March 2009 Archives

Polk County is conducting its routine seasonal maintenance on the civil-defense sirens in the Des Moines area, since we're not expecting any severe weather around here this week, and severe-weather season is just around the corner. On a related note, several Central Iowa counties are working together to solicit bids for an automatic emergency-notification system that would use phones, e-mail, fax, and other means to contact local residents in case of emergency. We, of course, already have the Emergency Alert System for broadcasters to use to relay alerts. WHO Radio gets the distinction of originating most of the alerts in Iowa.

Jeanette Trompeter was a popular anchor during her tenure with KCCI, the CBS affiliate in Des Moines, until she took a job a few years ago to work at WCCO in Minneapolis. The WCCO job, by all measures, was a big step up -- Des Moines is the nation's #71 television market, and the Twin Cities are market #15. And the job change probably came with a hefty pay raise, even though she spent most of her time anchoring the less-watched 5:00 newscast. But due to a downturn in advertising revenues, WCCO is making some big budget cuts, and Trompeter has become one of the jobless as a result. She'll land on her feet somewhere, of course, but people tend to feel a strange sort of closeness with their favorite TV anchors, and Trompeter undoubtedly was a Des Moines favorite while she was here -- which accounts for the attention her departure from WCCO has already garnered from KCCI, WHO, and the Des Moines Register.