God save us from the consultants! Last night with great fanfare, another one of the local TV stations "re-branded" its weather product. They are now the STORM TRACK station!!!!
A few days ago I blogged about how everything's a storm now. An inch of snow? STORM! A couple tenths of an inch of rain? STORM! A good day to fly a kite? STORM!!! And your family will not be safe unless you are tuned to THIS station, to get the latest breathless information from our fully-professionally-trained-and-credentialed SCIENTISTS.
As my wife, herself a recovering TV reporter, dead-panned to me last night during the big re-branding announcement, "prepare for constant interruptions every time it gets cloudy this summer". We have a huge-screen HDTV in our media room, and she knows one of my pet peeves is the constant interruptions from the local weather folks every time there's a thundershower within 275 miles of Madison. "It's headed right at us! It will be in Sauk City at 7:57; in Middleton at 8:01; and in Madison at 8:04!!! Keep your dial set here!! We'll break in immediately if necessary!!!" And seldom is it not necessary for several break-ins.
Here's what probably happened. The folks at the (now) Storm Track station were barely recovered from their Thanksgiving turkey hangover when their consultant flew into town, and realized that the other station now goes into STORM MODE when flakes of snow are falling from the sky. "Why was I not told about this!!! You can't sit back and let them take the weather position in this market! We'll need to blunt this thrust by coming up with something even more scary!!!". Or words to the effect.
Hence, STORM TRACK is born, and rolled out shortly after the demise of the New Year hangover.
Years ago, a man named Elmer Childress did the weather on the Storm Center station. I don't think he had a degree in meteorology. He had a couple decades of experience watching the weather carefully in Madison, and more than a passing acquaintance with fronts, troughs, isobars, and things like that. He never said stuff like "putting our super doppler radar into storm detection mode, and advancing it through future-track and pinpoint doppler rainfall indication mode, it appears that the estimated chance of measurable precipitation will be in the 10 to 20 percent range for the next 12 to 18 hours". Elmer would say "looks like a nice night and a good day for a picnic tomorrow". I'm pretty sure he understood local weather just as well as the young folks today with their UW degrees and multi-million-dollar weather systems. Probably better.
He just made it a lot easier to understand, and never ever exaggerated any aspect of the forecast. Consultants would hate him.
Hi - I just happened upon your blog and thought it was wonderful!! Elmer Childress is my father and I had googled him today because he had cut some commercials recently that I was looking for in cyberspace and came upon your blog instead. My Dad is visiting friends in Florida at the moment and I knew he wouldn't have access to a computer for a couple of weeks, so I called him and read this to him over the phone. He got several belly laughs out of it and enjoyed the mention. Pam Childress
ReplyDeleteI collect Wisconsin-related records and am originally from there. Do Elmer and his
Deletewife have any connection to Wisconsin prior to 1970? Did they live there, study there,
record there or even perform there? Do you know of any 45s they recorded other than the
one on Jewel? Thank you for your help.
I was glad to see your post, and Pam's comment. I grew up around the Wichita, KS, area and my father worked with Elmer Childress at one of the local TV stations. I have been wondering about him, June, Pam and Debbie.
ReplyDeletePam, do you still record? I still have and love your album.
Jody Arrowsmith Keiser, Halstead, KS
We grew up with " Silver Bells" Christmas album. Had it stolen along with stereo equiptment years ago and have tried to get another album but to no avil. If anyone can get their hands on one let me know. Verlyn Regehr Denver
ReplyDeleteJust landed the album on Ebay!! Has been years but it finally happened.
DeleteI grew up about 9 miles south of Caldwell, Ks and every day Monday-Friday mom had on Channel 3 out of Wichita around noon to watch Elmer and June sing the good old gospel songs. They came down to our little Methodist church a few times along with their two daughters. I was telling my wife about this guy that sang gosple on TV when I was little and wondered if he had any CD's out? But I could not remember his name, this went on for a couple of months then last Friday Elmer's name just popped into my little brain.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know if he has any C.D.'s out there? This new gosple stuff is really sickening and we long for some of the old favorites. We are going to Branson next week just to refresh our minds with some good old fashion music. Got to go up there a couple of times a year just to remember the good music.
Can be contacted at: ggmac@suddenlink.net
I attended the Hartford School of Gospel Music in the summer of 1946. Elmer Childress was there as well. He worked for the publishing company and he was the "first boy" I had seen who played the piano. Later, Elmer would be playing piano for the All American Quartet in Mount Vernon, IL, a group I was a member of for a brief period. I have not seen Elmer since 1946 and it was good to where he went and what he did with his life.
ReplyDeleteG.C. Lee, Goldsboro, NC
I grew up in Rock County, WI, watching Elmer Childress on channel 15, and your blog nails him pretty dang well. Elmer was the last good, reliable weatherman I can recall seeing on a newscast. He kept things simple, and he was right more often than not, without all the fancy double-doppler-super-weathertron-5000-storm-chaser technology. And, as an aside, my parents were both from Kingman County, KS, and knew Elmer from his time in Wichita, so it was kinda neat having him on television in WI.
ReplyDeleteDo Elmer and his wife have any Wisconsin connection prior to 1970? Did they record any 45s beside the one on Jewel? John Radoszewski johnradoszewski@yahoo.com
ReplyDeletei knew Elmer & June from attending church with them in Wichita. Here he was known as "the gospel singer who could do the weather". In Madison he was known as "the weather man who could sing gospel". i expect everyone who knew him was proud to say, "Elmer is my friend."
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