WDSU's Milham semi-retires

[PelicanGuy 117]

http://blog.nola.com/davewalker/2009/01/longtime_local_weathercaster_s.html

 

It's a model local viewers have seen before: Veteran weathercaster semi-retires to reappear when severe weather threatens.

 

For years, Nash Roberts fans waited for an appearance by the wipe-board wizard before they decided to execute (or not) their evacuation plans.

 

Now, Dan Milham will be the canary of contra-flow.

 

Offered early retirement by WDSU-Channel 6 -- actually a company-wide cost-cutting measure by station owner Hearst-Argyle Television to counter the slumping national advertising economy -- Milham jumped at it.

 

Wednesday was the last of more than 11,000 days Milham served the station as a full-timer.

 

"I'll start the new year at least as a semi-retired guy," Milham said.

 

Today, Margaret Orr moves from (very) early mornings to evenings and takes over as the station's chief meteorologist.

 

Awarded the title of "chief meteorologist emeritus" by the station, Milham will return to WDSU's airwaves only when climatic mayhem is nigh.

 

"I've put in 31 years here," Milham said. "I leave on good terms, but really I'm not even leaving. I assume my code will still be in the door. I'm telling everybody, 'I'll see you again, but if you see me walking in the back door it probably means there's something really bad that could be happening.'"

 

Between recall stints at the station -- and I don't think he'd mind if we all hope he never has to come in -- Milham will pursue his longtime artistic avocation as a shutterbug.

 

"I've been a true amateur ever since the ¤'60s when I bought my first single-lens reflex camera," he said. "But the digital age, with the kind of cameras, the absence of the film expense once you've put your card in the camera, and the development potential right in front of your computer at your desk instead of a darkroom, has me just getting really excited and into it lately. And so I want to do more of that. In fact, I think I make pretty enough pictures that they might even earn me a little retirement income."

 

Milham's photographic specialty does not employ SuperDoppler technology.

 

"I call it landscapes and landmarks," he said. "I really am fortunate to live here in southeast Louisiana, where we have the French Quarter, which is as much landmark as anything, and of course the beautiful surroundings, which are great landscapes. We have just about everything but the mountains out West, and now I'll have time to head out there and get that together."

 

Milham is also an avid golfer.

 

"Yes, I am, although, believe me, I'll never earn any money doing that," he said. "And I have a brand-new granddaughter, and this will allow me to spend more time with her."

 

Asked about weather-coverage career highlights, Milham cited neither hurricane coverage nor weird snowstorms.

 

"It was before the station was on the air full-time, 24 hours a day," he said. "We still signed off at night, but a rain-flood event, one of those spring flood events, began to happen, and I was getting calls from people telling me about it. I caused master control at that time to find some programming so that we could stay on the air.

 

"Now, the only thing they had was a stack of 'Welcome Back, Kotter' rerun tapes, so they began running these 'Welcome Back, Kotter' programs while I was doing just voice-over cut-ins with what at that time was our first radar imagery on the air of the modern nature. So it was a picture of the radar and me doing these faceless voice-overs, but it got a lot of people's attention, it helped a lot of people to understand or at least get a grip on what was going on that night. The impression was that it was the first time I was really able to be of service to the community in an unusual and threatening circumstance.

 

"Once you've done that and you feel like you've contributed, it's a very good feeling on a personal level, and that's the thing you enjoy most about doing something like this."

 

For Orr, approaching her 30-year anniversary at the station this coming summer -- almost all of that time spent on the early-morning shift -- Milham's semi-retirement means a move to evenings.

 

"Now I'm going to be working when I normally would be sleeping," she said. "Getting up at 1 (a.m.) is kind of hard.

 

"Even when I'm on vacation, I'm up at 2 or 3 (a.m.). Sleeping in is 3 in the morning.

 

"I'll be able to go out in the evening. I'm going to be able to see my husband besides weekends."

 

Orr said she was eligible for the same early-retirement offer that Milham accepted.

 

"I said, 'Are you nuts? I have three kids in college,'¤" she said. "It was just immediate. 'No. Are you crazy?'"

 

Orr added that Milham will be missed -- but will remain a comforting presence when severe weather warrants.

 

"Dan is so much a part of this community and knows it better than just about anybody, so he'll be there," she said. "Nash Roberts did set an excellent example of how to do that."

 

TV columnist Dave Walker can be reached at [email protected] or 504.826.3429.

[AnchorManNick 0]

Wow....31 years is a long time at a station...WhooooooW!