90 replies to this topic

[SNOW_JOKE]

When you hear Sky News weather Presenters saying nonsentical terms as "Mountain Snow for the South" or realise the vast majority of presenters as Eno Erutor have no degree in Meteorology whatsoever. It just boggles the mind as to what is behind the driving force that's ousting the professionals such as McElwee, Avery and Fish.

[mullender83]

Very sad and very disapointed! He was with out a doubt the best forecaster they had!

true legend.

[NorthantsSnow]

Sadly it looks like nobody captured Rob's final BBC One forecast. However, someone did manage to capture his final edition of Weatherview late last night (his final broadcast, but presumably prerecorded).

http://www.tvforum.c...d-28723/page-37 (2nd post down)

At least the BBC announcer acknowledged it.

Edited by NorthantsSnow, 10 January 2011 - 19:27 .

[osmposm]

This website - which, unknown to me, has for a long time had a section, "Cloudy Language", celebrating the linguistic glories of (mainly) Rob and other weather presenters - bids him farewell with this fine tribute: http://asburyandasbu...loudy-language/

Read down the whole page, there's a feast of great stuff there.

Edited by osmposm, 10 January 2011 - 22:15 .

[damianslaw]

SNOW_JOKE, on 10 January 2011 - 16:00 , said:

When you hear Sky News weather Presenters saying nonsentical terms as "Mountain Snow for the South" or realise the vast majority of presenters as Eno Erutor have no degree in Meteorology whatsoever. It just boggles the mind as to what is behind the driving force that's ousting the professionals such as McElwee, Avery and Fish.

I always assumed all BBC weather presenters held a degree in meterology and were at least sub script writers for the presentations they present - how naive. Mind, Eno Erutor on NW weather usually gets all her words mixed up, on many occasions she delivers a really poor forecast, she is getting better but sometimes she just makes me laugh.

Sometimes I watch old BBC weather forecasts from yesteryear, when the likes of Michael Fish, Ian M, Bernard Davey, John Kettley and Bill Giles delivered the forecasts. They were far superior than many of today's presenters, and often stuck their nexk out and gave there own views about conditions, today's presenters seem too scared to do this, or should I say there is now probably a list of do's and not to say's. The forecasts have becme very political, especially in the summer when there seems to be an urgency to emphasise the slighest hint of summery weather - it does good for the economy etc... its the same in the winter, when they over emphasise how good mild weather will be, almost naive to the fact that on nine times out of ten it is accompanied by dull dark leaden skies and heavy rain and strong winds, generally not what the vast public enjoys..

[Harry]

damianslaw, on 10 January 2011 - 22:12 , said:

I always assumed all BBC weather presenters held a degree in meterology and were at least sub script writers for the presentations they present - how naive. Mind, Eno Erutor on NW weather usually gets all her words mixed up, on many occasions she delivers a really poor forecast, she is getting better but sometimes she just makes me laugh.

Sometimes I watch old BBC weather forecasts from yesteryear, when the likes of Michael Fish, Ian M, Bernard Davey, John Kettley and Bill Giles delivered the forecasts. They were far superior than many of today's presenters, and often stuck their nexk out and gave there own views about conditions, today's presenters seem too scared to do this, or should I say there is now probably a list of do's and not to say's. The forecasts have becme very political, especially in the summer when there seems to be an urgency to emphasise the slighest hint of summery weather - it does good for the economy etc... its the same in the winter, when they over emphasise how good mild weather will be, almost naive to the fact that on nine times out of ten it is accompanied by dull dark leaden skies and heavy rain and strong winds, generally not what the vast public enjoys..

The biggest irony is that of late, its the MetO who have been getting the slamming from the media, firstly for their 2009 BBQ summer (which I maintain we pretty much had here in the SE, although local memory appears to have faded with most) but also now for failing to forewarn of the snow chaos through late Nov/December 2010. Sometimes they can't win -

But really, it just goes to show, that when it is all so unpredictable, I see really very little reason why more subjective comments and input cannot be given...the weather is fickle and very unpredictable...it's better to get a hint that the forecasters don't have a clue but suspect A, rather than say B will definitely happen whilst leave everyone disappointed when it doesn't.

