Page 97 - CHASING THE WIND EDIT

bulletins based on Associated Press or International News Service messages on
teletype printers. So it was truly a news event when Bill Grove unveiled his news
broadcast in the mid-50's called Eye on the News which was sponsored by Cohen
Brothers Department Store located in the building that is now Jacksonville's City Hall.
And from there, Bill built a solid reputation around responsible journalism and
courageous investigative reporting. I could see his early broadcasts while I was
studying meteorology in Tallahassee thanks to an antenna I mounted on the roof of my
apartment building.

The first TV meteorologist in Jacksonville was Frank Forester. Frank did the 6 PM and
11 PM weather broadcasts at WJXT from 1957 to 1959. After he left WJXT to work
with the U.S. Geological Survey in Washington, DC. weather reports were done by
news reporters or announcers, as well as a few meteorologists. Even though a few gave
satisfactory weather reports, I thought I could serve the station better than any of them.

I wrote a letter to News Director Bill Grove detailing how a qualified meteorologist
could provide a much better service to the community and the station’s viewers. When
I auditioned in 1960, there was no videotape. I had to attempt a weather report in front
of management in the studio. I wanted to use the Space-view national weather map I
had designed. I needed to find a place that could make a copy of this large 30”x 36”
map. I finally found a blueprint company on Bay Street that could make a copy for my
tryout.

Afterwards, Bill congratulated me for a having such a visual presentation. And after a
few weeks of telling him that I was ready to leave the Weather Bureau and work for
WJXT, Channel 4, he offered me the job.

My visual productions continued with the assistance of Production Manager, Pete
House, who helped me install weather instruments in the studio. His experience came
from working with the Little Theater Group in town. Our Art Department designed the
props and sets in the studio. Sometimes they had just stopped painting a new set that
was still wet while we were broadcasting.

My first broadcast was on June 11, 1962. Initially, I had to use WJXT’s supply of large
paper Lambert Conformal projection national maps that we placed on an easel in front
of the TV camera. I used a black magic marker to illustrate the weather on a fresh chart
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