Friday, January 26, 2007

#!%&#@&^* !!!! Channel 13 Demotes Weatherman Legend Don Luehrs ??



" I don't know who this Gregg Johnson is, and I don't care. This weatherman better find a cure for cancer, or invent a longer lasting light bulb or something. Truth is, I wouldn't trade 10 Gregg Johnsons for one Don Luehrs."

Tom Hanks from Saving Private Ryan, paraphrased.

Change is not always a good thing. Sometimes people leave, and a great new person takes his place. That could have been the way at Channel 13, when Dave Williams moved onto greener pastures in Charleston. They could have found a new young guy or lady to take his place doing the morning weather. But the geniuses at WBTW-TV decided it was an opportune time to shake things up.

It looks as though Don Luehrs, who has been on Channel 13 since the Lincoln Administration, has been relegated to morning weatherman, and the new Chief Meteorologist is Gregg Johnson, who comes from Oklahoma City. Nothing against Gregg Johnson, but from the looks of the announcement on this week's news, it wasn't exactly what Don Luehrs requested. The poor guy was almost exploding out of his chair!

Now, Don is not perfect. He doesn't have any catch phrases, or scream the weather at you, he doesn't look like Frankenstein (Ed Piotrowski at TV 15 comes to mind), and Don does have a little trouble saying the word "cooler" - it comes out more like "coo-er". But hey, that is Don's charm. He's just an ordinary nice guy. He's a regular Joe doing the weather, and that's the point: it's just the freakin' weather, people!!!!

We don't care who is the 'Most Accurate' , "AMA Certified" or "USDA Grade A" weatherman. Everyone just watches the Weather Channel, and uses them for their forecasts anyway..... Trying to "reinvent" local news is a waste of time. This is Florence - rarely does anything big happen here, and most newsworthy events are covered up or whitewashed by who might look bad , or who might be offended. Changing weathermen is pointless. If the new guy would only come if he got the Chief Weatherman job, then they hired the wrong man. I doubt that this guy is going to commit to working in Florence for the next 25 or 30 years, like Don has. In my view, Channel 13 has made a major misstep.

WE WANT DON !!!!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe they are getting ready for all the tornados.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Don's not up to the lock step with Westher Channel's global warming manifesto, that if you don't shriek that it is global warming and that global warming is the fault of white European men that stole the internal combustion engine from black Egyptians, you're incompetent as a weatherman.

Noting that Flo-town lost one weatherman to second/third string duties in Chuck-town recently, this appeareth perplexing, but egos are what they are and often the humble survive.

Anonymous said...

It's going to be cooer tomorrow and downright chilwy tomorrow night!!!

Thoroughbred 401k said...

Rhino, Dave Williams was second string in Flo-Town too, so it was a win-win for everyone - provided you don't live in Charleston. Dave liked 95 degree plus weather way too much for my taste.

Anonymous said...

I liked Don. A regular guy who made the weather interesting. He was sincere and was dedicated to his work. It's just another one of those corporate bad decisions. Too bad. I'll miss him.

Anonymous said...

WBTW can't keep a weather person since Don left.Most of us are older that even watch these local channels and we like to see the same people every week. Too bad you can't leave it alone.We just go to the Channel that keep their Chief Meteorologist and watch them- Too Bad!

Anonymous said...

Message just sent about Don was from Margaret W.