It’s not only music that will be endearingly remembered from the 1980s. A late night discussion between the two of us this week concluded that most TV weather forecasts these days are nowhere near as good as the ones from over twenty years ago. It’s all about the graphics, you see.
While the BBC had a furore on its hands three years ago with its current map that sweeps under the forecaster’s arm when speaking about the weather for a particular UK region, the corporation’s slots have long been the best. On Wednesday night on the other hand, we decided that ITV’s are still the worst. Why? Both national and regional broadcasts are not detailed enough. But, most displeasing of all, they use cheap-looking, and outdated symbols and graphics.
Modern-day broadcasts are a long way from the weather forecasts on the Beeb from the late Seventies and early Eighties. There were no green or blue screen maps and no digital imagery back then, and the few-minute slots were all the better for it. Yes, they seem antiquated and outdated now, but will there ever be weather symbols more iconic than those of BBC Weather from thirty years ago?
Simple, stylish cloud-like outlines, with clear graphics attached to denote hail, rain, snow, or sun, the forecasters stuck the magnetic symbols onto the forecasting chart behind them, moving the pictures where necessary from one part of the country to another, to show changing conditions. Of course, as technology advanced, the boards were gradually disposed of, but even when computer graphics were first used, the symbols stayed.
In the older forecasts, the BBC’s presenters used to walk around the studio, too, from one board to the next, and the satellite pictures were no more than photocopy-looking grey and grainy scans. The blue outlined map on them looked like it was drawn with a felt-tipped pen, and with the absence of a hand-held clicker to change the picture, symbols and areas of the country were pointed at by big sticks and pencils.
All endearingly low-tech, and the like of which we’ll never see again. No doubt there’ll be many more innovations and high-tech solutions to help the forecasters inform us of our changing weather patterns, but they’ll no doubt be cloudy and foggy compared to those bright and sunny forecasts of yesteryear.
Tags: Journal, Technology