WLOS Tuesday night dailies 1025

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Grim wreck
WLOS led the 11 o’clock with the grim news that four people died in a wreck near Maggie Valley. One of the four was a 16-year-old high school student. We’re sure there will be follow-ups.

On thin ice

The cold and wind that slammed Western North Carolina Monday night was just that – mostly cold and wind. But in Sheraldo’s hands, reporting at more than 6,000 feet above sea level high atop Mount Mitchell, the cold and wind became “near blizzard conditions.”

Sheraldo stomped around on some thin ice that coated the Blue Ridge Parkway and caused a portion of it to be closed to tourists. It wasn’t all that, but Sheraldo sure painted the word pictures. The parkway’s rock walls became “works of art from the fierce and raging gale.” He commented on the “blasts of stinging sleet and hail” pelting his puffy face. And he pointed dramatically at some snow that had fallen – GASP! – inside a ranger station after a window had been blown out. Now that’s something.

The over-heated weather reporting brings us to another theory about why WLOS goes overboard with it during the winter: WLOSers figure the more they scare the crap out of people, the more they’ll stay inside and watch more WLOS. Here’s hoping they’ll click on Ashvegas instead.

Larry “Bluntman” Blunt kicked in what we think is the earliest recording of the old chestnut we’ll hear over and over again from the WLOSers – he spoke of “old man winter.” God save us now.

Striking a blow for bus riders
Jon “Punnyman” Le took a bus ride in honor of Rosa Parks’ death to talk to people about advances in the Civil Rights movement. Le did a nice job, letting people speak for themselves, for the most part.