THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 20, 1996 TAG: 9601190124
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
TO USE A weather term, I am frosted.
WTKR-TV has announced it is taking its weather coverage in a new direction - a statement reflecting a confusion of geography with meteorology - and has fired longtime weatherman Dr. Duane Harding.
Where could a new direction be? Don't know whether you've noticed it but our local TV weather is now coming from the rooftop of buildings. This was popular in Peoria - look Marge, they're doin' the weather outdoors with the birds! - back in the '70s. That's a decade, not a temperature.
And the local stations were quick to pick up on anything that looked trendy.
Now WTKR is going in a new direction with its weather, they tell us. Don't ask me how you take weather reporting in a new direction. Hey, maybe it's underground!
``LOOKING FOR THE REAL LOWDOWN ON THAT BLIZZARD HEADED OUR WAY. . . STAY TUNED TO CHANNEL 3 WHERE FRICK AND FRACK WILL BE BRINGING YOU THE SCOOP FROM DEEP BENEATH OUR BUILDING. YES, THEY'LL HAVE THE LATEST FROM HAMPTON ROADS' ONLY WEATHER HOLE EQUIPPED WITH DOPPLER RADAR.''
Allriggght! Talk about a ratings booster. Maybe the weather team could wear hard hats with the station logo. And how 'bout a groundhog's image on the other side! Be swell in late February. Maybe they could take their own groundhog down there with them and report if it's seen a shadow.
Except for an occasional look at WTKR-TV - because of Dr. Duane's informative, no-nonsense, factual weather reporting - I have usually relied on cable's Weather Channel for my weather news.
The Weather Channel is winning awards and making big bucks with around-the clock weather. Crazy fools that they are, The Weather Channel's staff has managed to do this without going outdoors, although their correspondents do turn up with trench coats and umbrellas during blizzards, hurricanes and such.
Which is why I watch The Weather Channel regularly instead of people showing off on the rooftop. ``Yes, the rain is coming down right now here on the roof, Ed. I can feel it on my hand.'' Gimme a break.
The fact is I don't care to get my weather from people who haven't the sense to come in out of the rain.
Which is not to say that WTKR's management can't keep in touch with the elements indoors when they choose. It took a lot of foggy thinking to sack Dr. Duane.
I don't know Dr. Duane well, but in conversation I have found him to be an intelligent, thoughtful, no-nonsense kind of guy. Which is what I like in a weatherman.
Last time we checked, the doctor was only one of two weathermen in the country with a doctorate in meteorology. I kinda like that in a weatherperson, too. Knowledge.
Any fool can tell you what the weather is going to be. And a lot of blow-dried, Chiclet-teethed smoothies - who could not tell the difference between an Isobar and an Icehouse beer without great mental strain - do it regularly on TV around the country.
But Dr. Duane could tell you the hows and whys clearly and directly. He even tossed in weather-related gardening tips on the side.
He did it without wearing a funny hat. Without bells and whistles. And I'll lay money he thought moving the weather show up to the roof was sillier than a mule in a muu muu.
I know a lot of you out there feel the same about Dr. Duane. My phone has been ringing steadily with calls from people who are fit to be tied because he's off the air.
The Friends of the Suffolk Library, a heads-up, intellectual group asked me to express their general outrage at the firing when I attended their meeting on Wednesday.
Dunno what can be done about it. WTKR-TV wants to take its weather reporting in a new direction.
And that's fair enough. Maybe you and I could do the same with our weather watching. You know, take it in a new direction. Toward Channel 10 or 13. by CNB