1970s vintage weathercasts

Tim Vasquez

Tim Vasquez

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I was looking around on YouTube and saw some more old clips... this time of WFAA Dallas around 1978-79.

wfaa1979a.jpg

This was hot stuff in 1979! I recall seeing weathercasts in the mid-1970s from other stations that just took a shot of the plan position indicator (with lumpy echoes) beneath an ink geography overlay.

wfaa1979b.jpg

I'm not sure who this is, but it's got 1970s written all over it, from the haircut to magnet boards. We had a car and a refrigerator in the 1970s that had the same earth tones as that map. Where did that palette all start, anyway?

wfaa1979c.jpg

I snipped this since it shows the layout of WFAA's boards in the late 1970s. Looks like the famous 5-day planner behind him.

wfaa1979d.jpg

Funny expression on Troy. It's interesting that the bowtie looks striking on him at this young age (he'd be about 42 in this shot) but not so unusual now that he's older,

Some of the clips where I pulled those:



 
Conrad Johnson, WMT TV, Cedar Rapids, IA

My childhood hero: Conrad Johnson. He was a mainstay on WMT TV (now KGAN) in Cedar Rapids, IA in the 1960s-1970s. His on-air personality was that of all business, unlike a number of WMT/KGAN personalities following him who relied on various "gimmicks" or comedy routines. He pioneered the use of on-air weather radar, using a modified aviation radar from Collins Radio (now Rockwell Collins). Prior to this, weather radar on TV was virtually unheard of. It was quite primitive: the B/W video camera panned from the WX-cast of Conrad and the set, and zoomed in on the small, round, B/W radar screen in the studio. It was similar to the screen on vintage Tektronics oscilloscopes. No velocity, no radar animations, nor level-2 data in those days:-).

KGAN_ConradJohnson1960.JPG

1960. Source: http://www.iowabroadcasting.com/tv/KGAN/KGAN_ConradJohnson1960.JPG

KGAN_News1970s.JPG

Mid-'70s: Source http://www.iowabroadcasting.com/tv/KGAN/KGAN_News1970s.JPG

Interesting tidbit I came across about the radar's role in the Palm Sunday outbreak, April 11, 1965:

"At around 1 P.M., the first tornado of the day occurred in Clinton County, Iowa. It was an F4 on the Fujita scale of severity. It was spawned from a thunderstorm cell first detected near Tipton in Cedar County, Iowa around 12:45 P.M. by a radio news reporter at the WMT Stations in Cedar Rapids, some 50 miles northwest of Tipton. The station was equipped with a Collins Radio aviation radar that was mounted on the roof of the station building and used to support severe weather reports on local and regional newscasts. After detecting the strong and very tall thunderstorm, the reporter called National Weather Service offices in Waterloo (which had no radar) and Des Moines to alert them to the storm. His call was to become the first solid evidence obtained by the Weather Service on the growing severe storms that spawned dozens of tornadoes over the next 12 hours."

Source: http://www.sportsfactbook.com/history/The_Palm_Sunday_Tornado_Outbreak

- bill
 
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Good Ole WFAA

Pete Delkus is now the Chief Met over there now. I have been chasing for WFAA since April this year when they hired our chase team for " viewing area" storm coverage. They are good people over there. So far they haven't lied to me yet or have pulled any stunts the media is known for. They are supposed to be making big plans for us next year, We will see. They were very impressed with us when on our 2nd chase for them we brought them back some up close and personal tornado footage from April 23.

I can't believe how young Troy looks in those photos. He was the best meteorologist DFW has ever had.. We also have a guy named Brad Barton on KRLD am 1080 that is a chief met for the radio station. He is an excellent forecaster and will stay up all night if severe weather is expected. He has awesome coverage.

When we had our interview with WFAA we brought out laptops to show them video and slide show. They asked what adar we used, We popped up GRLevel3 on the screen and Pete Delkus just about dropped out his seat.. He said it was even better and nicer then their radar at the station. They treated us to a fancy dinner, with wine and all the fixins, It was nice.
 
Hey, Bill, thanks for posting those pictures of Conrad Johnson. He is a big part of the reason for my lifelong interest in weather. I remember waiting eagerly to see his broadcasts in my high school years and earlier in Waterloo where I grew up, especially on days when I knew there would be something on his radar :-) As I understand it, his radar was the first one west of the Mississippi. A true pioneer of weather broadcasting!
 
Those are great copies of the 4/3/74 newscast. Don't miss the kitschy local commercials at the end of the second TV clip.

Tim
 
Erik Burns said:
I can't believe how young Troy looks in those photos. He was the best meteorologist DFW has ever had.. We also have a guy named Brad Barton on KRLD am 1080 that is a chief met for the radio station. He is an excellent forecaster and will stay up all night if severe weather is expected. He has awesome coverage.
Click to expand...

