Who Needs This Much Scrutiny?

Todd Gross, meteorologist at Boston’s Channel 7, was let go last week after over 20 years on the air. People get fired, or don’t have their contract renewed, all the time. It is part of this business… a scary part.

I can’t comment on Todd’s work because I’ve seen so little of it. He’s always been nice to me. What else can I go on?

Because of his position, he has attracted a lot of comments on a TV weather oriented bulletin board I read. It was there that I found this link to a short article in the Boston Phoenix.

What’s scary about this is how opinionated people are – positive and negative. This is really much more than I expected. Do people really get that ‘into’ their local meteorologists?

6 thoughts on “Who Needs This Much Scrutiny?”

  1. //What’s scary about this is how opinionated people are – positive and negative. This is really much more than I expected. Do people really get that ‘into’ their local meteorologists?//

    I can’t speak for the rest of the world, but in New England we do. I think it’s a product of living in such close quarters, watching a lot of weather reports, and just being nosy.

  2. Well,

    This is funny– just before the storm there was a debate in one of my classes about which local news station to watch, and which meteorologist to watch.

    People quite ignorantly thought Dr. Mel and you (Yeah, DOCTOR MEL, the one who has the Ph.D. in meteorology…) weren’t meteorologists.l I rightly corrected them, and the heated debate followed…

    It just goes to show how us New Englanders can be about our local news stations…

    –Mike

  3. Geoff Asks:

    “Do people really get that ‘into’ their local meteorologists?”

    Yes, Geoff, they do. You & Dr. Mel are widely regarded as the “Gold Standard” of Connecticut TV weather forecasting. You’re such a part of the fabric of life here in CT, I can’t think of any other two more recognized people than the two of you.

    For example, I have to travel to Quakertown PA (dec 10) early saturday morning to pick up my new puppy from the breeder (I’m getting a vizsla), and all I find myself doing is waiting aroung for you & Dr. Mel to tell me if the snow event on friday is going to affect my travel plans.

    I don’t even bother with the Weather Channel – that station is only good for finding out what already happened – you guys are about what might, and probably will happen.

    btw, I’m not used to answering YOUR questions on YOUR site – usually, I come here for YOUR answers to MY questions, so it’s a refreshing change!

  4. What’s scary about this is how opinionated people are – positive and negative. This is really much more than I expected. Do people really get that ‘into’ their local meteorologists?

    Yes Geoff. People depend on local news personalities for information. There are those who dont pay attention to the news and there are those that can name every reporter on their local stations. In fact,I noticed a change myself. I was wondering where Jill Dunay went. She was the traffic reporter on Channel 8 and now some other guy does the traffic. If I noticed a different traffic reporter, and i don’t know one reporter from the next, then I guess other people (especially those who really watch the news), know who their local anchors are.

  5. As a member of the Boston market, Todd Gross was my favorite meteorologist and the only reason I watched WHDH. In New England, as you know, weather is important and his reports were always informative and entertaining and pretty damn accurate. So, bah on Wdhd for giving him the axe. I’ll guess now I’ll stick to fox and channel 5.

  6. Todd Gross did a good job explaining how there were different scenarios — for example if the storm tracks one way we get 10-12”, the other way 2-4”

    Other meterologists would just guess and end up wrong half the time.

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