Rochester Gives Me a Snow Job

In having some time to reflect on my past in the last few months, I figured I may as well share more about the path that took me to many of your TV screens for almost a quarter of century.

While in college and shortly after graduating I started working for private weather companies called Metro Weather and Compu-Weather, both based in Queens in New York City. While working for them I learned on the fly about forecasting the weather for locations all around the country and Canada. These are the jobs where I honed my broadcasting skills by delivering daily forecasts, live and on tape, to many radio stations nationwide. I think I will eventually do a blog about those experiences as well, as they were also an important part of my growth and journey. For this particular blog however, I want to share my first TV experience with all of you.

Trying to break into television in the early 1990’s was not an easy task. I did not come out of college with an internship and a demo tape in hand. Things were a bit different back then. I managed to make my demo tape through a friend, Ted Baer, who was a DJ at a radio station up in Binghampton NY, WENE. Ted and I became friends on air at first and then off air after several months. After a couple of years of working together he left the industry and opened up a clock shop in the quaint town of Emmaus, PA. Turned out one of his biggest customers was the General Manager of the local Allentown, PA TV station, WFMZ, channel 69. With my friend Ted’s persuasion, I was able to get into the studio and bang out three takes of a weathercast. My first time in front of a camera, and I only got three shots and hoped that one of them was something I could put on a resume reel to send out for that first TV job.

I took that tape and applied for jobs in South Bend, Indiana, Columbia, Missouri, Baton Rouge, LA, Syracuse, NY, the list of small towns went on and on. I did this, never telling my wife, who I knew wouldn’t be keen on any of those places, but I figured I would deal with that situation, when, and if the time came.

Eventually I got a nibble at an opening for weekend meteorologist in Rochester, NY, WROC channel 8, the CBS affiliate. I was excited and over the moon at the prospect of this possibly being the beginning of my dream coming true to be a TV meteorologist.

It was early November 1991 and I was living in East Brunswick, NJ. They weren’t about to fly me up for an interview, so I knew I had to suck it up and drive up to Rochester to try and seal the deal. The drive was 365 miles, roughly 6 hours depending on traffic and the weather. I remember that morning waking up 6 AM with butterflies in my stomach, hoping the long drive would calm me down. Little did I know what I was in for.

I checked the weather and it looked like rain most of the way up to Rochester, maybe tapering off just before I got there, assuming on a 2PM arrival. I left East Brunswick under a heavy grey sky with a light chilly rain falling and temperatures in the 40s. So off I went with my little beige Nissan Sentra to Kodak land and Rochester, NY.

Back in the early 90’s most cars didn’t have outdoor temperature readings on the dashboard. I certainly didn’t on my Nissan. Unbeknownst to me, while I expected the temperature to be dropping as I drove north, I wasn’t, as most forecasters that day, prepared for how quickly the cold air was seeping into upstate New York. As I got to the PA/NY border, I started to hear the pitter patter of sleet on my windshield.

As a meteorologist I found this amusing as it was early in the season for frozen precipitation. I was still more concerned with nailing this interview and not paying too much attention to the rapidly changing weather conditions taking place outside my car as I pushed northward. Whatever rain was falling was now just about completely transitioned over to sleet and freezing rain. Suddenly the roads were getting a slushy glaze on them.

What seemed like in a matter of minutes, I went from driving on wet roads to driving on a skating rink. Tractor trailers were jack-knifing and being ditched on the side of the road. Cars were spinning out everywhere, as now snow was mixing in with the rest of the icy potpourri. I decided I should get off the thruway and take a break and give the crews a chance to treat the roads. Obviously they were caught off guard as well. The next exit was Marathon, NY.

As I got into the right lane to take the exit I could feel the car shimmy on the road. The exit ramp did a quick bend to the right and then back to the left just as quickly. Well my little Sentra took the first right of the exit but never had a chance at cutting back left. It all happened in slow motion, but my car kept sliding right when I needed it to go left, until it went into the guard rail which was two metal wire cables. My rear bumper got caught on the cable and my car spun around in a 180 with my tire getting blown out hitting the opposite guard rail. Fortunately nobody was near enough to hit me, but the damage was done.

I waited about an hour for a tow truck as cars were ditching left and right at this point. They finally got to me and towed me to a Nissan dealer. They then told me it would be at least another couple of hours before they could repair my rim and tire. I was stranded in Marathon, NY trying to get to my interview for my first TV job. What a great first impression.

I got to a diner and was able to make a call on the pay-phone( yes, pay-phone, no cell phones yet in 1991). They were great at the station and totally understood and were concerned that I was OK. This whole fiasco had now taken away any nerves I had about the interview. I guess that was the good news about the unexpected complication in getting there.

No offense to Marathon, NY, but there wasn’t much to do in this town of 1,800 people. Waiting for my car to be repaired and getting back on the road was now becoming a personal marathon.

I finally got to the station around 5PM, a little more than 9 hours after I left East Brunswick. I got there just in time to meet the News Director and General Manager who were both very understanding of the stressful journey I was trying to settle down from.

I remember watching the 6PM newscast and meeting the chief meteorologist, Kevin Williams. Kevin was a native Long Islander and couldn’t have been nicer. We went to dinner after the show and he assured me I pretty much had the job. That allowed me a huge exhale after what had been an incredibly stressful white-knuckled day.

So did I get offered the job? Did I take it? Did I move my young family to Rochester? I’ll answer those questions and more with part 2 coming up by the weekend..

Once again, if you’ve made it this far, thank you. Sunshine always.