Weather Tunes

[moved from an old blog]

I’m a closet Weather Channel watcher. No one really admits to watching the Weather Channel. Sure, we all tune in when we want the "Local On the 8’s" to know what to wear in the morning. But do you really watch? Well, I do. I find it fascinating – the southern drought, which poor bastards are getting snow and how much, and exactly how hot is it in Taiwan?

But what really fascinates me is the music. Where do they get the music?? Are there Weather Channel musicians on staff? Do they sit around after recording and say "Boy, I hope this gets some air time on the LOT8’s!"? I often wonder about the bands that have music playing on the Weather Channel. And, more importantly, I wonder where they get the inspiration to write the songs.

Personally, I have my favorite songs. I think we all do. Currently, my favorite is "Jazzy Flute". Who knows if that’s the correct title or not. But it’s a catchy little number. There’s also "Jazzy Piano" and "Jazzy Synthesizer". Again, not knowing the correct titles, I’m not sure what else to call them. Frankly, I think that would make good use of those scroll bars down at the bottom of the screen. I really don’t care what special is going on at Clark’s Appliance. And I already have Comcast Digital Cable, thank you. Why don’t you tell me "This is Bob Smooth and his Smoothettes playing ’Jazzy Flute’. Buy this album at Amazon. com".

Also, haven’t we all turned on LOT8’s or the Weatherscan channel (local feed) and said to ourselves, "ugh, not this song again!" and hit mute?? Admit it.

Song choices are bizarre. I’m not at all into smooth jazz, so I’m not sure what makes a jazz song "Weather Channel worthy" or not. But, I do know that when they used Pink Floyd’s ’Run Like Hell,’ I was appalled. Was this someone’s bad joke? "Run Like Hell" away from the oncoming tornado? Egads.

Anyway, my curiosity got the best of me. I went to Weather.com, internet site for The Weather Channel. They actually have a music page! They’ve even released a CD in the past! "The Weather Channel Presents: Best of Smooth Jazz". No kidding! Unfortunately, the Weather Channel music page has not been updated since Dec 2006. I was looking forward to finally knowing who recorded my Jazzy Flute song. Oh well…