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One of the shortest blogs I’ve ever written has led to one of the biggest reactions.
I’m talking about last week’s blog on Channel 4 management’s decision to at least temporarily replace veteran meteorologist Mike Cejka on its morning program “Wake Up!” with Amelia Segal, a younger pretty face. Cejka has been moved to weekends.
To be honest, the reaction and support for Cejka surprised me. He has been so under-the-radar for more than a quarter century on Channel 4 that he could have been nicknamed Mike Cipher.
But the comments about the blog made it apparent that Cejka’s solid work has not gone unnoticed by Buffalo viewers who pay much closer attention to weather forecasts than I do.
I usually just want to know if the sun is going to come out or if it is going to rain or snow and don’t need four or five minutes and countless weather maps to be told.
Which is why it surprised me that some of my readers believe that the low-key Cejka is the most accurate forecaster in town, even topping Channel 4’s No. 1 guy, Pope Don Paul.
And I was even more surprised to hear that the meteorologist is so well-respected that he is occasionally called to testify at trials when weather is an issue.
I’ve also heard that he is very well-liked inside the Channel 4 newsroom, with staffers especially displeased about the way Cejka learned of the move. According to sources, Cejka found out about the move when his schedule was posted.
The support for Cejka may also reflect Western New York’s tendency to root for a hard-working, underappreciated underdog who has had to toil behind Paul, whose style apparently irritates some viewers.
Additionally, some older viewers (and Channel 4 has more than anyone) probably don’t like the idea of seeing a veteran being replaced by someone younger in what looks like a calculated move to appeal to viewers more concerned about looks than accuracy.
This isn’t a knock on Segal, who has improved rapidly since first joining the station. But her promotion to “Wake Up!” – temporary or not — seems more to do with her being eye candy than it has to do with her forecasting ability. It isn’t anything new in television and you can’t blame Channel 4 officials for trying to do something to get viewers to sample “Wake Up!” again now that is second fiddle here to Channel 2’s “Daybreak.”
One of my more optimistic readers wondered if Channel 4 made the move to give its relatively inexperienced weekend staff someone with experience on its newscast. Nice thought. But I can’t see that as the reason for the change. The weekday morning newscasts are much more important than the weekend newscasts, which are often interrupted or delayed by college football or NFL games in the fall and winter.
Channel 4’s move before the November sweeps is not without some risk. This TV market is known to embrace stability and slow to accept change. Channel 4 has benefitted from that tendency for the past decade, when it has dominated local news. The move of Cejka off of “Wake Up!” could upset regular viewers, which could send more of them over to “Daybreak.”
The move also has prompted speculation that it could be part of a Channel 4 plan to eliminate Cejka, who has been around in various weather roles for 28 years and presumably has a salary commensurate with that longevity.
The speculation is reasonable even if one has no idea if it is true or when Cejka’s contract expires. Now that Cejka has been moved to weekends, Channel 4 has to find something for him to do the other three days of his work week.
We’ll have to watch to see how he used. If the station makes him cover insignificant events as a reporter or voiceover silly national features, then it will be as clear as a beautiful Buffalo fall day that it is trying to send him a message and put him on the beach.
For those unfamiliar with TV newspeak, “on the beach” is a nice way of saying unemployed.
After 28 years, Cejka deserves better. But TV is a rough business and it is getting rougher by the day for news veterans.
pergament@msn.com

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