1698 Weather or Not

It's interesting sometimes how we come around to old solutions when we think we're launching new ideas. Like I realized when I was watching The Weather Channel recently. Well, I wasn't actually watching it since I don't have cable TV. But I heard an ad for it on the radio. I love it when the great advertising medium TV advertises on the radio.
They were advertising a new show they had, called "Ice Pilots." Sounds like proposed TV series frozen out of network contention doesn't it? But no, it's supposedly about the daring pilots of the northern territories and all the dangers they face. It sounded kind of cool.
But what got me was how The Weather Channel seems to have gone to the dark side. They now offer what all the new media buzz is about, "content." Their wonderful paradigm of just showing the weather, so you can see it whenever you want, has been replaced with actual content that only needs to have some nebulous tie-in to the weather.
Which, when you think about it, isn’t too hard. Not only is weather the number one preferred subject of small talk, it's in the background of just about everything. They could do whatever story they like.
"It was a hot day when Hansel and Gretel entered the dark forest."
"Rain fell as William Tell placed the apple on his son's head."
It's like what happened to my favorite channel ever, MTV. Since music is the background for life, they no longer have to concentrate on music. Do they even play music videos anymore?
"Hailing frequency Captain," said Ohura as the music swelled ominously, "We're approaching the planet of Hasbeen. Phasers set to marginalize. MTV and the Weather Channel are poisoned with the new television specialty channel virus—content."
America ya gotta love it.