Roanoke TV covers Nelson

Lisa Provence's story about Nelson County and its lack of access to local weather forecasts struck a chord with me [News, "Nelson County: Off the (weather) map," October 28, 2004]. Like Sue Stillman, I am a Nelson County resident. As a DIRECTV satellite subscriber, my "local" stations are in Roanoke. However, I, too, do most of my shopping in Charlottesville, and I go there for my health care needs. I have been to Lynchburg a couple of times for specialty shopping, but I've never shopped in Roanoke. I would really prefer to get Charlottesville TV stations.

The story was slightly off the mark where weather reports are concerned. At least one of the Roanoke stations does give weather forecasts for central Virginia: the CBS affiliate, WDBJ Channel 7, includes Nelson County in its daily forecasting. In fact, the meteorological staff (Robin Reed, Leo Hirsbrunner, Brent Watts) gave particularly effective reports this hurricane season.

Regular programming was preempted for a special program during Ivan's trip through Virginia. That's how I learned that Nelson and Buckingham counties were under tornado warnings. While the reporting for Nelson County is not as detailed as it is for the Roanoke area, at least we are included in the forecast.

Lois Holden
Nelson County

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