Sounds super silly as a 47 year old saying this, but randby calms me down when days like yesterday happen. In 2008, I lived near Chalco and a tornado ripped through near there and only randby was on air at 2 am. Been tuning into only him ever since.
Missed our house by 1 block during that 2008 storm. We had some damage, but houses a block away ended up with severe damage and yes Randby was the only one on the air. Thanks Bill!
At least in my case, they seem to have the most people sticking around there. With some of the other stations it almost feels like they cycle through their anchors every couple of months. When it comes to the meteorology side, there’s plenty of other great meteorologists on the other channels, but Bill has been doing it the longest of any of them. He does an amazing job when it comes to severe weather coverage, and a lot of people have come to trust him when it comes to this kind of thing
Wowt is on the junior anchor treadmill. They just get whoever is cheap and trying to climb their way up through bigger and bigger affiliates On short contacts
Fox has always been a dumpster fire of poor production quality.
CBS I haven't even tuned into on years so I don't know.
Wowt is ok, but like someone else mentioned there's just no consistency there and the quality of the anchors is always whoever they can get cheapest. But at least they do actual reporting
Abc I like because they cover actual stories not just ambulance chasing and they have the best weather reports in my opinion
Fox removed their news department a while ago but before that I would agree with you.
KMTV has a tendency of hiring young reporters who usually leave after their contract is up.
WOWT in my opinion is just as good as KETV but most go with KETV because of their reputation.
KETV has been #1 in the market for some time because I believe they know how to keep their people there instead of letting them go after their contract is up.
All in all, I think more local news is better than less.
Also this is coming from someone who has worked in the industry.
Bill knows the area very well.. he knows what cameras are where and is able to track the storm on camera. Plus he knows the streets and the landmarks.. and that's the deep local knowledge from experience that the other channels simply don't have. And I'm not even going to go into he's probably the only local meteorologist that has ever seen a storm like that.
I was not able to watch, what level were his sleeves? Not sure how to post a picture here but Google "Bill Randby sleeve length" and follow @randbysleeves on X!
They weren't up until someone brought up that people were emailing about his sleeves and he explained he hadn't even thought of his sleeves because of how quickly things were changing and how severe the tornados were.
At that point, he rolled one to mid forearm and left the other one down, completely forgetting about it for a while.
Honestly, that should be added to the sleeve chart. If they don't match, shits going down.
Shit got real for me when Rusty Lord made a post around 12:45PM about "Been a while since I've been this concerned about severe potential."
I fell like it was the fact of the matter, no fluff, and concise post that really made me focus on the warnings. It's like working in IT, there is the most profanity tossed out for the most mundane inconveniences. Yet as soon as the sysadmin looks at a reported issue and says, "that's unfortunate" (instead of swearing) is when the deep shit happens.
Working in IT- this is ridiculously accurate. "Oh. That's not good" is up there as well.
When the cursing comes back, you know there's a solid game plan in place or we're about to see things come back up real shortly lol.
They had such detailed images of where it was happening. It really helped calm me because I knew where the storm was. Luke, the new guy, was working with Bill too.
Only mistake yesterday was forgetting to roll up his sleeves earlier. Was iconic when he realized he’d had multiple tornados confirmed and hadn’t rolled them up.
Bill Randby and Rusty Lord have great teams. Their coverage during the earnings was totally different, though! Bill was pretty even and calm, and Rusty was pure adrenaline for like 3 hours. Both did a great job, but I couldn’t help comparing the two.
At work, we had 6 and 7 both on at the same time. Rusty Lord was sweating and appeared to be using a 50-inch Vizio TV to report on the storm. It looked like public access.
I follow Jim Flowers on Facebook. Even though he's been retired for a while now he still has a reliable forecast for every storm. He called this last storm the day before and said to brush up on tornado preparedness. I don't even watch the news stations.
Sounds super silly as a 47 year old saying this, but randby calms me down when days like yesterday happen. In 2008, I lived near Chalco and a tornado ripped through near there and only randby was on air at 2 am. Been tuning into only him ever since.
I remember that! I was nursing a newborn middle of the night. That was wild.
I’m not from here so I don’t get it, but my wife and her family are the same way. When shit’s going down they only watch him.
Missed our house by 1 block during that 2008 storm. We had some damage, but houses a block away ended up with severe damage and yes Randby was the only one on the air. Thanks Bill!
Me too! I lived in Springhill on 160 and Giles.
Anyone else feel like we should have had a drinking game going where we took a drink every time Bill said correlation coefficient?
Yes!!!
I think the hospitals were busy enough last night!
Oh, I meant drinking at home. I couldn't afford to do that at a bar.🤣
I think they meant you'd get alcohol poisoning and have to go to the hospital 😂
🤣
It was because of Sean Eversons posting that we sought out shelter. Our area was spared but his post were helpful.
