Along with storm spotting and weather forecasting, one of the primary reasons a person gets interested in weather is broadcast meteorology! The broadcast meteorologist is often the face and personality that people turn to for weather information. This 10 part series of posts of hints will focus on various aspects of broadcast meteorology. Below are the 10 parts and the remainder of post 1: Post 1: Introduction to Broadcast Meteorology Post 2: Broadcast Meteorology Skills Post 3: Broadcast Meteorology Education Post 4: Broadcast Meteorology Influence Post 5: Broadcast Meteorology Workplace Post 6: Broadcast Meteorology Career Path Post 7: Broadcast Meteorology Challenges Post 8: Broadcast Meteorology Viewer Wants Post 9: Broadcast Meteorology Rewards Post 10: Broadcast Meteorology Future Broadcast meteorologists and weather broadcasters are employed at local TV stations, national media outlets, National Network morning shows, Cable/Satellite weather outlets, radio stations, and online outlets from weather businesses. The majority of these positions are at local TV stations scattered across the country in locations called DMAs or “Designated Market Areas”. Currently there are about 210 DMAs in the United States. They are ranked from 1 to 210 with 1 being the largest market meaning it has the largest number of potential viewers that could watch TV in a certain geographical market. The long standing #1 market is New York City. Typically, a market will have several network owned stations. This is especially true for large and medium sized markets. Smaller markets will have only 1 or 2 stations. Major networks include ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX. Each of these local network stations will tend to employ several weather broadcasters. The main slots being morning/noon slot, chief meteorologist slot and weekend/fill-in slot. Combining 210 DMAs with each DMA typically having 2 or more stations and each station having multiple weather broadcasters, the number of broadcast meteorologists and weather broadcasters is several hundred in the United States. This has generally been the case for the past several decades. Despite predictions for a reduced need for weather broadcasters, the number of weather broadcasting positions remains in the many 100s. Radio stations that use weather broadcasters tend to use weather broadcasters part time from the local TV market or from a national media outlet. A national media outlet is a business that forecasts and broadcasts weather information for many different locations across the United States. The highest paying positions in weather broadcasting tend to occur in large TV markets, chief meteorologist positions, severe weather markets and nationally followed weather positions. Post 6 will discuss the career path many weather broadcasters take. The next posting, Post 2, will focus on the skills that a typically broadcast meteorologist obtains. These are the skills that are important for doing the job well and skills that are important for promotion and advancement through the career path of broadcast meteorology. |