WBRC now has SEVEN meteorologists!

[tyrannical bastard 4033]

With the return of J-P Dice to WBRC, they will now have SEVEN meteorologists on staff.

Likely the most out of any station in the southeast region.

https://marketshare.tvnewscheck.com/2022/08/08/wbrc-birmingham-adds-familiar-face-increasing-meteorologists-to-7/

 

IMHO, they should have stayed at 6, it would matched their channel number.

 

And lest we forget down at 33/40, where one reigns supreme over all...

[GoldenShine9 1514]

I wonder if some of them will also appear on nearby Gray stations when they are short-staffed?

[tyrannical bastard 4033]

Just now, GoldenShine9 said:

I wonder if some of them will also appear on nearby Gray stations when they are short-staffed?

That, and helping out their Gulf Coast stations (WJHG, WALA, WLOX, WVUE) if a tropical storm or hurricane were to strike, especially if one was knocked off the air.

[who?cares 255]

13 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

That, and helping out their Gulf Coast stations (WJHG, WALA, WLOX, WVUE) if a tropical storm or hurricane were to strike, especially if one was knocked off the air.

It also allows for meteorologist “teams” during hours upon hours of severe weather coverage. 

[GodfreyGR 690]

WDAY/Fargo has been at 7 for most of the summer. Granted, some of them don't usually appear on screen at WDAY and do web-forecasts for the newspaper websites (I.E., The Duluth News Tribune). Could also speculate that some would transfer over to doing forecasts at KVRR/Fargo if the FCC ever approves that deal (KVRR's chief met Rob Kupec left this spring to run for State Senate in Minnesota and no permanent replacement has been named).

[RGSJenkins 435]

141 miles from WBRC, WTVA in Tupelo has 8. 2-3 years ago, they had only 3.

[nycnewsjunkie 1444]

From the looks of that press release, Dice will continue his work a corporate pilot while being on staff as an occasional contributor. This expansion isn’t as crazy as it looks.

 

Given that Alabama (and Tupelo, for that matter) can be tornado-heavy during the summer, having extra meteorologists on staff can’t be a bad thing. I find it notable that stations around the country seem to be expanding their staff of meteorologists as of late, though I guess it’ll take time for many people to get used to. For instance, when WABC expanded to five meteorologists, people immediately jumped to the conclusion that someone was leaving.

[TheRolyPoly 2580]

I think five is sufficient. Four main on-air ones plus a fifth as a behind-the-scenes producer/fill-in.

[compubit 675]

On 8/9/2022 at 10:42 AM, RGSJenkins said:

141 miles from WBRC, WTVA in Tupelo has 8. 2-3 years ago, they had only 3.

 

I’m guessing they’re bringing in either students or grads from Mississippi State’s program - I know in the past it’s been one of the best broadcast meteorology programs in the country.

 

Jim

[TheOneManHerd 555]

Well, the one thing people watch local news for more than anything these days is for the weather. Even with that in mind, 7 or 8 mets on staff seems like overkill; but then again I'm not the one hunkered down in the weather center during a EF5.

[MidwestTV 1240]

Depending on the market and how much news the station does, even a team of 5 can get stretched thin. Having a sixth can greatly reduce workload and allow for special projects.

 

On 8/9/2022 at 10:42 AM, RGSJenkins said:

141 miles from WBRC, WTVA in Tupelo has 8. 2-3 years ago, they had only 3.

 

On 8/10/2022 at 10:06 PM, compubit said:

I’m guessing they’re bringing in either students or grads from Mississippi State’s program - I know in the past it’s been one of the best broadcast meteorology programs in the country.

 

Jim

 

Yes, they're adding students from Mississippi State as part of their team. Two of them are juniors and one in grad school (which is highly unusual to have a meteorology master working in broadcast). WCBI also does this to a far smaller degree. There's only 3, maybe 4, there.

[tyrannical bastard 4033]

Birmingham is not too far from Huntsville, home of Baron Services, the other major supplier of broadcast weather systems next to IBM (WSI/WeatherCentral/The Weather Company). 

