Joey Gives Fidel The Bird!

(Editor’s Note: I am guessing that most people who read EMGR are aware that WSEE also broadcasts their signal to the Caribbean on Primetime 24 for the English speaking people of the region as well as those traveling. Of course, the weather is of a significant interest. Last year, the New York Times travel section did a feature on our own Joey Steven’s growing Caribbean image. Here is an edited version of that story that ran in August 2005. This may have been reprinted in the Erie Times-News…I can’t remember.)


A Caribbean Audience for an Erie, Pa., Weatherman

By JIM SCHACHTER
Published: August 14, 2005--The New York Times Travel Section


Local television in Jamaica runs to reggae music videos and local talk shows with less-than-professional production values. So it is surprising, if not a little disorienting, for a visitor to stumble upon Joey Stevens, above, a meteorologist in Erie, Pa., as he delivers the Caribbean weather forecast decked out in his version of island appearance: a flowered shirt, with a toy parrot named Bob on his shoulder or a stuffed monkey named Jocko wrapped around his neck.

Since February (2005), his station, WSEE - Channel 35 in Erie, the 143rd (now 142)-biggest television market in the United States - has taped four Caribbean weather reports daily. It has fed them to the Primetime24 satellite, which WSEE provides with CBS network programs.

"I probably have more viewers all through the Caribbean than I do in Erie," said Mr. Stevens, who is WSEE's chief meteorologist. "I tell my buddies I could probably walk into any bar in the Caribbean and get a free drink." (The station's viewers in Pennsylvania do not see the Caribbean forecasts; a seven-day outlook, is available at www.35wsee.com/caribbean.cfm.)

Most evenings, Mr. Stevens, a meteorologist in the Erie area for 28 years, shows pictures of sunsets and beach scenes submitted by his Caribbean fans and does goofy dances to leaven forecasts that often consist of monotonous strings of sunny, hot days.

..."I have a very strong concern for those folks down there on those islands," said Mr. Stevens, who sometimes scrambles to tape the island weather after doing reports for 11 local radio stations. "They've got nowhere to go."

Brian Lilly, who owns WSEE with his brother Kevin, explained that he got the idea for the Caribbean forecasts from traveling in the area and recognizing a lack of local English-language programming.

Lilly Broadcasting has no ratings information about how widely the Caribbean forecasts are being watched, but WSEE has received favorable e-mail messages from across the region: Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Belize, Turks and Caicos, Costa Rica and Panama. There is even a concentration of viewers at the Guantánamo Bay naval station in Cuba, where the cable operator uses WSEE as its CBS station.

The Navy has its own meteorologists, of course, and their forecasts are available on the Internet 24 hours a day. But "it's not the same as seeing it on TV," said Stacey Byington, a civilian spokeswoman for the base.

"Congress passed a law on February 1, 2006, setting a final deadline for the DTV transition of February 17, 2009. Most television stations will continue broadcasting both analog and digital programming until February 17, 2009, when all analog broadcasting will stop.." FCC http://www.dtv.gov/

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