Blasphemer! :D You forgot to mention "The World's Greatest Weatherman", the late Harold Taft. Hands down, perhaps the best TV meteorologist (not weathercaster) in the nation during his tenure. He always drew his maps by hand for many many years. I actually had a couple of them signed by him, but tragically, I lost them. He was discussing mesoscale analysis on the air before I even knew what it was. :-) He helped made me the weather nut I am still to this day.

Troy was good too of course, but I always considered him to be standing in the shadow of Harold Taft. Troy had a huge heart though and his charitable efforts, in particular Santa's Helpers, was admirable.

Brad Barton is THE voice to listen to for live severe weather information in the DFW area. He did an outstanding job of live weather radar intepretation and quickly relaying that to the general public in a manner that was easy to understand and act upon. He would also dissiminate spotter reports, which you could sometimes hear in the background, and law enforcement relays of information. He had some help in the background of course, but always amazed me in how he kept a wealth of rapid-fire information organized and concise without fluff or confusion. He was my "nowcaster" for many years. :-)
 
Harold Taft I think was a meteorologist in the truest sense. If you ever toured KXAS back in the 1980s you will remember they had a map room full of DIFAX charts. I met him a few times but he always struck me as somewhat reclusive, so he never became a mentor for me in any sense. I don't know if his stomach cancer was giving him problems in the mid-1980s; maybe that had something to do with it, but he never seemed to be interested in anything beyond a "how do you do" and a look around. But the content of his weathercasts can't be ignored... they were revolutionary for their time and stirred up a lot of interest in TX/OK meteorology for me.

I had a chance to see Troy's forecast process back in the mid 1980s, and most of it involved reading the forecast discussions and developing forecast content off of the DIFAX 12-24/36-48 graphics (where with Harold I remember seeing him agonize over details on the LFM vs. NGM 500 mb panels). I don't think it was on par with what Harold accomplished. But I agree Troy is an exemplary person. When I visited there he always took a few minutes to ask what was new in my weather pursuits and hear what I'd been up to. He eventually gave me surplus items from their station, including one of their old DIFAX machines. When I was in Africa for the Rwandan relief efforts, and before our INMARSAT phones were up, our freighter jets got safely back to Europe thanks to me working HF for weather charts, which in turn came from experience with Troy's hand-me-downs years earlier. Seeing how Troy was so smooth and comfortable in front of the cameras and had such a command of broadcast knowledge gave me the confidence to dabble in TV meteorology for a couple of years.

I suppose Ron Jackson should be mentioned in here somewhere -- he has always been a student of meteorology throughout his career, but I think he stood in the shadows of Troy and Harold. I only met with him briefly, and I never really went to KDFW (old Ch 4) more than once as it wasn't much of a draw and I've always had a feeling the news producers were probably resistant to him making the weathercast cutting-edge in the 1980s. Though they eventually did buy an C-band radar around 1988.

I never met Brad Barton, so I can't really comment on him.

Incidentally the reason there's hardly any Harold Taft on YouTube is that the bastards at KXAS issue DMCA takedowns for any of their content that appears there, even if it's obvious fair use. That's a real travesty to Harold's memory. Once I get my video gear back together I will probably put some Harold Taft back on there and try to avoid any reference to KXAS or Ch. 5. As far as YouTube is concerned, WFAA (Belo Broadcasting) has a much more generous and sensible policy regarding their content. That's working to their benefit because it's building a mountain of public perception that WFAA is the DFW news pioneer, whereas KXAS is nowhere to be found.

Tim
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8_2nQ_ANps

This is an excellent video of the late Paul Lynde from Hollywood Squares, broadcasting in the 1978 on WSPD-TV 13, Toledo (now WTVG TV.) This video is rare footage of Paul Lynde, and displays quite the humor. Note the setup, boards, radar, and the oh-so 70s hair. Enjoy.

And apparently Paul doesn't quite like the Boaters' Forecast...
 
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LOL, you sure that's a tornado forecast? Why is he wearing a coat?!? All I gleaned from it was that the cold front is barreling in and half of the people in the nation aren't going to make it! I wish all our weather newscasts were like the two posted above...it would make for lots of funny times. :D
 
I grew up with Fred Norman, Ross Dixon, and Wayne Shattuck on KOCO in the late 70s/early 80s. There's a few really awesome (and ground-breaking in some cases) TV mets that have come from the OKC market, but there was no way I was gonna bring it up because everyone outside of the OKC market hates OKC TV mets...and half the people in the market do too.

Wasn't worth the pissing match.
 
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