Who Was Your Favorite Childhood TV Meteorologist?

[Randy Zipser]

Reminiscing earlier today about Gary England, I thought it might be fun to do a thread about who you remember as your favorite television "weatherman" when you were growing up. Practically every television market (state, or region of a state) has, at some time, had one or more television weather broadcaster(s) who stand out in local history, much like Gary England in the Oklahoma market, so there must be many stories to tell! So, the topic of this thread is: "When you were growing up, who was your favorite local TV meteorologist and what influence did they have on your interest in weather (storm chasing?) or a career in meteorology?" (I am referencing the word "weatherman" in a generic sense and with quotations because back in the time I grew up, TV weather was male-dominated, unlike in today's weather markets, fortunately).

To start things off, my favorite "weatherman" was Roy Leep, who was the Chief Meteorologist during a long career at WTVT, the CBS (and later, FOX) affiliate in Tampa, FL. The station was always nearby to where I lived, and I did have the chance to meet Roy when I was growing up. I remember in my pre-teens having a tour of the WTVT weather studio and seeing a brand-new WSR-57 weather radar for the first time, which in the early 1960s, was a real thrill! Roy also gave me a copy of a WTVT-published pamplet about "1960 Hurricanes," including a hurricane plotting map, the first one I had ever seen! It was very timely because Hurricane Donna came through the area shortly thereafter, doing quite a bit of damage (it passed just east of the Tampa Bay area, sparing downtown Tampa of storm-surge but wiping out a major part of inland Florida's citrus crop). But, Roy was on-air covering it every minute, as I remember. Looking back, I credit Roy Leep with my early-childhood interest in weather, particularly waterspouts, and this led to my meeting Dr. Joseph Golden, the world's foremost authority on waterspouts, and studying at the University of Oklahoma Department of Meteorology (now "School of Meteorology") and becoming a researcher at NSSL and participant in the Tornado Intercept Project, all in the early 1970s. Roy Leep passed away in Tampa at age 88; it was only fitting for me that I was living in WTVT's weather television market at that time. His story, in some respects paralleling Gary England's, appears in the following link:

Roy Leep, pioneering WTVT meteorologist, passes away

Do you have any stories like this to share?

 

[John Farley]

Most of you reading this are probably too young to remember him, and most of you also likely did not live in the TV market to be able to see him, but Conrad Johnson of WMT in Cedar Rapids (now KGAN), which covered most of eastern Iowa, was definitely one of the all-time greats. A degreed meteorologist before most stations had one, he had the first TV-station weather radar west of the Mississippi and IIRC just the second anywhere in the United States. This was back in the 1960s. He had connections at Collins Radio in Cedar Rapids who, again IIRC, helped him re-purpose an old military radar as a weather radar. He always made a point not just of forecasting or describing the weather, but also explaining the "why" behind what was happening or expected to happen. In grade school and high school, I always eagerly awaited his weathercasts, especially when any kind of active weather pattern was occurring. Tragically, after he retired he lost his life as a result of being hit by a car when he was riding his bicycle. He was one of the best ever TV meteorologists!

 

[JamesCaruso]

Not childhood, but as an adult, Sharon Resultan on TWC and Ginger Zee

The only story I have is that at a party my wife and I were hosting, my friend made some reference to my then-current infatuation with Sharon, after which my wife pointedly banged a glass down in front of me as she was serving.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Growing up in the Pittsburgh area, Joe DeNardo was the most well-known personality to me . But I can't say really had a "favorite" as I didn't start getting into weather (lightning, specifically) as a focused interest until my high school years. Dr. Martin Uman was the most influential figure to me (via his books) in those years and who I credit with getting me started in photographing storms.

 

[Drew Terril]

While I did grow up in Oklahoma, I was not in the OKC DMA, but in the Tulsa one. So unlike those who grew up in the former market, I did not grow up watching Gary England. I did, however, watch Travis Meyer (now on KOTV/News6) when was at KTUL, along with the late Jim Giles at KOTV. Giles, along with one of his employees (David Oldham), developed and fielded one of the early versions of computer code that news stations all across the country now use to estimate ETA for a storm impacting an area. I'm sure there were others who developed their own versions, but he was one of the early ones, and debuted the feature (they called it Pathfinder) during the 4/26/91 event that saw an F4 hit Oologah (about a half hour north of my hometown). In fact, they only got it operational the day prior. They were able to nail down within a few minutes when the storm was going to arrive, and were able to give those in the town an incredible amount of lead time for that day and age.

