Meteorologist Rebecca Miller out at KXAS

[DFW11anchorman 0]

Shockingly and dramatically, longtime morning meteoroogist Rebecca Miller is out at KXAS NBC 5. She'd been with the station since 1991. She was doing the weather forecast this morning, but her bio has been removed from the website this afternoon. Ed Bark's story explains more: http://unclebarky.com/dfw_files/c1665183b30ff5da8e5e5a11adb98e3c-582.html

[jdcnow 14]

One of the last (and desparate few) talents to leave KXAS. Rebecca came to KXAS to fill the void left when the station's first chief met, the great Harold Taft you hear me speak of (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Taft) died, and David Finfrock was promoted from morning met to take Harold's place as chief met. Rebecca brought style and class to KXAS.

 

This just goes to prove what I've been saying all along: KXAS has gone to pot. The station doesn't recognize good talent when they see it.

[WXmanTim 88]

She may have had talent, but she lacked a lot of common sense.

 

In Rebecca's world, it would have been a misdemeanor to call yourself a "meteorologist" without a degree or 'scientific background.' At least that was the plan had her good friend, and Texas legislator, Vicki Truitt went through with a proposed bill, calling for the penalty, during the 2005 Legislative session.

 

Moron.

[jdcnow 14]

This posted on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's website yesterday:

 

http://startelegram.typepad.com/pop_cultural_district/2008/03/and-now-rebecca.html

 

Just got off the phone will Rebeca Miller, who as you may know by now was let go from KXAS/Channel 5 on Wednesday after nearly 17 years with the station as a meteorologist. Comments on this blog and on Ed Bark's Uncle Barky blog indicate that viewers were surprised by Miller's dismissal.

 

"I think a lot of people at Channel 5 were surprised, too," Miller says. "But I wasn't completely surprised, to be honest with you. I had a feeling. For a long time [news director Susan Tully] has criticized my work, and she says things like ... 'I just don't understand what the forecast is going to be when I watch you.' That's been going on for a while, so I knew something was up." (Tully declined to comment, citing a station policy against commenting on personnel matters.)

The day Miller left NBC-5, the weather was pleasant. Today, naturally, it's nasty, with rain and ice around us, and as I look up at another TV station, I see snow as well. Isn't that something a meteorologist would love to sink her teeth into? Actually, it turns out that Miller is glad she missed it.

 

"I am so thankful to not be there when it's snowing," she says. "On snow forecasts, they like to make you really push it, and make people realize just how terrible it is, and sometimes it's not so terrible." Miller backed up a theory I (and no doubt many others) have about local-weather forecasting anywhere: Some forecasters give you a worst-case scenario, so that if things are bad, you're prepared, and if they're not, you're grateful. "Their philosophy is, even if there's nothing happening, people want to know that, too," Miller says.

 

Aside from chief meterologist David Finfrock, whom I believe will be with the station for a long time, Miller was the last remaining element of the legacy of Harold Taft, the legendary weatherman who was with the station from its 1948 sign-on till his death in 1991, the same year that Miller was hired.

 

Miller isn't sure what her next step is. "I've thought a little bit about it," she says. "I'm in grad school right now. I knew that my days over at NBC-5 were probably numbered ... so I started grad school this past year at A&M. They have an online program for homeland security."

 

Homeland security? What brought that on?

 

"Well, I'm from New Orleans," Miller says. "We all know what happened with Katrina and FEMA and the government and everything. I just figured, 'I have a degree in meteorology, I have experience in the media, and maybe if I have a little bit of background with homeland security, and the certification with A&M, I could combine all three."

 

Miller says she'll miss her morning colleagues, such as anchors Brendan Higgins and Deborah Ferguson and traffic reporter Tammy Dombeck, but she sees them outside of work anyway. Her biggest regret about the way things happened is that she didn't get to say goodbye to the viewers.

 

"That really kills me," she says, "because there are a lot of people out there that would e-mail me every day, some people that I've never met before that would e-mail me all the time, and just the fact that I didn't get to tell them what happened -- I would never say anything terrible, because I had really, really great times at NBC-5, and I'm forever going to be grateful for all the opportunities that I had there. But I wish I could have had a chance to say goodbye to the viewers and thank them for watching all of these years."

[gameshowguy2000 1]

Woah, so Miller got to work with Harold Taft too? I met her about 5 years ago at the NBC 5 Tech Expo in Dallas (and got her autograph), and I didn't get to ask her if she worked with Harold Taft. She seemed like a nice person, though.

[jdcnow 14]

Woah, so Miller got to work with Harold Taft too?

 

Yeah, for a little while. If I recall correctly (17 years is a loooonnnngg way to go back ), Rebecca was brought in by KXAS brass at the time, because everyone knew how sickly Harold was, even though he outright REFUSED to officially retire. I remember David Finfrock recalling how he (David, who was then morning met) would do all of Harold's prepwork while Harold lay on the floor of the Weather Center to rest and gather the strength he would need to be in front of the camera doing the weather. Sometimes weekend met Scott Chesner (now chief met at KETK/Tyler, TX) was brought in to do mornings while David did the PM shift when Harold was not able to. Rebecca was brought in to ease the staffing burden.