because Mr. Batten’s company is private, almost no one knows of this remarkable man. Although he’s reticent about himself (a life-threatening and life-altering cancer that occurred at the time of the Weather Channel launch is dismissed in a paragraph),you’ll understand how lucky the citizens of Norfolk and Greensboro have been to have him in charge of their newspapers the last 40 years.
This is a book about business, not weather. But if business interests you at all, it’s a hell of a book.
Was this review helpful to you?
|interesting but……,
This book is a business story of how The Weather Channel became one of the leading media brands in the nation. It is not a “behind the scenes at TWC” tale, although a few pages in the “afterword” give readers a brief glimpse at how it all comes together on air.
The most fascinating parts of Batten’s story are the tales of how TWC came to be in the very beginning, from the early company history, to the initial concepts and business plans of the late 1970s and early 1980s, to the 1981/1982 start-up, to the birthing pains caused in part by a messy corporate divorce with one of the founding partners. The book also provides an interesting glimpse into how the cable TV landscape was first settled by pioneers like HBO, ESPN, WTBS/CNN and, of course, TWC.
The latter half of the book deals with many of TWC’s forays in the 1990s, including the highly-successful weather.com website, as well as several international ventures). But the final chapters lack excitement or drama.
The book has 264 pages, and it’s not a hard read. I think the same story could have been told more effectively in about half the space, leaving out many of the details. The authors of this book focus almost exclusively on the TWC dealings and strategies at the corporate and operational levels. A better story could have been told by weaving in more perspectives from other TWC people, namely the on-camera meteorologists, some of whom have been with TWC since the very early days. Combine the best elements of this book (the first half of the story, in particular) with a real 20 years of “behind the scenes”, and you’d have a compelling tale that would appeal to audiences beyond the book’s target audience (TWC die-hards, business students, weather and media professionals).
Finally, the book provides 16 pages of full-color photos, but none appears to be older than 1998. Why didn’t the authors add photos from the early days? Those of us who have been TWC fans for many years would have appreciated seeing some of the old faces, old graphics, and old technology that have made The Weather Channel the familiar and trusted friend it is today for millions of people.
Despite its flaws, I recommend the book for those who are interested in TWC specifically, or in the media or weather businesses in general.
Was this review helpful to you?
|