by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Until five years ago, the weather personalities in Jacksonville were as predictable as summer forecast: George Winterling on Ch. 4 was the patriarch of local forecasting and Ch. 12’s Tim Deegan was the young dude who ran and surfed.
While news anchors, reporters and sports guys came and went, viewers could always find Winterling digging in his garden or Deegan searching the tropics during the summer and fall months for a surf-producing storm; nothing that would hit land, just a nice little hurricane spinning innocently and harmlessly 200 miles offshore.
The other station in town — be it Ch. 17, ABC’s affiliate, or another fledgling station — seemed to have a revolving door at every position.
Then FOX came to town. The Rupert Murdoch-owned network established itself as Ch. 30, offering new faces and concepts. While many of those faces are long gone, one constant has remained — meteorologist Bob Alan. But, to call Alan a constant is a huge contradiction. If there’s one thing Bob Alan isn’t on air, it’s constant, personality-wise, anyway.
His forecasts tend to be fairly accurate and given the very nature of his chosen profession, fairly accurate is a pretty good thing. To say Alan isn’t afraid to jazz up a spot might be the understatement of the year.
Dress up as Elvis? Sure.
Don his Weatherhead get up? Why not?
Use a part of a bull’s anatomy as a pointer before computers played such a large role in weathercasts? Of course, the people sent them in, didn’t they?
To Alan, the gimmicks aren’t a way of cheapening or downplaying the newscast as a whole or the seriousness with which people take weather. Rather, it’s more of a way to liven up a profession that, at times, can be quite boring. After all, who doesn’t know what it’s going to be like in Jacksonville from June through September? Let’s see, lows in the mid-70s, highs in the mid-90s, 20 percent chance of an afternoon thunderstorm.
Bringing life and personality to a weathercast is simply Alan’s way of breaking the monotony. Believe it or not, though, it’s a personality stretch for Alan to do his on-air characters.
“When I do stuff like Elvis or the Weatherhead, I’m more embarrassed,” said Alan. “I’ll come in here [his office] and be red-faced. I go places and people say, ‘Hey, Elvis. Hey, Weatherhead.’ It embarrasses me because something like that is what I’m remembered for. I do it because something in my brain says, what the heck, give it a try. Robbie Rose [of Rooster Country] is the one who encouraged me to do Elvis.”
Alan came to Jacksonville five years ago, but he’s had a long and entertaining career. He was born and raised in Cleveland, earned his bachelor’s degree from Ohio University and his meteorological degree from Mississippi State. Strangely, Alan almost passed up his initial chance to get into the media.
“I went to work for a radio station during my senior year at Ohio U. I worked the six to midnight shift, Monday through Friday,” said Alan, who at the time was not doing weather. “It was one of the most crucial stages of my life because I didn’t say no when I had the opportunity to say yes.”
After graduating from Mississippi State, Alan worked for several different stations all over the country. His first stint as a weatherman came with an ABC affiliate in Columbus, Ohio. However, it took the sports guy’s sudden departure to open the door for Alan.
“I was in Columbus and I was doing booth work, where you are behind the scenes,” said Alan. “The sports guy left, he got a job in Phoenix. He said, ‘I’m leaving and I’m leaving now.’ It left them strapped. So, the news director came to me and asked if I would help out the sports department and do some on-air work.”
The opportunity of a lifetime came with one catch, as far as Alan was concerned. Having come from radio, appearance was low on the priority list. Getting in front of the camera meant a significant make over.
“I said, ‘Do I have to cut my hair?’ I had come from radio and they said, ‘Yes.’ So, I cut it and did some sports,” said Alan. “I only did it for maybe a month or two, but my first interview was with Jack Nicklaus. My second interview was with [legendary Ohio State football coach] Woody Hayes.”
Despite his brief on-camera career and lack of training, Alan proved to be popular with the viewers. After going back to booth work, management came to him and said the only way he was going back on-air was if he agreed to do weather.
“I thought of Mr. Rogers,” said Alan. “I said, ‘I am not and will not be that kind of nerdy weatherman — unless you don’t strap me with the rules and regulations. You let me do it my way.’ They said, OK, but they didn’t know what they had done. I was calling for weather pointers — it was the time when you used stick-em-ups and pointers, those retractable things — and I told the viewers to send me their pointers to use. I got a calf penis and I was using it on air. It was funny.”
