'Doppler wars' commence with Oscar broadcast

If it's spring in West Texas, it must be time for thunderstorms. And if it's the season for thunderstorms, it must be time for weather radar interruptions to begin in earnest on local television stations.

Last year, the practice by local stations, particularly KTXS and KTAB, of interrupting network programming to deliver weather alerts entered a new realm with their acquisition of high-tech Doppler radar equipment, which seems capable of tracking the smallest shower hundreds of miles away.

The resulting pro-Doppler and anti-Doppler exchange between viewers created a furor in the Reporter-News' letters to the editor column that surpassed the local political debate about the 1996 national election.

Many viewers supported the stations' interruptions, urging that even more weather information be reported. In their view, the stations were performing a public service that could save lives and property. And apparently, some die-hard Doppler fans would rather see radar scans than whatever else the network might have scheduled.

But other viewers objected to the local stations' intrusions, pointing out that the weather conditions often existed far away from Abilene and potentially affected only a small percentage of the stations' audience. This group resented having its viewing habits intruded upon by what it sees primarily as a nuisance.

Judging by what happened during Monday night's telecast of the Academy Awards show on ABC, the public debate about Doppler is going to heat up again quickly. KTXS frequently interrupted one of television's most popular broadcasts of the entire year to track potentially threatening storms around the Abilene area.

For those who wanted to see who won the Oscars, it was frustrating. For those more worried about what the weather outside was doing, it was riveting. There seems to be no middle ground. And with thunderstorm season just beginning, we can expect a lot more of what we saw on Monday night.

With the technology now at their disposal and the immediacy of their medium, TV stations can perform a valuable public service by informing viewers of weather conditions that are really serious.

But the risk is that by hyping their coverage of each and every atmospheric occurrence, Abilene stations will make their audiences so accustomed to storm alerts that residents won't pay attention to one that might actually call for action.

If we can keep that from happening, both sides in the "Doppler wars" ought to be appreciative.