Hello Irene! Report from Kill Devil Hills NC

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This will be a very brief report – from the RBR-TVBR North Carolina Bureau in Kill Devil Hills NC, located in what is popularly known as the Outer Banks, where we have been ignoring our editorial duties to spruce the place up before we receive a visit from an unwanted guest who’s been barging up the Atlantic for days now and who goes by the name of Irene. It’s after 4PM Friday 8/26/11 as we write this.


We had a chance to spend some time with Adult Alternative WVOD-FM Manteo during our labors – with the tourists chased off the island, and indeed, many residents as well, the station pretty much went about its normal business. There were frequent breaks to discuss the approaching hurricane, but there was also music and what seemed to be a normal spotload. That was just fine with us – we know the storm is coming, we decided to stay, and at this point there isn’t much news we can use any longer.

Finally breaking for lunch around 3PM, we tuned in our go-to broadcast television station. Although we are technically part of the Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News VA DMA, we prefer the North Carolina focus of Gray Television’s WITN-TV Washington NC, in the Greenville-New Bern-Washington NC DMA.

The station was wall-to-wall Irene coverage. Greenville is a sprawling market, so WITN has a lot of territory to cover, and we have been extremely happy with the coverage. Chief meteorologist Marvin Dougherty paints the picture without injecting any unnecessary drama or histrionics, neither of which we need right at the moment.
Then, we checked out The Weather Channel for a bit. They do get quite a bit more dramatic there, so we are finding ourselves with a strong preference for the local coverage. However, we will be checking TWC frequently once Irene is done with us, because we have strong interests in people in the Washington DC and New York/Long Island area, and we will definitely be interested in seeing how they fare when blustery unwelcome Irene goes stomping into those neighborhoods.

BTW, we are well aware that a platoon of national weather reporters have been in town. Comes with the territory. We’ve seen one news truck, and no celebrities other than on TV like everybody else. TWC’s Jim Cantore isn’t here this time, but came last year and is a favorite target for the jokey store sign of one of our local surf shops.

In general, thank you, national weather reporters, for your interest in our community, and thanks for your patronage of our fine stores, hotels and restaurants!

Dave Seyler, Sr. Editor – RBR-TVBR.. let ya know how it all comes out in a few days.