From there, he moved on to an NBC affiliate in Colorado Springs.
“That was a great job,” said Alan. “Colorado is gorgeous.”
After a short stay at a station in West Palm Beach, Alan made it back to Ohio, this time to Cincinnati and a local CBS station.
“I was there for a year and didn’t like it,” he said. “Going from West Palm and the Atlantic Ocean to the Ohio River was a real shock.”
Cincinnati didn’t last long and it was back to Florida, first with a station in Orlando then a year in Miami. It certainly wasn’t the less-than-fabulous weather that lured Alan back to Cincinnati again, this time for 13 years.
“My salary became a priority for the first time,” said Alan, rubbing his fingers together. “I went with a wounded heart and soul because I knew I belonged next to the water, but not the Ohio River.”
Actually what happened was the dream of all professionals, no matter their trade — a bidding war. Alan had three stations desperately after his talents and his bank account became the beneficiary. He was scheduled to meet with one station to discuss the terms of his contract in Cincinnati when a second station intervened.
“They called the next day and wanted to send their news director down to offer me a contract worth $60,000,” said Alan. “I said, ‘What happened to $28,000?’ He said the whole Cincinnati market had changed. I thought, maybe Cincinnati isn’t so bad.”
When the third station entered the fray, the bidding war escalated, as did Alan’s potential salary. Sixty-thousand became $65-, 70-, 75,000.
“The third time around, one news director said, ‘What do you want?’ I told him I wanted $100,000, my own office and a car,” said Alan. “He said, ‘It’s done. Sign now and it’s a done deal.’ So, I took a vacation and went to Colorado for a week to think about it. Two newspapers in Cincinnati called every other day to a buddy of mine’s house.”
Thirteen years later, Alan went to New York for two years before getting the offer to come to Jacksonville, a decision that turned out to be a no-brainer. A former co-worker from Colorado Springs, Anthony Maisel, contacted Alan about joining him at a start-up station. Hesitant at first, Alan tried to pry the location of the start-up out of Maisel.
“He was in Pittsburgh and he called me and said, ‘I’m going to a FOX start-up in the South. Would you be interested?’ I said, ‘Where is it?’ He said he couldn’t tell me just yet,” said Alan. “As we were talking he said, ‘If you could work anywhere you wanted, where would it be?’ I said, there’s two spots. One is San Diego, the other is Jacksonville. He said, ‘That’s where I’m going’ I said, where, San Diego? He said, ‘No, Jacksonville.’
“I decided to come because of the climate and because my mom and dad live about an hour and a half south in Edgewater, just south of Daytona. You can’t beat the climate of San Diego, but this place is awfully good.”
Today, Alan loves Jacksonville and would like to retire here. But, his first impression was far from great. He and a buddy came for the infamous Gator Bowl in which Ohio State’s Hayes slugged Clemson’s Charlie Bauman at the end of the game.
“We flew down from Columbus and stayed at my mom and dad’s and drove up that night for the game,” said Alan. “We were like, eewww. What world is this? It was terrible. The Gator Bowl was terrible. So, we got out of here.”
As Alan grew, so did Jacksonville. Before relocating five years ago, Alan — who was already on vacation in Savannah — came for a visit and found a very different town. A lunch at the Landing proved to be the selling point.
“I thought, ‘Wow, this is cool,’” said Alan. “I got excited and said, I’m coming to Jacksonville. The Landing sold me on Jacksonville and now whenever I see the manager of the Landing [John Kiddy], I tell him that story.”
Being a part of a fledgling station on a limited budget was tough enough. Having to compete against two established stations with well-known, established personalities only made matters more difficult. Alan credits Maisel with doing a great job under demanding circumstances.
“It was kind of fun in a way because we thought people weren’t going to expect much of us. Although, I expected more of us,” explained Alan. “I think we got $3 million for everything. Anthony, I give him a lot of credit. He had to get talent. He had to get camera equipment, vehicles, editing equipment. People don’t realize what it’s like to start up a TV station. We never thought about failing, we just figured that any [ratings] number is going to be a decent number. And, we did pretty darn good pretty darn fast.”