It was founded by meteorologist Bob Baron, who worked at WAAY and WAFF in the 80s and 90s.

 

WBRC also uses Baron products including their VIPIR radar.

 

2 hours ago, MidwestTV said:

Yes, they're adding students from Mississippi State as part of their team. Two of them are juniors and one in grad school (which is highly unusual to have a meteorology master working in broadcast). WCBI also does this to a far smaller degree. There's only 3, maybe 4, there.

 WTVA has always punched above its weight for that market size.  It's been a trailblazing station going all the way back to its founder, Frank Spain, who literally built the station by hand (the equipment) back in the early days of television.  It's good to see Allen Media keeping the station above the pack.

Edited August 13, 2022 by tyrannical bastard

[compubit 675]

Sorry to revive an older thread, but was going through some old news clips on an old hard drive and ran across WJLA's weather team in 2012 - They had 13 weather people on staff:
- Chief Meterologist: Doug Hill

- Senior Meteorologist: Bob Ryan

- Meteorologists: Adam Caskey, Alex Liggett, Brian van de Graaf, Devon Lucie, Eileen Whelan, Jacqui Jeras, Ryan Miller, Steve Rudin

- Forecaster: Dave Zahren

- Weathercasters: Chad Merrill, Mike Stinneford

 

IIRC, Devon Lucie was pretty much NewsChannel 8, and I think the 2 weathercasters were tied to WTOP (longtime weather partner), as they didn't list "ABC7" in their titles...

 

Regardless, that's a lot on staff...

 

Jim

[MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie 947]

Any market that has to deal with a significant amount of severe weather/tornadoes/hurricanes, I can see at most 6.  Have 2 in-studio, and instead of using reporters/mmjs, use the other 4 out in the field for reports, so they can give first-hand meteorological reports of damages, etc and fill-ins... I don't know why stations all of a sudden had a need to have a different meteorologist for each damn newscast of the day... No wonder they are starting mets at $15k a year.. there's no work

[HSV cheesehead 102]

Since this thread is revived, it is worth mentioning WBRC now has eight meteorologists, albeit one primarily works on the Alabama Telemundo cluster (I am just guessing). See it for yourself: https://www.wbrc.com/page/meet-the-team/

 

screenshot

[MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie 947]

WINK has 7...

[MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie 947]

Just noticed that WCVB in Boston has 7 as well lol

[bostonmediaguy 124]

I would say it's seven with an asterisk. AJ Burnett and Michael Page are producers who occasionally appear on-air. Harvey Leonard is their retired former-Chief who occasionally appears. 

[kdex86 54]

On 2/16/2024 at 6:02 AM, bostonmediaguy said:

I would say it's seven with an asterisk. AJ Burnett and Michael Page are producers who occasionally appear on-air. Harvey Leonard is their retired former-Chief who occasionally appears. 

 

 

Cindy, Mike, Kelly Ann, AJ, and David all appear in the station's on-air weather promos.  Michael does not, and Harvey retired in 2022.

 

[MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie 947]

On 8/9/2022 at 4:42 PM, RGSJenkins said:

141 miles from WBRC, WTVA in Tupelo has 8. 2-3 years ago, they had only 3.

This post has now aged poorly -- Almost 3 years and AMG idiocy later... They're back to 4

 

Also  WHNS has 7

[tyrannical bastard 4033]

3 hours ago, MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie said:

This post has now aged poorly -- Almost 3 years and AMG idiocy later... They're back to 4

 

Also  WHNS has 7

As long as Matt Laubhan is still there.  He's literally the James Spann of the market, even down to the suspenders!  I refer to him as "James Spann Jr."

[TheRolyPoly 2580]

10 hours ago, MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie said:

This post has now aged poorly -- Almost 3 years and AMG idiocy later... They're back to 4

 

Also  WHNS has 7

 

Wait a minute, Tim Simpson is back from retirement?!

 

I didn't know he joined WHNS. It'll be a part-time gig for the summer while Chrissy and Katherine have their babies.

 

https://www.facebook.com/timsimpsonmedia/videos/1098161888795870