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Last update: June 30, 2008 |
| Weather Channel Timeline |
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See how The Weather Channel has evolved over the years.
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| May 2, 1982 |
The big debut
The network signs on the air for the first time from its studios on Mt. Wilkinson Parkways in Atlanta. Premiere
meteorologists are Bruce Edwards (Kalinowski) and Andre Bernier.
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| 1985 |
OCM departures
Original on-air meteorologists Andre Bernier and Karen Minton. |
| 1986 |
OCM arrivals
Marshall Seese, Jeff Morrow, Jeanetta Jones, Jim Cantore, and Marny Stanier. |
| June 20, 1986 |
For Everything You Do
The network relaunches as "The New Weather Channel," and includes a makeover of its on-air presentation complete with new set. New
programming included "The Morning Report," "Weather and You," "Weather Watch," "Tomorrow's Outlook," "Pacific Outlook," "The Week Ahead," "This Weekend," and "Weekend
Update." The morning and evening programming blocks are now anchored by Liz Jarvis and Dave Nemeth and Dennis Smith and Charlie Welsh, respectively. A new on-air
campaign, "You Need Us For Everything You Do," is launched as well.
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| 1987 |
First special broadcasts
"Eye Of The Storm," a one-hour special with taped and live segments hosted by Colleen Wine, hurricane
expert John Hope and meteorologist Glenn Schwartz is broadcast.
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OCM arrivals
Dan Pope, Keith Westerlage, and Cheryl Lemke. |
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OCM departures
Gay Dawson, Neal Estano Jerry Tracey, and Colleen Wine. |
| September 1, 1987 |
New flavors added
A host of new Local Forecast flavors, including A, B and C (:50); H (1:00); J (3:00); and an unnamed 1:30 that was the forerunner to the
more-familiar K flavor that premiered in 1990 debut.
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| 1988 |
OCM arrivals
Vivian Brown, Cindy Preszler, Carl Arredondo, Kam Karman, and Mike Bono. |
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OCM departures
Dave Watson and Mary Brown. |
| 1988 |
New location
The network relocates its studios to Cumberland Parkway. |
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Specials
"Clash Of Seasons" (severe storms), "Global Crisis" (greenhouse effect), and "John Hope On Hurricanes."
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| June 1, 1988 |
First live show debuts
"Drought Watch," a live call-in show, aired twice daily during the summer is broadcast. The show was
hosted by John Doyle in the mornings. In July, Jeff Morrow hosts an evening version of the show.
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| September 1, 1988 |
Second show debuts and is later cancelled
"WeatherView," a weekend program hosted by Liz Jarvis, premieres. However, the show is
discontinued by the end of the year.
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| September 17, 1988 |
First major live storm coverage
The network ramps up its commitment to live event coverage, dispatching OCM Dennis Smith and
anchor Liz Jarvis to the Gulf of Mexico for on-site coverage of Hurricane Gilbert's landfall.
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| 1989 |
For Everything You Do
The network upgrades its on-air marketing with a new music cue and graphics for its tried-and-true "For
Everything You Do" campaign.
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New set debuts
A new set debuts, introducing the "Forecast Center" to viewers. |
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OCM arrivals
Rich Johnson. |
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OCM departures
Dan Pope, Liz Jarvis, and John Doyle. |
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Specials
"Bringing Home The Weather" with Dennis Smith (a series of specials). |
| April 1, 1989 |
Flavor changes
A programming lineup overhaul includes the introduction of the I and G :30 second local forecast flavors.
Additionally, the J 3:00 flavor moves into weekday primetime after originally being created for the weekend daytime lineup.
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| November 1, 1989 |
Morning anchor format discontinued
The anchor format for the morning daypart is discontinued at year's end. |
| 1990 |
Cable Ace Award winner
The network is presented a Cable ACE award from the National Academy of Cable Programming for its
coverage of Hurricane Hugo the year before.
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OCM arrivals
Diane Barone. |
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Specials
"Within Our Power" (solar and wind power generation), "Force Four" (Hurricane Hugo), and "Aftershock" (San
Francisco earthquake of 1989).
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| June 1, 1990 |
Flavor changes
The network updates its morning daypart programming and discontinues all-three :50 LF forecast flavors, but the K
flavor makes its premiere.
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| July 1, 1990 |
The WeatherSTAR 4000 debuts
The WeatherSTAR 4000 makes its debut on certain cable systems. The new units are a vast improvement
over the previous STARS, incorporating animated graphics and current radar composites.
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| July 2, 1990 |
TWC logo debuts on the LF
The Weather Channel logo appears for the first time on a Local Forecast. |
| September 1, 1990 |
Segments dropped
Individual segments such as "Weather Watch" and "The Morning Report" are dropped. |
| September 20, 1990 |
The universal playlist debuts
The multiple playlist format is scrapped, with all cable and satellite viewers receiving the same
audio feed during local forecast segments. Only the narration differs.
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| 1991 |
1-900-Weather launches
The network launches its first commercial foray into telecommunications forecasting with 1-900-WEATHER.
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Charlie Welsh takes over as narrator during specials
Charlie Welsh takes over as off-camera narrator for specials beginning with
"Danger's Edge." A job he holds until his retirement from the network in 1996.
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OCM arrivals
Terri Smith, Dave Schwartz, Lisa Spencer, and Tom Chisholm. |
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OCM departures
Diane Barone, Kam Karman, Kevan Ramer, George Elliott, and Carl Arredondo. |
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Specials
"The Unforgiving Sky" (drought) and "Danger's Edge" (Hurricanes). |
| February 1, 1991 |
Weather You Can Always Turn To
The on-air look is updated with new graphics and show openers as the channel adopts its "Weather
You Can Always Turn To" campaign.