While Elvis and the Weatherhead may make occasional appearances, gone are the days of animal parts and girls for props. But, that doesn’t mean Alan isn’t still a little off, but in a good way. His favorite prop these days is a pop gun he keeps in his desk drawer. And, he claims to have the original Mona Lisa.
“See this,” he says pointing at a framed Mona Lisa no bigger than a business card. “This is the original. It became so popular they decided to put a big one at the Louvre.”
Despite all the shenanigans and on-air quirks, Alan takes his job seriously. Over the years, he may have done some entertaining things on camera, but he also knows when to play the straight guy. When severe weather is eminent, Alan keeps things in perspective, delivers the facts and keeps his portion of the show on the up and up.
There is another side to Alan, one that most will never see. It’s the one that volunteers to help children whenever possible and the one who genuinely feels sorrow when bad things happen to good people.
“I’ve been doing weather a long time,” said Alan. “I love life and I love life because of people. People make life good or bad. I’m so sensitive, sometimes I get down because of human behavior, whether it’s Sept. 11 because of foreigners and their behavior or the wonderful behavior of all those heroes that makes you cry.
“On the one side, I get depressed and I get down and I get sad. I sit here with tears in my eyes watching news stories. I can sit here and cry just thinking of something and it wouldn’t be acting. On the other side, it makes me a very sensitive, compassionate person. That’s why I do all the charity work I do. I know that I can where they can’t. I will where they can’t.”
Perhaps it’s two failed marriages. Perhaps it’s the fact he doesn’t have any children of his own. No matter, Alan will always find time and energy for others. Whether it’s reading children’s stories or pounding nails for HabiJax, Alan is quick to say, “I’ll do it.”
“Charity is very important, not just me doing it, but me getting other people to do it,” he said. “I worked as a volunteer at Children’s Hospital and I did child care where you go to rooms and read books and play games if they [the children] want. I also worked in the emergency room and volunteered in the E.R. and it was sometimes pleasant, sometimes challenging and kind of sad. If I can help people either directly or indirectly, then use me.”
Not having any children of his own doesn’t seem to bother Alan. The paternal instincts within certainly wouldn’t mind having a little one, but one visit to the Children’s Hospital assures Alan he is the father to as many as he chooses.
“I’m making up for that now,” Alan said of not having his own children. “I tell people, you don’t have to have children to make the children of the world yours. You don’t have to have neighbors to treat everybody like a neighbor, you know, with respect. In a way, yeah, I wish I had a little boy sitting on my lap. But, when I go the hospitals, I have all the little boys on my lap. It’s tough, but it’s just the way God has meant it to be.”
One thing out of Alan’s control these days is his current contract with Ch. 30, which expires in a month. He would very much like to stay in Jacksonville and with Ch. 30 as its chief meteorologist, but that decision is not his to make.
“I’ll work without a contract as long as they will let me,” said Alan, whose contract officially expires Dec. 14. “It’s tough to say what will happen. I can’t see them not wanting to keep me. After five years, I’ve established myself in the market and who are they going to get to replace me? But, then it becomes economics for them. Do you want to pay Bob, a proven commodity, this much? Or, do they want to bring another guy in? If you’re the boss, which I’m not, it’s your decision. I have three bosses and they have to make a decision.”
If Ch. 30 opts not to renew Alan’s contract he says he has many options in mind. He could try to get on with another local station, but at this juncture in time both Ch. 4 and Ch. 12 have full meteorological staffs. He could go back to Ohio, but his parents are just a short drive away. Retiring is not out of the question, but it’s also not high on his list of options.
“To be very honest, I’d like for this to be my last stop,” said Alan. “I’d love to stay here. But, I’m Bob Alan, Inc. and I can’t lose sight of that. I’d love to stay here because my mom and dad are an hour and a half south and I have good friends here. There’s a lot of reasons. It’s pretty; it’s growing at a nice pace. I love the climate. I don’t want to live in a big city.”
To its credit, Ch. 30 has not put the reins on Alan, allowing instead for him to give his well-researched, but off-the-cuff weather reports. That, Alan says, benefits him and the viewers.
“They haven’t tried to change my personality, which is good,” said Alan. “I think they found out they better not because people like it. Yeah, I’ve got a lot of detractors, but there are people who say I’ve set myself apart.”