For years -- five, to be exact -- you've been reading about KSHB-TV weathercaster Gary Lezak being "certified" as the "most accurate forecaster" in Kansas City. Every now and then a viewer writes in wondering: What exactly is this WeatheRate service that keeps voting him most accurate? And: I hear KSHB has to pay the service that names him most accurate. Isn't that a scam?
WeatheRate is a company that has been around for years -- five, to be exact -- and has certified a couple of dozen stations around the country as having the "most accurate" weather. I've written about WeatheRate over the years, and I don't doubt that its "patented WeatherTracker II software" really does compute, fairly or unfairly, which forecaster in town is the most accurate.
You may recall I wrote this story (which also appeared on the Star's page one) after a local man, JD Eggleston, came up with his own formula to measure weathercaster accuracy and made the NY Times Freakonomics blog. Eggleston promised me an update, as did a local meteorologist at the National Weather Service who took issue with Eggleston's findings. Haven't heard back from either.
I don't consider WeatheRate a scam because every single contest in the world, it seems, funds or at least subsidizes itself by selling its award badges, medallions and sometimes even its name to the winners and runners-up. The only award Mrs. TV Barn never had to pay for was the Kansas Notable Book honor ... and frankly, they should charge, because the money would support the state library, a worthy cause if there was one.
In Chicago, for instance, at least two stations have claimed "most accurate" honors, WBBM (CBS) and now WFLD (Fox). There's only one reason to buy a badge from WeatheRate if you're in Chicago -- because Tom Skilling, WGN's legendary weathercaster, is in your market, and you'll try anything to draw viewers away from his magnetic field.
Anyway, WeatheRate's website currently shows only nine stations certified, and the company hasn't even issued a press release in more than two years. So I called up Fixman today to find out what's the deal with his company, and to address a couple of nagging questions I've had about it.
You used to have a lot more WR-certified stations on your website. Now you're down to just nine. What's going on?
FIXMAN: The same thing we've all been hearing about: the economy. Stations aren't getting the revenue they were expecting, even with the political season. I think you might still some stations popping up on the radar later this year.
Gary Lezak was one of your first WR-certified weathercasters, wasn't he?
FIXMAN: Our first customer was right here in Phoenix. It was the test before we took it nationwide. But KSHB was one of the early adopters.
Gary is able to log in to your system and update the data himself, right? So he's not relying on your data entry people. Doesn't that give him an unfair advantage over other meteorologists in this area? I can't imagine that after five years of losing to him that they're still updating their data on your site.
FIXMAN: He does not have an unfair advantage, and I can tell you for a fact that there is at least one other station in the market that's entering its forecasts like Gary is. That said, the stations that do enter their forecasts, in some cases they do better. In some cases, though, they do worse -- it's beyond me how they do worse, but they do.
WFLD in Chicago ("Fox News Chicago") is actually running their promos hailing WeatherRate right now, featuring their appropriately-named chief meterologist Amy Freeze.
Posted by: Mark Jeffries | August 29, 2008 at 01:36 PM