One area that Meyer excelled in was outreach. I don't know if he still does them these days (I haven't lived in the Tulsa area since the beginning of my freshman year of HS in 2001), but throughout the 90s and early 2000s he used to host events that he called "Trav's Wicked Weather Show" and used that as a means to educate people about weather. As a kid fascinated with weather ever since my family and I were caught up in the Catoosa F4 of 1993 (along with the adjacent F3 that most locals have forgotten about), I went to several of those events and got to meet him on more than one occasion.

Between the two of them, they were excellent in their positions. Both were calm and collected on the air (Meyer still is from what I've been able to see). From what I recall on 5/3/99, one of the last tornadoes of the event was either bearing directly down on the KTUL studios, or was tracking close enough to the studio to be concerning. Meyer apparently had ice water in his veins, as he calmly instructed his colleagues to take shelter while he remained on air continuing to update viewers on the storm. If memory serves, it lifted several miles short of the part of town, but it reinforced his status among the locals in the Tulsa DMA. For those of us my age or older, Meyer and Giles were that calm voice in the storm, who were also quick to teach those of us who were interested in weather. Meyer is still carrying on, albeit getting up there in age now, but I've not heard anything about him planning to retire anytime soon.

 

[Andy Wehrle]

When I was growing up in the '90s, all of the "big three" affiliates in the Madison market (WISC-3, CBS; WKOW-27, ABC; and WMTV-15, NBC) all had on-air meteorologists who became chief meteorologists at their respective stations and remained as such for over 20 years. Gary Cannalte at 3, Bob Lindmeier at 27, and Charlie Shortino at 15, until Bob retired a few years ago and Gary last year. I enjoyed watching all of them. Now Charlie is the only one still working and I've been working with him for the last 12 years!

...and yes @JamesCaruso, those TWC ladies of the '90s including Ms. Resultan sure were easy on the eyes, although I was a bit too young at the time to fully appreciate them.

 

[Randy Zipser]

Dr. Martin Uman was the most influential figure to me (via his books) in those years and who I credit with getting me started in photographing storms.

It is interesting that you should mention Dr. Uman. In my archive, I have a book that he published in 1971 while he was at Westinghouse Research Laboratories in Pittsburgh, PA, titled Understanding Lightning. I don't recall exactly how I came to have a copy of this book, but I faintly recall getting it because Martin's mother (I believe it was) lived in Florida and became a client of my mother's antique business while I was out in Oklahoma doing my thing with tornadoes. My mother had mentioned to Martin's mother about my interest in thunderstorms, and she had Martin send me the book. I have never met Martin in person, but he later ended up at the University of Florida and became widely-known there as the world's foremost expert on lightning, advancing much of the current knowledge about CG lightning through experimentation in Gainesville, particularly with regard to fulgurites (which are fairly common on Florida beaches if you know where to look and how to identify them by sight). It's interesting how the "world" of people who were interested in thunderstorms decades ago who are still around today are remembered by others with similar interest--like a tight-knit small community drawn together by that single interest (in Dr. Uman's case, lightning). Just like tornado chasers are...

 

[William Monfredo]

What did I watch?
Bob Kudsma at KDKA-2 was concurrent with Joe Denardo at WTAE-4 in Pittsburgh, PA.
I also liked the Today Show when they showed severe outlooks from the news anchor-desk.
In Harrisburg, PA we used to get a feed of AM Weather really early in the morning. I liked that one.

 

[Mikayla Norris]

I grew up in Alabama in the 90s-00s, but I was in the Montgomery area, and so outside the coverage area of the venerable James Spann. My family always watched WSFA 12 for news and weather. The first chief meteorologist I remember was Rich Thomas. As a child, I had a fear of severe storms and tornadoes, and hearing his voice on the TV was calming. He also visited my elementary school once and did a short presentation on weather. I remember it being SO cool! Rich Thomas was eventually succeeded by Josh Johnson, who I believe is still the chief meteorologist at WSFA to this day. I always appreciated Josh Johnson's live coverage. He was really good at not just giving streets, but specific businesses and landmarks for where the worst of the weather was going, even for the rural areas. The way Ryan Hall does his live coverage actually reminds me a lot of how I remember Josh Johnson doing his. I never met Josh Johnson in person, but I recall that my professor for Intro to Meteorology at the University of South Alabama had apparently gone to school with him at Mississippi State. Even chased with him apparently. So I thought that was pretty cool.

I also have fond memories of watching Dr. Greg Forbes and Dr. Steve Lyons as The Weather Channel's severe weather and hurricane experts, respectively. That was back when The Weather Channel still did mostly weather rather than reality tv and clip shows.