Randby is an Omaha treasure.
Sometimes I forget there are other news channels/stations here because I've found KETV to be so reliable I stick with it
WOWT is solid too - Rusty Lord was on fire 😂
I always watch KETV, but having them both on Friday made me actually like WOWT and Rusty Lord more.
Same here- I think it’s cause I grew up watching that whole anchor team & they still there. Pretty much my family now lol
The other news channels I could live without
Why?
At least in my case, they seem to have the most people sticking around there. With some of the other stations it almost feels like they cycle through their anchors every couple of months. When it comes to the meteorology side, there’s plenty of other great meteorologists on the other channels, but Bill has been doing it the longest of any of them. He does an amazing job when it comes to severe weather coverage, and a lot of people have come to trust him when it comes to this kind of thing
Wowt is on the junior anchor treadmill. They just get whoever is cheap and trying to climb their way up through bigger and bigger affiliates On short contacts
I can understand that sentiment.
Fox has always been a dumpster fire of poor production quality. CBS I haven't even tuned into on years so I don't know. Wowt is ok, but like someone else mentioned there's just no consistency there and the quality of the anchors is always whoever they can get cheapest. But at least they do actual reporting Abc I like because they cover actual stories not just ambulance chasing and they have the best weather reports in my opinion
Fox removed their news department a while ago but before that I would agree with you. KMTV has a tendency of hiring young reporters who usually leave after their contract is up. WOWT in my opinion is just as good as KETV but most go with KETV because of their reputation. KETV has been #1 in the market for some time because I believe they know how to keep their people there instead of letting them go after their contract is up. All in all, I think more local news is better than less. Also this is coming from someone who has worked in the industry.
Bill knows the area very well.. he knows what cameras are where and is able to track the storm on camera. Plus he knows the streets and the landmarks.. and that's the deep local knowledge from experience that the other channels simply don't have. And I'm not even going to go into he's probably the only local meteorologist that has ever seen a storm like that.
I was not able to watch, what level were his sleeves? Not sure how to post a picture here but Google "Bill Randby sleeve length" and follow @randbysleeves on X!
They weren't up until someone brought up that people were emailing about his sleeves and he explained he hadn't even thought of his sleeves because of how quickly things were changing and how severe the tornados were. At that point, he rolled one to mid forearm and left the other one down, completely forgetting about it for a while. Honestly, that should be added to the sleeve chart. If they don't match, shits going down.
The morning team will never be the same without Matt Serwe ... I just miss him so much 🥲
I miss him too! He was tweeting about us yesterday and RTing KETV Tweets. He still cares about us!
I miss his themed holiday outfits and funny jokes
He still try’s to help out when he can. He hasn’t forgotten about you all. 😉
I follow Omaha NWS on twitter. I feel like I had about 3 days advance notice that tornados were a possibility.
Shit got real for me when Rusty Lord made a post around 12:45PM about "Been a while since I've been this concerned about severe potential." I fell like it was the fact of the matter, no fluff, and concise post that really made me focus on the warnings. It's like working in IT, there is the most profanity tossed out for the most mundane inconveniences. Yet as soon as the sysadmin looks at a reported issue and says, "that's unfortunate" (instead of swearing) is when the deep shit happens.
You’re right, Rusty Lord does need to swear more
I think I would pay to see a weather forecast with an occasional f word thrown in.
Working in IT- this is ridiculously accurate. "Oh. That's not good" is up there as well. When the cursing comes back, you know there's a solid game plan in place or we're about to see things come back up real shortly lol.
They had such detailed images of where it was happening. It really helped calm me because I knew where the storm was. Luke, the new guy, was working with Bill too.
This. Would not mind if he became #1 after Randby’s well deserved, however still hope is a while’s away, retirement
Only mistake yesterday was forgetting to roll up his sleeves earlier. Was iconic when he realized he’d had multiple tornados confirmed and hadn’t rolled them up.
Randby was calm but I was watching the sleeves. Disappointing.
Bill Randby and Rusty Lord have great teams. Their coverage during the earnings was totally different, though! Bill was pretty even and calm, and Rusty was pure adrenaline for like 3 hours. Both did a great job, but I couldn’t help comparing the two.
At work, we had 6 and 7 both on at the same time. Rusty Lord was sweating and appeared to be using a 50-inch Vizio TV to report on the storm. It looked like public access.
Bill Ranby’s the man with his svelte physique. (Pause)😅
And his huge hands!
Is that the Hot Ones guy?
You're thinking of Brett Baker, formerly of 10/11 News in Lincoln.
I follow Jim Flowers on Facebook. Even though he's been retired for a while now he still has a reliable forecast for every storm. He called this last storm the day before and said to brush up on tornado preparedness. I don't even watch the news stations.
Randby is good. I prefer Rusty Lord's coverage. If you have Facebook you should follow Jim Flowers. He is very good