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| 1992 |
OCM arrivals
Jodi Saeland, Mike Seidel, Brad Edwards, and Rick Griffin (an original staff member who had left the network
eight years earlier).
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OCM departures
Vince Miller and Bill Schubert. |
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Specials
Specials this year include "The Enemy Wind" (tornadoes), as well as "The Dark Days Of August" (Hurricane Andrew),
and "El Nino: Drought to Deluge."
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The Weather Classroom debuts
The Weather Classroom, a daily 10-minute segment for school students, debuts. |
| August 24, 1992 |
Around the clock
The network's coverage of Hurricane Andrew's landfall is unprecedented: It goes around the clock for the
monster storm's landfall and sends OCMs Dennis Smith and Jim Cantore to Florida to cover the big event.
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| 1993 |
OCM arrivals
Sharon Resultan. |
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Specials
"Fire Safe" (a joint production with the State of California) and "Out of the Blue" (windshear). |
| March 12, 1993 |
Superstorm '93 coverage with two specials
The network goes wall-to-wall with coverage of the east coast Superstorm. It follows
that quickly with a "Super Weekend" of specials that included a 30 minute documentary on the storm and "The Climate Puzzle" the day after.
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| 1994 |
Headlines
"Headlines" debuts and is shown during the 8pm ET hour. The show consists of 10 minutes of continuous weather
coverage, followed by J flavored (also known as the LL flavor) LF. The show runs during 30 minute programming blocks which feature fewer commercials and LFs.
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Specials
"The Year The Sky Fell" (active weather from spring to winter '93/'94), "Target Tornado," and "The Burning
Season" (wildfires).
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| 1995 |
Headlines" leads to "WeatherScope
The network adopts the title "WeatherScope" for its half-hour programming blocks.
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OCM arrivals
Kristina Abernathy, Janine D'Adamo (Albert), and Kim Perez (who originally joined the network in 1991 as a
forecaster).
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OCM departures
Bonnie McLaughlin, Lisa Spencer, and Tom Chisholm. |
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Specials
"The Chase" (tornadoes) and "Hurricanes 95: Season on Edge." |
| February 2, 1995 |
CompuServe TWCFORUM launches
The network launches a forum on CompuServe. Originally run by Weather Channel employees, forum
control is later given to a CompuServe employee that ruins it shortly thereafter. Around the same time, weather.com debuts as "The Weather Channel Interactive."
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| March 1, 1995 |
Flavor changes/narration discontinued
Local Forecast flavors are dramatically consolidated. The "Local Update" page that
includes NowCast information from the National Weather Service is added to certain flavors. Narration of the local forecast is discontinued.
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| January 1, 1996 |
Custom-made music debuts on the LF
The music of Trammell Starks debuts. Mr. Starks created a set of close to 40 songs that The
network would use throughout the next two years. It would later use several of these tracks as background music for its WeatherScan Local channel, as well as back-up
music for whenever the regular playlist or WeatherSTAR failed to load (thus replacing the long-standing use of Travel Forecast music).
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| 1996 |
In-house specials discontinued
Specials produced by the network were discontinued. For nearly four years the network didn't have
any specials. Instead, pouring its resources into upgrading its on-air look and live weather coverage.
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OCM arrivals
Warren Madden and Gene Rubin (who had worked at the network for a brief period during its early days).
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OCM departures
Brad Edwards and Jodi Saeland. |
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Specials
"The Power of Weather" (education), "Great Weather Disasters," and "Tornado Chase 96." |
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weather.com relaunch
Weather.com's interface and graphics are upgrade substantially. |
| March 1, 1996 |
No Place On Earth Has Better Weather
The network introduces the "No Place on Earth Has Better Weather" campaign which is
followed quickly by the most significant makeover of its on-air appearance yet; including new promos, intros, and graphics.
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| 1997 |
OCM arrivals
Lisa Mozer, Dan Atkinson, Bob Stokes, Myke Motley, and Kristin Dodd. |
| 1997 |
OCM departures
Declan Cannon. |
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Storm experts make their debut
The network begins using more weather experts during storm coverage, with expanded on-air roles
for senior forecasters such as Stu Ostro, Colin Marquee and Jamie Simpson.
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| March 1997 |
New location and studio
A brand new studio premieres after the network relocates again. Shortly thereafter, TWC discontinues
tours of its studio and premises.
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| 1998 |
Network relaunch
Another on-air makeover includes the renaming of the network's half-hour programming blocks from
"WeatherScope" to "WeatherCenter" and the premiere of a very popular, self-deprecating campaign proclaiming "Weather Fans You're Not Alone."
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OCM arrivals
Steve Lyons (who joins John Hope in reporting and analyzing tropical weather developments), |
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OCM departures
Gene Rubin. |
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weather.com relaunch
Weather.com receives another upgrade in its appearance. |
| July 1, 1998 |
Quarterly LF music playlists debut
The network adopts a standardized, 3-month cycle for its Local Forecast music playlists.
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| 1999 |
OCM arrivals
Heather Tesch, Paul Goodloe, Carl Parker, and Nick Walker. |
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OCM departures
Dan Atkinson. |
| 1999 |
Storm expert arrivals
Paul Kocin (winter weather) and Greg Forbes (severe storms). |
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Filler spots debut
P. Allen Smith, a gardening expert (who never seems to get dirty), premieres in special features on the
network.
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The WeatherSTAR XL debuts
The WeatherStar XL premieres on limited cable systems with greatly improved graphics and animation.
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