![]() The station, which is exclusive to Spectrum customers, provides rolling news programming 24 hours a day, with the exception of some special programming, including a weekly political program, Political Connections. Owned by Charter Communications, it currently serves the Tampa Bay area including Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee, Polk, Pasco, Hernando, and Citrus counties. “Our news model includes a mix of live and refreshed local community news, general interest stories, in-depth coverage of local politics, public affairs, Florida’s congressional delegation and sports, as well as real time area-specific weather and traffic reports throughout the day so viewers can tune-in at any time for valuable news essential to their daily lives,” said Gautreau, the vice president of content.(HD feed downgraded to letterboxed 480i for SDTVs)īay News 9 (also officially known as Spectrum Bay News 9 as of September 24, 2017) is a cable news television network located in St. Bay News 9 and the Tampa Bay Times enjoy a coverage partnership. They added and then continued to upgrade a radar system, most recently Klystron 9 in 2009 that Bay News 9′s website hails as “the most powerful TV radar ever used.” They are now located in a large facility in St. The parent company switched to Bright House and then to Charter Communications. We were in the right place at the right time and everyone took notice.”Ī lot has changed for Bay News 9 since then. Ĭlay said the weather remained severe throughout the winter. Meteorologist Mike Clay giving the weather report during Bay News 9's first day on Sept. Petersburg Times wrote, especially heaping praise on the tornado coverage that included “calls from viewers and live reports.” The market had never seen anything like that. That same day, the stock market plunged and three died when a small plane crashed at Tampa International Airport. Moments earlier, he was driving his kid to school barefoot and did not return home for shoes. “So, I was able to get on it quickly.”Īnchor Al Ruechel rushed to a Clearwater church that had lost its roof. “I already had a live truck on the road and was heading for the beach” when the tornadoes hit, Clay said. “It was a performance that seemed to belie the news channel’s biggest selling point: the ability to respond quickly and completely to any local news event for as long as necessary.”Ī month later, the weather tested them again when a series of tornadoes struck Pinellas County. “People in the industry roundly criticized the 24-hour news channel’s coverage, which remained stuck in the channel’s cycle of regular weather and traffic updates,” the Tampa Tribune reported. They abandoned live coverage, Clay said, because flooding threatened the building - and because they weren’t yet prepared for continuous coverage for a story. “But in the afternoon, it just got worse and worse and it kind of overwhelmed the news department.” ![]() “We covered it fine in the morning,” said Bay News 9 meteorologist Mike Clay, who has been with the network from the start. ![]() Bay News 9′s location, then a 14,000-square-foot facility on 66th Street in Pinellas Park, was among the places hit hard. ![]() Two days later, a storm dumped more than 14 inches of rain on parts of the Tampa Bay area. Live weather updates were the only break viewers had from that story. “It was an absolute nightmare, and it ran on a loop for an hour.” “We had to repeat that same story over and over because the technology screwed up,” Wiser laughed. Their first major news story on launch day was about a break-in at Tampa Mayor Dick Greco’s home. It was not perfect in the beginning, Wiser admitted. Directors Barbara Nguyen, left, and Patrick Meegan confer in a control room during Bay News 9's rehearsal before the network launched in 1997. ![]()
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