bambino64's Blog

No offense to the fine Fox2 meteorologists, but I wanted to pay homage to my favorite St Louis Meteorologist, Ben Abell, who was a regular contributor to KWMU.  He recently announced his retirement from broadcasting but will continue to teach at St Louis University.  I think what I liked about him is that he would put everything out on the table without fancy graphics or terms.  He told it plain and simple while not patronizing his listeners.  He didn't give "for sure" predications about rain or snow, but instead gave the listener a rundown of the factors contributing to the weather and gave the listener a few possible outcomes.  Instead of saying something like "looks like we are in for some rain tomorrow" he would say something like "we have a warm front pushing up from the south that will bring us a chance of rain" and then go on to give you the probable outcomes of the situation setting up.  One of his favorite sayings was "I can't rule out a chance of a stray shower."  I just really enjoyed listening to him a lot and I really am going to miss him.  I hope St Louis metereorlogists can learn a lesson from Ben -- appreciate the intelligence of your listeners.  One more thing about Ben is that he always stuck his head out the window before making his broadcast.