Randy Zipser
EF3
You're very welcome, John. Both of these videos, related to Roy Leep and Conrad Johnson, surely have brought back many early memories for both of us. We were probably too young to realize it then, but those were the wonderful days of simple, straightforward television weather broadcasting, uncomplicated by fancy terminology, gadgets and equipment (including Doppler radar), and advanced computer-graphics technologies. And, as I recall, even though the weather information from television broadcasts was simplistic by today's standards, it still more than met the needs of the viewing audiences back in those days.
I can still remember the earliest broadcasts where the "temperature" numbers were written by hand in marker pen on a physical wall showing the outline of the U.S. Later, plastic numbers were attached, but these sometimes came crashing down to the floor when accidentally touched by a hand or pointer during the live broadcasts, creating some awkward and embarrassing moments for the weatherman (well before the days of digital computer graphics). And I also clearly remember that the latest surface temperature obs west of the Rocky Mountains were from the previous hour because the Western Union teletypes could not relay the current obs fast enough to reach the East Coast (I was in Florida) before the local evening broadcast went on-air.
All to say, broadcast meteorology has certainly come such a long way since those days...but as an aging Boomer, I admit that I really sometimes long for those less complicated days...
