Caltrops - Tansin A. Darcos's Alter Ego





	[quote name="Commander Tansin A. Darcos"]Local TV news has tended to start with the beginning of the morning commute so people can catch it before leaving for work, even so far as doing traffic reports every 10 minutes at the same ending minute, e.g. "traffic and weather on the 1s" would mean an immediate report shortly after the start for a newscast starting at 6 am, and "traffic on the 8s" would begin the first report at 6:08. This following of the commute, and the resulting readjustment as commuting volumes and delays due to inadequate and/or inadequately maintained or provisioned traffic and transportation infrastructure has tended to cause the first morning newscast to be pushed earlier and earlier, and you might just say that at this rate, they'll be starting the newscast in the middle of the night. That's more-or-less exactly what has happened. WRC-TV, Digital 28/PSIP Virtual Channel 4, now starts its morning newscast at 4:26 AM and runs until 7 when the <i>Today</i> show starts, along with various cuts during interruptions NBC puts in <i>Today</i> for local stations to cut away for local news and weather updates. Its neigboring competitor one channel over, WTTG-TV, Digital 36/PSIP Virtual 5, starts their newscast at 4:30, and they do even more, because they're a FOX affiliate and have no network morning program, run a local cast from that 4:30 start until <i>The Wendy Williams Show</i> at 10. I wonder what we do when the commute is so bad you have to leave for work immediately after <i>The Tonight Show</i> ends around 12:30AM and "rush hour" never really ends because people are still commuting to and from work at midnight? Or will things ever really get quite that bad? It's pretty close now, morning commute (usually inbound to work) is roughly 4-10, and the afternoon commute (usually outbound home) is roughly 3-7. [/quote]