The blizzard of 2011 knocked the Packers out of the top news spot before it even came close.
And and as it was about to hit on Tuesday, it blew Oprah Winfrey's show out of its normal 4 p.m. slot on Channel 12 into the wee hours of this morning, after Jimmy Kimmel.
Channel 12's decision to go wall-to-wall Stormageddon coverage Tuesday afternoon was symbolic of the storm's power to affect our TVs.
All-in-all, Milwaukee TV did a fine job in keeping us posted on what was going on outside while we were safe inside. But one of the eternal conundrums of live coverage are the reporters who report from outside in the snow -- telling us not to go outside.
While it's the job of reporters to report, and it's the mission of TV news teams to stay in operation when the city shuts down, the paternalistic tone can rub viewers the wrong way when we're watching people doing exactly what they're telling us not to do.
TV (and, of course, the Internet) had a couple legs up over the old-fashioned news sources.
As early as Tuesday morning, the first round of snow caused delivery problems for the daily newspaper. The Journal Sentinel had to tell readers on-line that their paper was on the way.
The paper's Web site was reporting the same thing this morning.
Meanwhile, Me-TV is capitalizing on the snow, programming a bunch of snow-related episodes of old TV sitcoms tonight. Starting at 7 p.m., Me-TV's "Chill with Me: A Night of Snowed-in TV!" features episodes of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "Cheers," "M*A*S*H," "The Bob Newhart Show" and "The Honeymooners."
In Milwaukee, you can find Me-TV on Channel 49.1 over the air, and Channel 19 on Time Warner and Charter Cable.
If this storm wasn't enough for you, Milwaukee Public TV is looking back at the Blizzard of 1947, but you'll have to wait until Monday night at 6:30 to watch the rerun of "I Remember Milwaukee Paul Joseph and Don Neuman. Jim Peck hosts.
On your other screen: And if you're in front of a computer screen in addition to a TV screen today, Dodgeville-based Lands' End is trying to capitalize on the blizzard via Facebook and Twitter.
Green and gold radio: Back in 1996, when the Packers were bound for the Super Bowl, veteran morning radio voice Jane Matenaer brought us the Packarena.
Now she's teamed with "CV" at WLDB-FM (93.3) in the mornings and the pair has done their own Packers anthem. Matenaer says she's gotten a "number" of requests for new song.
"How may constitutes 'a number?'" she asks. "More than 6?"
The result is "Jane & CV's All Stars Feeling 45."
You can listen to it here. And you can find the lyrics here.
On the radio: Radio veteran Mark Richards says he's gone from WZBK-FM (106.9), better known as Big Buck Country. He reports on Facebook: "I'm giving up on radio, because radio is giving up on me."
- The WMIL-FM (106.1) morning team -- Karen Dalessandro, Scott Dolphin, and Tony "Radar" Hess -- has been nominated for large market "On-Air Personality of the Year" in the 46th annual Academy of Country Music Awards to be given out this spring.
- You can listen to my monthly visit to "Lake Effect" on WUWM-FM (89.7) here. Bonnie North and I discuss Milwaukee TV's obsession with the Packers and weather.
Finally, a home: The controversial eight-part miniseries "The Kennedys," which was dumped by the History Channel will air starting April 3 on the ReelzChannel.
ReelzChannel is Channel 275 on Time Warner Cable, Channel 299 on Dish Network, and Channel 238 on DirecTV.
Here's the trailer for the series:
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
