Gray Television Turns to Weather Central 3D:LIVE to Stay Ahead of Change

Gray Television Turns to Weather Central 3D:LIVE to Stay Ahead of Change

Need to streamline operations while excelling on air leads Gray management to approve Weather Central's world class HD weather solutions for its stations

MADISON, Wis., May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Weather Central, LLC, provider of the world's most-viewed on-air weather solutions, has become the broadcast weather system provider of choice for Gray Television. More than half of the group's stations, as well as the Gray Interactive Media Group, rely on Weather Central 3D:LIVE weather and ESP:LIVE interactive severe weather systems to deliver innovative weather presentations to every screen.

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"A successful station needs to be streamlined and efficient in its operations, but be absolutely dazzling in its delivery of the weather," says Jim Ocon, VP of technology at Gray Television. "Weather Central is a great partner for achieving these seemingly competing goals. They work with us to ensure that everything -- from their data plans and systems to their support -- is optimized to meet the needs of our stations. Challenging times demand that we change, and Weather Central lets us do much more with less. We don't want cheap -- we want smart."

With stations located throughout the United States, individual Gray stations have unique requirements. 3D:LIVE from Weather Central combines real-time data, stunning 3D effects and animations, high resolution maps and imagery, and a full suite of storytelling tools enabling weathercasters to quickly build riveting packages about current, forecast and severe weather events. The addition of ESP:LIVE provides hyper-local street-level mapping, advanced storm tracking, interactive data displays and other sophisticated severe weather science and tools.

"Weather Central broadcast systems are HD-ready, feature built-in redundancy, and deliver strong weather and radar as a solid starting point," continued Ocon. "As our stations transition to meet new challenges, not only on air but delivering online and to mobile platforms as well, the flexibility of Weather Central is a key to our success. For example, weather is a major page view driver for broadcasters' web sites. Working with Weather Central, our stations collectively rank as one of the top 20 overall most visited sites. The addition of the latest interactive radar from Weather Central should prove to be even more enticing. The most important thing to us is that Weather Central keeps ahead of the changes and evolution for which Gray needs to prepare."

"In many ways, groups like Gray set the pace of our industry," said Weather Central president, Bill Baker. "They understand the importance of having a dominant and most trusted weather brand in their local markets. Their stations leverage the power of Weather Central systems to deliver hyper-local weather information to their viewers in real time where they live, work and play. Weather Central's streamlined content distribution strategy for delivering weather forecasts, news and alerts to multiple viewing platforms empowers Gray to lead in weather and win in news."

For more information about Weather Central solutions, visit www.wxc.com.

About Weather Central, LLC

Weather Central, LLC, founded in 1974 by broadcasters and meteorologists based in Madison, Wisconsin, is the leading provider of professional on-air, online, print, mobile and enterprise weather solutions and forecasting in North America and to major customers worldwide. Utilizing the Company's dynamic weather graphics, precise forecast models and data, and patented technology, more than 1000 partners and hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide benefit from Weather Central's attention to weather presentation, detail and insight.

© 2009 Weather Central LLC, Madison, Wis. All rights reserved. Product specifications and availability are subject to change without notice. Weather Central LLC, :LIVE, GENESIS:LIVE, 3D:LIVE, ESP:LIVE, Weather Central MagicTRAK, LiveLine GENESIS, A.D.O.N.I.S. MicroCast, A.D.O.N.I.S. FutureCast, StormSentinel DV, WxWarn2, ScreenWRITER, SportsWRITER, SimulCAST, X-Vision, Storm Vitals, TelePath, RainVision, SnowVision, FunnelPATH, CellPATH, HailZONE, GustZONE, MessoPATH, Always-On Training, Instant Mapping and WxPoint are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Weather Central LLC.

All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100210/NY53169LOGO
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PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Weather Central, LLC

CONTACT: Steve Smedberg, Sr. Vice President, Weather Central,
+1-608-274-5789, SSMEDBERG@WXC.COM; or PR CONTACT: Evan Sirof,
MarComm-On-Call, +1-845-255-1909, EVAN@MARCOMM-ON-CALL.COM

Web Site: http://www.wxc.com/

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