Yesterday, I ran an article about one of my early weather heroes, Ray White. Ray took television weather to a new level from 1974 until 1978 in Birmingham, working with very little resources, but going straight to the source to bring us excellent weather information years before James would revolutionize weather in the market in 1979. Please read the article and comment on your memories of Ray and other weather pioneers in Birmingham television.
Here is a note from Herb Coleman, who knew I was writing the blog post on Ray. Herb worked with Ray at Channel 42 and helped him develop his broadcast style. He told me I could share his email with you…enjoy…
Hi Bill,
It is great to hear from you again. I hope all is well for you.
I am sure that Ray filled your ears with many stories about those days in TV. He was really a pioneer in weathercasting.
He had the first chroma-key weather map on Birmingham TV. Also, as far as I know, the first satellite photo. He visited the weather office on 11 West Oxmoor every afternoon before the newscast and picked up the latest satellite photos and occasionally they would let him have a surface fax chart which we would put before a camera and chroma-key him over. Most of the time he had to draw in the Highs, Lows, and Fronts on a linoleum board with a US map drawn on it using either a mixture of glycerin and tempera or shoe polish. This stuff was messy and would run down the board. I wonder how many suits of clothes he must have ruined when this stuff splattered on him?
Most of the last minute information came from an old converted model 19 teletype which was on a weather wire from the weather service. This was an old machine which I had been using to decode weather reports from the Miami weather service using short-wave radio. The normal speed for these machines was 65 wpm. We ordered a gear and installed it that would allow the machine to run at 75 wpm which is what the weather service was using at the time. Of course most all the machines at that time were the later model 28 which could easily run at 75 or 100 wpm.
One day our old machine overheated running at 75 wpm and set the hall outside the news room, where we kept it, on fire. Fortunately little damage was done but channel 13 sent a reporter to cover the story which appeared on their news.
I have not forgotten about trying to find you one of these old machines and am still looking.
That’s a great picture of Ray. He is standing at the linoleum covered board that we used to draw on with tempera paint and later shoe polish. The linoleum allowed the board to be erased with a wet rag. Howard Crews, who was the artist at channel 43 during this time, painted the map of the United States on the board. Howard doubled as the puppeteer for Wilbur and Oscar on the Sergeant Jack kids show.
Herb
