Published: May 09, 2006 10:44 pm         

VIDEO: Daily Show dogs WTWO weather commercial

Five months after WTWO made national news for refusing to air a controversial NBC series, the Terre Haute TV station is again getting attention outside the Wabash Valley.

This time the subject is WTWO’s dramatic commercial pitch for its weather coverage, which includes pointed criticism of its competitor, WTHI. Monday the commercial found its way onto “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” on Comedy Central.

In a short piece that had audience members roaring with laughter, Stewart aired two segments of WTWO’s weather spot, saying it conflicts with the typical “genial” and “pleasant” image of meteorologists.

“In Terre Haute, Ind., it’s getting rough in the weather game,” Stewart deadpanned, as he introduced the first clip.

Poking fun at WTWO’s comparison of its weather team’s years of experience with WTHI’s team and at the station’s use of the term, “Doppler dead zone,” Stewart concluded:

“My God. If you live in Terre Haute, you have to look out your window” to find out about weather conditions.

Video of the segment, which was aired again Tuesday, can be viewed at www.comedycentral.com.

WTWO general manager Duane Lammers, who helped create the weather commercial, said The Daily Show “must have been pretty hard up for material … I didn’t quite understand the point.”

Lammers was at the center of a censorship controversy in January when he became the first of a handful of NBC affiliate executives who chose not to air “The Book of Daniel,” a racy NBC drama about an Episcopalian priest. Lammers’ primary rationale for denying the show airtime, he said, was a longstanding disagreement he had with NBC network policies.

The show was cancelled early in its run.

Tuesday Lammers said the weather commercial was his work and that of is promotions director. He said it had gotten a lot of attention in the TV industry and that “people who work in our business think it’s a great spot.”

He insisted jabs at WTHI were “not personal — we don’t say anything bad about anyone at WTHI. We pointed out technical flaws.”

WTHI’s chief meteorologist, Kevin Orpurt, does not concur.

On air with the weather at WTHI since 1984, Orpurt said the WTWO commercial “really kind of hurt my feelings because we pride ourselves here on giving the best coverage we can, and the implication was that we do not.”

Known to come into the station and appear on air in the middle of the night during tornado watches and other severe weather events, Orpurt said WTWO’s “implication that WTHI’s coverage has a dead zone is simply not true.”

Orpurt said he did get “a chuckle” out of the Stewart spot.

When asked if he thought the commercial was an effective way of bringing viewers over to WTWO, Lammers said yes but that he doesn’t worry about ratings. He said the pitch must be effective because people are talking about it.

“I guess it’s funny if you watch [the Daily Show],” Lammers said, but he doesn’t think Stewart’s program is “particularly mainstream.”

A 2004 study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that more than one-fifth of viewers in the age 18-to-29 category cited “The Daily Show” as a primary source for news about the presidential campaign. That same year, the national Television Critics Association selected Stewart’s show for Outstanding Achievement in News and Information over such stalwart news programs as “60 Minutes.”

“The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” also has won seven Emmy awards and a 2005 Peabody television excellence award.

Stewart’s satirical look at U.S. history, “America (the Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction,” was on the New York Times bestseller list for 46 consecutive weeks, 15 of them in the No. 1 spot.

Lammers said his commercial, which has been playing for about a month, will be retired after Thursday because it’s been on the air long enough.

Deb McKee can be contacted at (812) 231-4254 or deb.mckee@tribstar.com.

Stephanie Salter can be contacted at (812) 231-4229 or stephanie.salter@tribstar.com.

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Click here to watch Monday's segment, "The Weather Game," and Wednesday's follow-up segment, "A Humble Apology," from "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" on Comedy Central's Web site.