Weather

The Weather Channel meteorologist and “Wake Up With Al” co-host Stephanie Abrams received quite a surprise on the program, as she found out she was being inducted into the Space Camp Hall of Fame.

Al Roker brought on the director of education for Space Camp, as well as a former Space Shuttle commander, to break the news.

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30 years ago today, the world of cable television changed forever with a very simple idea: what if there was a channel where viewers could turn to and get the latest weather?

And with that simple idea, The Weather Channel was born.

Now, of course, people get their weather forecasts online or on their phones (usually through Weather.com, which gets a redesign today, or an app made by Weather Channel), but The Weather Channel stays with us. Whenever there is a big weather event like a hurricane or blizzard, The Weather Channel is still the first place people turn to for their meteorological news and information.

Via Cablevision’s Jim Maiella, check out this 1982 ad for The Weather Channel:

The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore in 1991 (l) and 2011 (r)

On Wednesday, The Weather Channel will celebrate 30 years on the air. The channel is planning a celebration on-air online and in the real world.

For starters, the Empire State Building will be decked out in “Weather Channel Blue” lights for the anniversary.

On-air, there will be a retrospective looking back on 30 years of coverage, as well as interviews with key players, employees and on-air personalities. Celebrities and prominent figures will offer congratulations, and a blooper reel will be played.

Online, Weather.com will be getting a site overhaul (more on that Wednesday) and will also have a look back at 30 years of weather fashion, including Jim Cantore with hair (pictured above).

More information, after the jump.

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On Wednesday, the Weather Channel turns 30 years old.

The first network dedicated to around-the-clock weather forecasting and severe weather coverage debuted May 2, 1982. And to mark the occasion the fine folks in Atlanta sent the TVNewser crew a flashback care-package: Rubik’s Cubes with one side carrying The Weather Channel logo, pop rocks (which DID NOT lead the death of Mikey from the LIFE commercial), Billboard’s biggest hits from 1982, some assorted Wonka candies and a few “Frankie Says Relax” t-shirts. The shirts had us scratching our heads. I’m the only one in our group old enough to remember them — but didn’t. It took our editorial assistant, who wasn’t born until the late 80s, to recognize it. She’d seen it in an episode of “Friends.” Anyway, here’s the story of 80s band Frankie Goes to Hollywood and the t-shirts.

As for Weather Channel, they have some big plans for their 30th birthday next week. More about that tomorrow.

CNN’s “Reliable Sources” booked former Fox News employee Joe Muto on Sunday. Host Howard Kurtz talked with Muto for about 10 minutes (about 5 minutes aired on the TV show) on why he did it — “I couldn’t be in that building one day longer without exploding;” and what comes next — “I think it’s pretty safe to say my career in cable news is over.”

Here are the cable news ratings for that hour:

• 11am Sunday, April 15. Total Viewers / A25-54 viewers

Fox News — 1,019,000 / 185,000
Weather — 777,000 / 330,000
CNN — 413,000 / 100,000
MSNBC — 356,000 / 97,000
HLN — 318,000 / 133,000

With tornadoes having swept across the Midwest in the early morning hours, the Weather Channel topped all cable newsers, except FNC (which also led with the tornadoes at 11am). But a closer look at the numbers shows Muto’s appearance, as well as a discussion of 2012 politics, the Trayvon Martin coverage, and memories of Mike Wallace, didn’t seems to be a draw for CNN viewers.

“Sources” was down -22% in Total Viewers and down -43% in A25-54 viewers vs. the year-to-date average of 529,000 Total Viewers / 175,000 A25-54 viewers. Its lead-in “Fareed Zakaria GPS” was also down, but just -1% in Total viewers and -13% in younger viewers vs. year-to-date.

Fox News at 11am was up +1% / -20% vs. year-to-date, while MSNBC was up +18% / +3% vs. the year-to-date average of MSNBC Live and Melissa Harris-Perry which debuted in February.

Many viewers looking for the news about the weather at that hour, may have switched to TWC. In fact, the Weather Channel was up +254% in Total Viewers and up +200% in younger viewers compared to the week earlier.

One person who did catch the show, at least a clip of it later: Bill O’Reilly.

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CNN sent over the following photo of news and weather Rob Marciano this afternoon. It was taken near Cherokee, Oklahoma over the weekend by CNN international senior meteorologist and senior weather producer Brandon Miller.

Starting in mid-April, The Weather Channel’s “Wake Up with Al” will have a decidedly different vibe, as the show originates from New York, rather than Weather’s Atlanta headquarters.

Co-host Al Roker usually hosts the show from New York, with his colleague Stephanie Abrams joining him via video from Atlanta. For the next few months however Abrams will be joining Roker in New York. A Weather Channel tipster tells us that the move is a “tryout,” designed to see how the chemistry looks when Roker and Abrams are in the same room rather than in different states. If the results are positive, the show may originate from New York permanently.

To go along with her temporary move, Abrams will also be hosting “Your Weather Today” from New York.

The AP’s David Bauder takes a look at the new Weather Channel — fewer live weather updates and more weather-related reality programming — and Al Roker‘s part in it.

Viewers know Roker primarily for trading quips and giving forecasts as part of the “Today” show team, but off-screen he operates a thriving production company that supplies material to Spike, HGTV, A&E, The Cooking Channel and now The Weather Channel. “The previous management didn’t really see the big picture,” Roker said. “They didn’t think the audience would watch these kinds of shows.”

Bauder says the network is working on shows “featuring Arctic pilots, iron workers, wind turbine and power line repairers and Coast Guard rescuers in both icy and tropical climates.” The network will debut at least one new show every month for the rest of the year.

The goal is to expand to three hours of entertainment programming in primetime, and also air some of those shows during the day.

The Weather Channel is the latest NBCU entity (part of a consortium with Bain Capital and The Blackstone Group) to dive into reality programming. Bravo is deep into reality and recently CNBC hired a VH1 executive to oversee its move into primetime alternative programming.

“Everybody needs to evolve,” Roker tells Bauder. The Weather Channel “is a different channel today than it was even a year ago and I think it’s for the better.”

(h/t Newsblues)

An outbreak of deadly tornadoes across the Midwest and Mid-South this week has kept news crews hopscotching from state to state reporting on the devastation. Lester Holt, who anchors NBC News’s weekend newscasts, “Today” and “Nightly News” reported on the leap day outbreak which hit Harrisburg, IL the hardest. Today he’s back covering the aftermath in Henryville, IN.

Holt covered Wednesday’s storms for “Nightly News” and “Rock Center” and for “Today” and “Nightly” on Thursday, before returning to New York Friday. “When my team and I got on the plane to head home yesterday morning after covering the leap day tornados, we knew we’d be back in the neighborhood and soon,” Holt tells TVNewser. “It wasn’t a question of whether there would be a new series of tornados, it was a question of where, when and how bad.”

Holt got onto a flight in the middle of the night and arrived 15 minutes before weekend “Today” went on air. “I got home long enough to have dinner with my family, recharge my laptop, and head back out,” says Holt who is covering the story alongside his NBC News and Weather Channel colleagues.

“These are the stories you have to answer the bell for,” says Holt. “This is what we do.”

Holt will be anchoring “Nightly News” tonight and the “Today” show tomorrow from Indiana.

Tornado watches and warnings are in effect across much of the central U.S., from Mississippi north to Ohio. Many network correspondents and anchors are chasing the storms today, after covering the deadly outbreak of tornadoes earlier this week.

Much of southern Ohio is under a tornado watch. Several national TV news reporters are in the state — not to cover the storms — but to report on the upcoming Super Tuesday primaries. Ohio is the largest Super Tuesday state.