The Weather Channel sings a better tune

Have you noticed the shift in music playing during those Local on the 8s breaks on The Weather Channel of late? (Never mind how dorky it is that I picked up on the new tunes). Once the domain of truly awful "soft-jazz" tunes, the likes of which you’d hear in Hyatt elevators, the Local on the 8s have recently begun to spin actually listenable music, including The Allman Brothers’ "Blue Sky" (nudge nudge wink wink), The Smiths’ "Oscillate Wildly" (hey, kinda like a palm tree in a hurricane) and the instrumental jam that ends The Rolling Stones’ "Can’t You Hear Me Knockin" (which hailstorms have been known to do). Apparently parent NBC Universal has woken up to the notion that men 18-49 don’t really cotton to the saccharine sounds of Spyro Gyra. "Oh, it’s definitely a conscious move," says Geoffrey Darby, TWC’s executive vp of programming. "There had been no cue to tell the viewer the break was coming. So if I got you to notice [by playing a cooler song], then I just got a big win." But more musical experimentation may be on its way. Darby says the network is thinking about scoring the local breaks (Santa Ana winds, meet woodwinds). And if that doesn’t work, we recommend throwing a few other tracks into the mix, starting with The Doors’ "Riders on the Storm."

—Posted by Michael Bürgi