WVUE's Breck marks 30 years at the station

[PelicanGuy 117]

Weatherman Bob Breck completes his 30th year on the air

 

Posted by The Times-Picayune March 30, 2008 5:00AM

 

Categories: Living: Columnists

 

By Dave Walker

Staff writer

 

It all started in Hammond, Ind., with Robert E. Zabrecky's third-grade report about snow.

 

 

From that point on, "I always knew what I wanted to do," said Bob Breck, WVUE-Channel 8's chief meteorologist.

 

 

Not every underdog gets its day, but this week, on the occasion of his 30th anniversary as a local TV weatherman, Breck gets his.

 

 

An elfin not-from-here who's succeeded in a city that's pathologically suspicious of them, at least when it comes to TV newscasters, Breck has endured setback after setback to achieve Dean of Local Weathercasters status.

 

 

Well, actually, not even quite that. WDSU-Channel 6's Dan Milham has slightly more tenure on the local TV air.

 

 

But Breck, 60, whose bubbly delivery of hoots and whoots and "OK, gang!" exhortations no doubt irks as many viewers as it charms, has won enough hearts and clickers over his three decades here to rightfully claim the title of Your Weather Authority -- in promos if not always the Nielsens.

 

 

After setting his career course at a very tender age, Breck studied meteorology and oceanography at the University of Michigan, then entered the Marine Corps Reserve where he was assigned to driving a Jeep.

 

 

Frustrated at not being able to employ his newly minted meteorology skills, Breck appealed to an Indiana politician who wangled him a job calling climactic conditions for Air Force fighter-pilot trainees in Florida.

 

 

His first TV weatherman job came in Tampa. After a second posting in Dayton, Ohio, he was hired at WVUE -- then New Orleans' ABC affiliate, whose anchor front line included Alec Gifford (also the station's news director) and Buddy Diliberto.

 

 

At WVUE, Breck succeeded Nash Roberts, in whose shadow all local weathercasters still toil.

 

 

"I had to replace what I didn't know at the time was the legend," Breck said. "I didn't know how difficult New Orleans was on outsiders."

 

Two years in, Breck's run at WVUE almost ended. The station's general manager at the time shared consultant-derived audience research data with Breck that said he should probably be fired.

 

 

The consultant's report said, "You'll never make it in this market," said Breck, who survived that crisis and then went about raising his local profile by soliciting morning-radio forecasting jobs at several stations, and accepting every public-speaking offer he received.

 

 

A job offer in St. Louis in the mid-1980s won Breck a lucrative, long-term contract at WVUE, and he and his wife Paula -- Breck's hometown sweetheart whom he'd married after college and with whom he'd had three sons -- built their dream home in Metairie.

 

 

The contract "made me realize I'd probably spend my whole career here," he said.

 

 

The next mile-marker in Breck's journey, as Breck tells it, was WVUE's 1994 hiring of WWL-Channel 4's John Snell, who brought anchorman credibility to the ABC affiliate.

 

 

Breck believed the station's fortunes, with his in tow, were trending upward. Snell's hiring -- on a huge contract -- signaled to Breck a serious commitment by WVUE to become a news contender.

 

 

"John legitimized our news product," Breck said.

 

 

Just weeks after Snell's hire, however, came news that WVUE would switch its network affiliation to Fox.

 

 

The actual change took more than a year to consummate and caused years of viewing-pattern disruption.

 

 

WVUE's news ratings plunged with the arrival of the youth-focused Fox.

"Bada-boom," Breck said. "Fox had no programming.

 

 

"It was very discouraging."

 

 

Hurricanes and thunderstorms and muggy days came and went.

Weathercast-presentation technology improved. Competitors installed Doppler radar gear and promoted the pictures incessantly.

 

 

Forecasts stretched to seven days (though Breck openly scoffs at the science that purports to tell anyone rain chances a week out).

While advancing in calendar maturity, Breck cultivated a reputation for sometimes prickly on-air unpredictability.

