{"id":8006,"date":"2015-06-24T14:00:04","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T19:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=8006"},"modified":"2015-06-24T15:23:08","modified_gmt":"2015-06-24T20:23:08","slug":"nbc-5-on-stern-prankster-we-believed-caller-to-be-legit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2015\/06\/24\/nbc-5-on-stern-prankster-we-believed-caller-to-be-legit\/","title":{"rendered":"NBC 5 on Stern prankster: \u2018We believed caller to be legit\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Brant<\/a>

<\/a> Brant Miller (NBC 5, June 22, 2015)<\/p><\/div>\n

Despite an embarrassing snafu <\/a>involving a Howard Stern prankster, NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5<\/a> is defending its decision to put live calls on the air during Monday night\u2019s coverage of tornadoes in the area.<\/p>\n

Chief meteorologist Brant Miller handled the awkward moment when \u201cRyan,\u201d identified as an eyewitness to the storm calling from the back of his tractor trailer in Morris, Illinois, said the wind was blowing \u201clike it\u2019s a blast from Howard Stern\u2019s asshole.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when Miller threw it back to news anchors Rob Stafford and Allison Rosati, the two seemed utterly oblivious to the hoax. \u201cWe\u2019re concerned \u2014 I\u2019m concerned about Ryan back in his truck,\u201d Stafford said. \u201cWhat should he do right now?\u201d<\/p>\n

Video of the incident turned up Tuesday on the website Gawker.com<\/a> (\u201cNews Anchors Worry About Howard Stern Prankster's Safety During Tornado\u201d) and quickly migrated to other sites <\/a>(\"WMAQ Anchors Concerned About Fake Caller\u2019s Fake Danger\") through social media.<\/p>\n

\"Frank<\/a>

Frank Whittaker<\/p><\/div>\n

Frank Whittaker, station manager and vice president of news at NBC 5, defended the decision to air calls as part of the station\u2019s continuous weather coverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen tornadoes are on the ground in our viewing area, we go on the air to keep people safe,\u201d Whittaker said Wednesday.\u00a0\u201cWe interview people who are on or near the scene of the dangerous weather, hoping to learn what\u2019s happening right now so we can alert our viewers. Our callers are screened before we put them on the air.\u00a0We believed this caller to be legit, unfortunately he was not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunate prank aside, NBC 5 turned out to be a big winner Monday, leading in the length of its continuous coverage and the size of its audience in key demographics. First with nonstop coverage, NBC 5 ran continuously from 8:15 p.m. to 1:35 a.m., garnering a 3.3 rating among adults between 25 and 54. ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7<\/a> was second with continuous coverage from 8:46 p.m. to 1:32 a.m., garnering a 2.2 rating in the demo.<\/p>\n

NBC 5\u2019s wall-to-wall coverage began 31 minutes head of ABC 7, 37 minutes ahead of CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2,<\/a> 40 minutes ahead of Tribune Media WGN-Channel 9, <\/a>and 45 minutes ahead of Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite an embarrassing snafu involving a Howard Stern prankster, NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 is defending its decision to put live calls on the air during Monday night\u2019s coverage of tornadoes in the area. Chief meteorologist Brant Miller handled the awkward moment when \u201cRyan,\u201d identified as an eyewitness to the storm calling from the back of his... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8006"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8006"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8013,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8006\/revisions\/8013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}