Sep
20
Written by:
9/20/2011 8:43 AM
Deborah McAdams is the Executive Editor of TV Technology. TV stations are now
running news at 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 9-and-a-half,
noon, 4, 5, 6, early
evening, later evening and again at 11. Just
the other evening, I was treated to a weekend
primetime news block during which I learned
about a very important phenomenon.
It was hot in Los Angeles.
Contrary to popular belief, Los Angeles is
not always hot. Parts of it dip into the 70s.
So it really was astounding that Los Angeles,
a concrete-covered geologic bowl situated in
a subtropical zone, was hot in August.
Washington, D.C. may have been shaking
to the ground and getting inundated with
hurricane-force gales, but that was nothing.
Besides, there is a general belief in Los
Angeles that Washington, D.C. is a mythical
city of fretful paper-pushers in off-the-rack
wool blends dreaming up problems.
Out here in the real world, where people
are busy visualizing the mortgage payment,
it was hot. So hot, in fact, that one roving
reporter and her crack team of investigative
journalists found a digital bank thermometer
that read 83 degrees after sunset! For those
of us who have lived in areas where the
temperature and humidity remain in the
high 90s all night long, it may be hard to
appreciate that 83-degree dry heat is hot.
Perhaps that is why the anchors,
reporting live from a spot on some sidewalk,
were wearing suit jackets. Or perhaps they
simply were impervious to the outrageous
heat that was gripping Los Angeles like a
germaphobe’s handshake.
I, for one, was grateful to be informed
that it was hot in Los Angeles. Otherwise, I
never would have known. I might have gone
out in public improperly attired, if that is at
all humanly possible in Los Angeles. If so,
I’m sure I’ll find out.
“Local Woman Appears in Modest Wool-Blend Suit Dress. News at 11.”