How does ending local weather information serve public interest?

Station licensees, as the trustees of the public’s airwaves, must use the broadcast medium to serve the public interest. 

-THE PUBLIC AND BROADCASTING manual (rev. September 2021)

Much to the surprise and dismay of his many local fans, WTVA’s chief meteorologist Matt Laubhan has been laid off, along with his entire weather team. The same can be said for an estimated 100 or so other nationwide weather teams currently employed by WTVA’s parent company, Allen Media Group (AMG). Please note: this was not a decision made by WTVA.

If you are one of the many locals angry about this news, you are not along. Read below to find out what you can do about it.

What is Allen Media Group?

Allen Media Group, formerly known as Entertainment Studios, Inc., is a Los Angeles-based media and entertainment company.  AMG owns 36 major market affiliate television stations in 21 small to mid-size markets around the U.S., along with the Weather Channel and other television networks.

In May 2024, WTVA was forced to lay off several staffers as part of a ‘restructuring’ move by AMG, which was said to have cut 12% of its employees at that time. This move was to have put the company in a “better position for future growth.” Then, additional employees were cut in October 2024.

In its current drive to restructure, AMG has already cut a number of jobs, including managers, anchors and forecasters in some of its properties. The WTVA firings are scheduled to be completed by March.

What is the history of Allen Media Group?

Allen Media Group is owned by former stand-up comedian Byron Allen, who began working in the entertainment field at age 14.  At the The Comedy Store, in West Hollywood, he performed a stand-up act and eventually began pitching jokes to comedians like Jay Leno and David Letterman.  At 18 years of age, he became the youngest comedian ever to appear on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Later, as a host of Real People, he travelled the country from 1979-1984 interviewing interesting people. In 1989 he began his own weekly syndicated late-night talk show, The Byron Allen Show. His show was produced by his own production company BYCA Productions, which filed bankruptcy in 1993 after being sued for non-payment of former employees.

Allen formed a new business, CF Entertainment, which later became known as Entertainment Studios, Inc.  Since then, the company has undergone many expansions and changes of focus on the path to turning Mr. Allen into a billionaire.

In 2018, Allen acquired the Weather Channel for $300 million. In 2019, AMG announced expansion into television station ownership with the purchase of Bayou City Broadcasting for $165 million. WTVA was also purchased by AMG in 2019, along with 10 other stations, for $210 million.

In addition to many other successful purchases, Allen made numerous unsuccessful bids over the years, including $10 billion for Disney, $8.5 billion for Tegna and $14 billion for Paramount. In February 2022, Allen made an unsuccessful bid to buy the Denver Broncos of the National Football League. In 2022, he paid $100 million for a home in Malibu. His property portfolio also includes a condo in Manhattan and properties in Beverly Hills, Aspen and Maui, totaling $500 million.

AMG’s current properties include court shows, game shows, sitcoms, syndicated specials and numerous “talk” and “magazine” type series. A number of his properties found profitable broadcasting homes following settlements of three racial discrimination lawsuits against AT&T, Comcast and Charter Communications, one of which went to the Supreme Court. In October 2022 AMG was valued at over $4.5 billion.

What is happening at WTVA and other Allen Media Group television stations?

In October 2024 it was reported that Allen Media had asked its stations to cut $1 million from their budgets. In November, Bloomberg reported that talks were underway with AMG creditors regarding the company’s high debt. It is known that the company has a $840 million loan coming due in 2027.

The move to terminate all members of weather forecasting and reporting teams in AMG television stations has shocked and angered many local communities. The belief that AMG will be providing all weather services from a “hub” in Atlanta, via The Weather Channel, has done nothing to smooth the waters in local communities. Petitions and formal complaints are being instigated in several affected towns.

Complaints about The Weather Channel’s poor coverage of the December 2021 tornado outbreak are resurfacing in a variety of locations. The tornadoes hit at night and plowed a 250 mile line of destruction and death from Arkansas to Kentucky. About 90 deaths were attributed to the storms, making it the deadliest outbreak in a decade. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were awash with complaints about The Weather Channel’s coverage of the storm.

According to the Washington Post, when a tornado hit Bowling Green, KY at about 2 am after a night of deadly storms, The Weather Channel was broadcasting reruns “of a docuseries on surviving extreme weather, issuing one-minute storm updates just once every 30 minutes.” A lot of warnings were issued by the National Weather Service, which continued to issue reports of tornadoes into the wee hours of the morning. The Weather Channel provided local alerts from the National Weather Service via a crawl at the bottom of the screen and about “a dozen three-to five-minute local weather reports for audiences in the threat area. Fox Weather maintained continuous live coverage of the storm overnight, mostly commercial free. AccuWeather ran a mix of prerecorded weather news stories that were updated throughout the night, interspersed with updates on the tornado outbreak, as well as weather forecasts.”

Many people, including this writer, long ago gave up depending on The Weather Channel. Though it was once the ground-breaking provider of weather information, it is now so stuffed with advertising and other diversions that many followers have found other more pertinent sources for their local weather information. Indeed, it seems a poor choice on every count, aside from the fact that AMG already owns it.

How can the public express an opinion on this topic?

Here are some things to consider if you wish to take action about Allen Media Group’s decision to terminate all weather coverage at the local level.

The Federal Communications Commission is directed by Congress to regulate broadcasting. The September 2021 revision of the FCC’s The Public and Broadcasting manual states: “In exchange for obtaining a valuable license to operate a broadcast station using the public airwaves, each radio and television licensee is required by law to operate its station in the “public interest, convenience and necessity.”

In this time of climate upheaval, what part of discontinuing expert local weather information meets the licensee’s obligation to serve the public interest?

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also has public service requirements for those holding local broadcasting licenses. FCC regulations require TV stations to operate in the public interest, convenience and necessity. This means that TV stations must air programming that addresses the needs of their local community. It never hurts for the public to “encourage” federal regulatory agencies to address their grievances, especially in matters necessary to public safety. Here’s how you can do so:

• Addressing your concerns to the FCC: Emily Pike of WMTW-TV in Portland, Maine, has posted a “how-to” explanation for citizens who want to register a formal complaint with the FCC about Allen Media Group’s local broadcasting cutbacks. Pike contends that AMG’s mismanagement of local stations is compromising their ability to fulfill their public service obligations. To see Pike’s step-by-step instructions for filing a complaint, click here: https://1819news.com/news/item/local-tv-meteorologists-cut-in-huntsville-montgomery-22-stations-nationally

• Sign the petition: Local citizens have created an online petition to show their dissatisfaction with AMG’s decision. As of the time this story was written, the petition had over 28,000 signatures. To view and sign the local petition initiated on Change.org on behalf of the WTVA weather team, click the link https://www.change.org/p/preserve-our-local-meteorological-teams-at-allen-media-group-stations-amg-and-wtva   or scan the code: