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Comment by dredmorbius | Hacker News Reader

NB: what is it about small and local news sites, usually TV stations, but also newspapers and such, which cannot * CLEARLY * indicate where in the world they are?

"Ocean Beach" is a pleasantly anonymous place name (I can think of several neighborhoods matching this, the U.S. Gazetteer of Places identifies it as Ocean Beach, NY), affording very little by way of actual location.

In an age before widespread Internet use, I experienced similar frustrations while listening to clear channel AM radio broadcasts in the back country. It wasn't uncommon to pull in strong signals from hundreds to a thousand miles away. And while there's something delightfully surreal in listening to the mundania of local traffic and news reports, if you happen to be in a wilderness location trying to find a reliable weather forecast, "area conditions" doesn't do much for you.

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I've noticed the same thing, and I can't figure out why they do it. You can usually get hints about where they are by the advertisers they have, or in the case of TV or radio stations, by looking up their call letters on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGTV

FYI, Ocean Beach in this case isn't even a town, it's a neighborhood in San Diego, CA. Ocean Beach, NY is a beach town with very, very few permanent residents because it's only accessible by ferry or bicycle.

A local news outlet in the town of Springfield doesn't typically need to place the town name in absolute terms. The locals know what they mean. Springfield is the place (right here) that they all know and love.

The onus falls on national/international news outlets to make those clarifications when necessary.

Also, for accurate weather, you should tune your radio accordingly:

    http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/nwrbro.htm

Completely agree. "Where are you?" is basic information when location is at all relevant, and site designers frequently make the false assumption that every visitor is a local who knows exactly what you meant.

And it's not just news sites -- I once made a service reservation at a Toyota dealership in another state because it had the same name as the one I wanted and no indication of where it was in any global assets (it was buried on a "directions" page).

How did you make the service reservation? There wasn't a phone number with area code prominently displayed anywhere?

Good question: I was new to the Chicagoland area at the time and chalked it up to not being aware of what all the area codes were.

I don't mind a local news channel using local references in headlines, but it would have been nice for the submission title to be modified accordingly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGTV San Diego, California

I'm aware that I can look up broadcasters' call letters, but that really shouldn't be necessary.

Why cannot KGTV note * ON ITS WEBSITE * its geographic affiliation.

Worse is when you run into a newspaper site which flat-out refuses to ID its locale. Where the hell is, without looking it up, the Springfield News-Leader?

(The only hint on the publication's website is its weather forecast).

It's a * WORLD * wide web, folks. Start acting like it.

> It's a * WORLD * wide web, folks. Start acting like it.

But they're not a worldwide news service, they are a local one. Why are they obligated to cater to people who don't live in the area they service?

At least some place on their site, they might acknowledge what state they are in.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I remember when news stories would carry a dateline providing this information.

On many sites (including large ones), there's not even a date offered.

Because we are the internet and they owe us everything.

"Where are you" and "is the relevant" to me isn't "everything" by a long shot.

Truth is: someone can stumble across a website from literally anywhere on the planet. For those who are in your neighborhood, indicating that you are relevant is useful. Likewise for those who aren't.

> Why cannot KGTV note * ON ITS WEBSITE * its geographic affiliation.

They do. Click the "10news" icon, and look at the titlebar.

I can see an argument for intentionally leaving that info off. They are a local site and don't really care about one off traffic like mine or yours, we won't be coming back anyway. And specifying that info may make the site feel less local to the actual repeat audience.

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