9° -OR- Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

It's January. It's Chicago. It's cold. Not Frostbite Falls, Minnesota cold. Just your run of the mill, mid-January, Alberta Clipper, Lake Effect, Chicago cold.

If you tune in to the local news, you'd think it was unprecedented. Weekend local news is usually where you find those mildly interesting stories from the week that didn't make the cut. Coverage of the canine inaugural ball, a five-year old who dribbles a basketball like a Globetrotter, the Senior social gala at Navy Pier... unless the mercury is hunkered down at the bottom of the tube trying to stay warm. Then the Weekend News Team gets to jump in the Newsmobile and head out for LIVE remotes covering neighborhood and suburban events. Because...? Well, that's just how they roll.

You just can't create enough opportunities to stick a microphone in someone's face and ask if it's cold enough for them. How do you cope? Do you think the cold will affect the turnout for your car-wash fundraiser?

Insipid Jounalism 101.
There's obviously nothing newsworthy going on in Chicago. Illinois. U.S.A.
that people may need to know.

And next month the signal will be DIGITAL! Boo-yah!

Don't you just hate "slow news days departments"?