Years ago when a big storm like Florence would be making her way to landfall, stations all over the country would load up their satellite trucks and start making their trek towards the storm.

Now, with the consolidation of the industry, media companies just send a couple a Reporters and Photogs to cover the story for the entire group.

In other words, for example, a Nexstar Reporter located close to the storm will be sent to not only cover the story for their station, but to do live hits for dozens of other Nexstar stations around the country.

Gone our the days when the Reporter can actually flesh out good and interesting stories for their station. They are so bogged down with doing live hits for other stations, there’s no time to do “real” reporting.

News reporting from major stories like this have become like a trip to the Golden Corral. You’ll pick things off the buffet and fill appetite, but it just won’t taste that good.

Many groups have started sending crews into the predicted path of Florence and that includes WABC (New York) Reporter Derick Waller, who will be filing reports for the ABC O&O’s.

I remember the days when every ABC O&O would send their own crew to cover the story. But now, it’s more about saving money than reporting the story.

I miss those days.