[Kentish Man]

I was aghast and saddened to hear this. Rob McElwee did sometimes have a habit of speaking to his audience as if they were into weather as a hobby. However that's what made him peculiarly distinctive - you always felt he was an enthusiast who was was doing this as much for enjoyment as a job. Yes he obviously liked cold but equally he enjoyed summer thunder and all the other more extreme events that no doubt most members of this site are enthused by. He has been a TV forecaster for very many years (though I think he took a break at one stage for a while) and was highly recognisable. This decision is remarkably disrespectful to a loyal servant and when you look at the three who have been removed from our screens can you honestly say they are worse media performers in any way than those who remain (one or two of whom are rather tedious, are called Darren and fairly or unfairly are known to be mild rampers!). Viewers actually like characters on screen (like Rob Mc and T Shaf) and once again the BBC are doing themselves no favours.

Edit. I appreciate it's the Met Office rather than the Beeb directly but perhaps they should note the Miriam O'Reilly ageism case that I'm pleased to see Miriam won today.

Edited by Kentish Man, 11 January 2011 - 14:35 .

[Harry]

Kentish Man, on 11 January 2011 - 12:07 , said:

I was aghast and saddened to hear this. Rob McElwee did sometimes have a habit of speaking to his audience as if they were into weather as a hobby. However that's what made him peculiarly distinctive - you always felt he was an enthusiast who was was doing this as much for enjoyment as a job. Yes he obviously liked cold but equally he enjoyed summer thunder and all the other more extreme events that no doubt most members of this site are enthused by. He has been a TV forecaster for very many years (though I think he took a break at one stage for a while) and was highly recognisable. This decision is remarkably disrespectful to a loyal servant and when you look at the three who have been removed from our screens can you honestly say they are worse media performers in any way than those who remain (one or two of whom are rather tedious, are called Darren and fairly or unfairly are known to be mild rampers!). Viewers actually like characters on screen (like Rob Mc and T Shaf) and once again the BBC are doing themselves no favours.

Edit. I appreciate it's the Met Office rather than the Beeb directly but perhaps they should note the Miriam O'Reilly ageism case that I'm pleased to see Miriam won today.

Re: Miriam...all I kept thinking about was Rob McElwee and Phil Avery when that came into the news. Cynical it may be, but I can't help but think Schafernaker has been axed because he is young, so as to disguise the, what seems to me, blatant ageism in getting rid of McElwee and Avery from front line forecasting...BBC are for me a bit of a joke - they think they're cunning but I would just love the three of them to launch a case against them!

[Thundery wintry showers]

It's a shame to see all three of them go really, I think Thomas Schafemaker was also pretty good on the Countryfile broadcasts, despite the occasional mess-up. I don't think we're ever likely to know the real reasons in full. There are still some good ones left- one name that I haven't seen mentioned recently is Peter Gibbs, I haven't seen much of him recently but he's always been pretty good.

Sadly I agree with much of what Damianslaw says above, though the forecasts I saw over Christmas 2010 seemed to have rather less of the "hopefully X, at least Y" type subjectivity than the Christmas 2009 ones- coincidence or a trend?

[Kentish Man]

Harry, on 13 January 2011 - 13:10 , said:

Re: Miriam...all I kept thinking about was Rob McElwee and Phil Avery when that came into the news. Cynical it may be, but I can't help but think Schafernaker has been axed because he is young, so as to disguise the, what seems to me, blatant ageism in getting rid of McElwee and Avery from front line forecasting...BBC are for me a bit of a joke - they think they're cunning but I would just love the three of them to launch a case against them!

Axing Schafernaker with the other two in order to disguise blatant ageism had occurred to me as well. Schafernaker was a bit of a loose cannon so his axing served a duel purpose no doubt. However at least he was mildly entertaining unlike the identikit cast of Ridge, Tobin, Bett et al who have been on our screens this week. There are a few good ones left - Dan Corbett, Hammond, Gibbs and of course Helen Willetts but if you take the BBC TV weather presenters as a group there are now very few much over 40 years of age. This can't be good in a profession where experience is invaluable.

Edited by Kentish Man, 13 January 2011 - 14:54 .

[Westsussex1]

as you know i started the 1st save rob thread a few months back.
ive been away the last week and missed his last show.

im so up set!! please check out my youtube film i made in support of rob and its never to late write to the met office and tell them to bring rob back!
gosh what a shock, i just hope he was happy, how will i ever watch the weather again!!!!.......seriously i was a huge fan and i dont think following weather will be the same for me again.

http://forum.netweat...ve-rob-mcelwee/

Edited by Westsussex1, 15 January 2011 - 13:59 .