 

 

Breck tangled with Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard over the Hurricane Ivan evacuation after Breck told viewers to wait out a contraflow traffic jam at home. Breck was right, but Broussard called it "a contradicted message." ("We patched it up," Breck said. "Aaron and I are on very good terms.")

 

 

Almost equally memorable was Breck's on-air proposal, via cellphone, to Brenda Bell on Valentine's Day eve in 2003. (She said yes.)

 

 

Paula had died in January 2002 of a pulmonary embolism after surgery to repair a broken ankle. Breck had then dedicated himself to educating the public about blood-clot issues.

 

 

Before Hurricane Katrina, Brenda evacuated early to Dallas. Breck joined her there after WVUE's Mid-City studios were swamped with failed-levee floodwater.

 

 

For Breck, the professional aftermath of Katrina was misery. WVUE was knocked completely off the air for about two weeks, and spent more than two months at a remote news operation in Mobile, Ala.

 

"All your life, this is what you do," he said after WVUE's return to the city in late 2005. "I have never felt as helpless, worthless, useless. All of those adjectives."

 

 

A few months before Katrina, WVUE's owner, Indiana-based Emmis Communications, had announced that it was selling off its dozen-plus TV properties. Today, WVUE is still on the block as the company's only remaining TV holding.

 

 

Breck said his contractual future at WVUE is uncertain as long as the station remains in extended ownership limbo.

 

 

Breck's current contract expires in February.

 

 

"My intentions are to remain part of Fox 8 for as long as they want me, but with this ownership change, I have not heard any movement on their part as to what they want to do," he said. "I fully intend to be around."

 

 

"We're for sale, everybody knows that," Snell added. "If you don't have Bob Breck, you didn't buy Channel 8. I've never encountered somebody whose personality is so entwined with the station's as Bob's."

 

 

Having been called back to work from vacations to cover storms in the past, Breck looks forward to traveling with Brenda when retirement time does come.

 

 

For now, Breck says he's in good health and is in no hurry to leave the working world.

 

 

"I run, keep my weight down," he said. "When you're lucky enough to enjoy what you're doing, it's almost not work."

 

 

Having weathered Roberts' legacy, consultant meddling, the wrenching affiliation change, Paula's death and Katrina, Breck is justifiably proud of his long run at WVUE, and remains plenty feisty about his station's competitive performance.

 

 

Breck knows exactly how many times WVUE's 9 p.m. newscast has outrated WWL's 10 p.m. newscast this year. And although "American Idol's" lead-in audience has something to do with that, Breck said he's sure that underdog WVUE has never challenged WWL's late-news supremacy as consistently as it does now. (Not head-to-head, but still.)

 

 

More than anything, Breck is as confident as ever in his skills at the calling he has pursued since he was Robert Zabrecky, third-grader.

 

 

"There's no glory in everyone being wrong," he said. "I want to be the only one that said, 'Hey, it's going to rain.'

 

 

"Because I wasn't born and raised here, I don't think I'm considered a favorite son, but I think I have earned the respect of many people who know that Nash is the weatherman and will always be the weatherman.

"I feel a very big responsibility to continue that tradition."

 

 

And by the way, about that name-change . . .

 

 

"It was not my idea," said Breck of "Breck." "There were no ethnic sounding names on the air back then. They wanted it to sound like Joe Smith or Bob Evans."

 

 

The name he suggested -- Breck Roberts -- was rejected.

 

 

"They said they thought it sounded too Hollywood," he said. "Had they accepted that, when I moved here, people would've thought, 'Well, he's the son of Nash!' "

 

 

TV columnist Dave Walker can be reached at [email protected] or (504) 826-3429.

 

 

 

http://blog.nola.com/davewalker/2008/03/weatherman_bob_breck_completes.html

[Oliverolang 41]

Great article! Bob Breck is easily my favorite weatherman in N.O., congrats on 30 years at WVUE!