Asheville AMS

Minutes of Meeting

27 September 2006

 

1.  The first meeting of the 2006-2007 Asheville American Meteorological Society (AMS) chapter was held at the WLOS-TV studios in Biltmore Park in south Asheville, NC on September 21th, 2006.  The location was at the invitation of Mr Mike Cuevas, last year’s local AMS President, and chief meteorologist for Channel 13 in Asheville. 

 

2.  There were 18 persons in attendance, including 5 University of North CarolinaAsheville meteorology students and two members from the Greer, SC AMS. 

 

3.  Our tour guide for the facilities and operations was Mr John Speed.  We viewed the production room, operations room, and were taken into the news studio during the 6pm live newscast.  We saw how TV broadcasts are timed and mixed with taped segments and commercials.  We also observed the process on how each segment is kept to the time schedule.  In the news studio we observed the camera persons cueing the newscasters and weatherman.  We also observed the “green screen” techniques used by the weatherman.

 

4.  After the newscast, Mike Ceuvas, took the group behind the scenes for an in depth look how he gathers the information and puts together the weather portion of the show.  He also gave us some insights on considerations that a TV forecaster must take into account when broadcasting the information over the air.  He also introduced us to his understudy, a student from UNCA, who is a meteorology student under-studying to be in the broadcast business.

 

5.  After the newscast we were shown the satellite dishes.  The station has several on which to receive news from several feeds and to send out locally produced segments.  They also have 5 mobile trucks from which to transmit on-spot news back to the station.  During the last part of the evening, we were given a tour of the news gathering room. 

 

 

John D. Gray

Secretary, AMS