October 14, 2025 • 29 mins
Birmingham meteorologist Wes Wyatt joins us to talk about his new book “Bread, Milk, and a Chance of Snow.” He shares what he has learned covering the weather in Alabama for the last 2 decades and shares why weather awareness is so important in our state
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
In Alabama. The two professions for whom we have the
greatest reference are football coaches and meteorologists. Hey, it's John
Mounts and this is your Point Alabama on the Alabama
Radio Network. Joining me now is the chief mediaorologist for
WBrC six, Wes Wyatt Wes, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey, glad to be here. John.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Normally we talk to you because there's a tornado headed
our way and oh my gosh, we're all gonna die.
But today we're not talking about that. We're talking because
there's a book headed our way and you wrote it,
the book Bread, Milk and a Chance of Snow. What
in the world possessed you to us? Hey, I'm gonna
go write a book.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well, John, I know we have folks listening from all
around and I've been covering the weather for WBrC and Birmingham,
the station I grew up watching as a child. I
grew up in Tuscaloo, says, and I've been doing the
weather now for over around twenty five years. A little
over twenty five years. It's hard to believe, but covering
events like hurricanes and massive winter storms that have impacted
(00:58):
the state of Alabama. Tornado out. I think back to
April twenty seven, twenty eleven, just all these events that
I've covered throughout my career, but I always think back
to what got me into this, and as a child,
it seems like snow was that one thing that just
always sparked my curiosity and I just never will forget
(01:19):
years ago. It seemed like when I was a child,
we it seemed like we had a lot more snow
around here. But I just there was some events like
the like in the eighties we had ice storms, and
until this day, just from childhood memories, I don't think
I've ever seen anything like it. I thought, you're gonna
bring a winter storm ninety three, Well, winter Store, I
(01:40):
remember that one. I remember that one which I had
a chance to go out, you know, and have some
fun in that winderstorm, which I talk about it in
my book. And the entire concept around the book, John
is that I talk about how winter weather influenced me.
But now as a meteorologist, having covered the weather throughout
(02:00):
my career, I see it from the other side, sure,
and the craziness that goes with winter weather. So the
you know, when you talk about snow in the state
of Alabama. One thing that always comes up, gotta go
get bread, milk, right exactly. So that was just like
right there top of mind when I thought about it.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
And I think the reason why is at Alabama, we're
in this goldilocks area of We're not like say, way
up north, where they get tons of snow and so
they're prepared and they have the chains, they have the
salt trucks. But we're not Florida where they don't really
ever get snow. So we get some snow, We get
enough snow for it to cause a problem, but not
enough for us to really super be prepared. So it's
sort of like this magical thing when we get snow.
(02:39):
People don't understand even how it forms. I guess that's
why you went to meteorology school.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
You said the perfect line there. It's like this magical thing,
and it really is. There's just something special about when
it snows here other than any other place. My wife's
from Pittsburgh. She always tells me I don't want to
see snow again, but even when it snows here, I
see that sparkle in her eye. It's something special just
(03:06):
to see our area covered underneath the blanket of snow. Now,
we don't want snow mcgeddon, right.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Right, Yeah, Well that wasn't really even snow. That was
what ice mcgeddon really, it really was.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I mean it was just a little bit of snow
and it froze over all the roads. That was a mess.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Now.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I talk about that in the book, and I talk
about how forecasts have been a success, how forecasts have
gone the other way. But it's interesting because years ago,
I mean this was back in like twenty seventeen, my
former chief JP Dice and I we were covering winter
weather throughout. It was a week. It was a marathon
(03:43):
week in John I remember covering Hurricane Ivan. I spent
the entire day in the studio until the lights went
out with a laptop, computer and a internet cable stretched
across the studio and just sitting there going from computer
to weather wall, you know, tracking this hurricane. It seemed
like it was it was going to take it forever
to move through the state. It was a long day.
(04:04):
It was a marathon. However, something about this week covering snow,
and I believe it was the added social media in
the Facebook and the answering questions and what week was this?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
This was.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
It was a week back in twenty seventeen, and we
had we had like multiple winter weather.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Because I'm trying to remember, because you know here at
the radio station, I'm right along with you guys here
in Birmingham were at viewpoint. Of course we cover the state,
but in Birmingham we're on WERC and we're the where
the weather station for our cluster of stations, and we
always rely on you guys to get us our way
over over at WBRS six and anything you guys have covered.
I remember because I was stuck in the studio. I
(04:43):
remember the the snow mcaddam. We were stuck up in
the building because we used to be up on the
mountain right and we were stuck in the building for
three days. Nobody was really prepared for that one.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
On a state wide level. We saw that system coming.
We thought it was South Alabama. South Alabama was prepared
and they actually had from a statewide level, they had
efforted resources, closed businesses and planned for that snow. But
the track shifted, it shifted north unexpectedly, and we ended
up We thought it was all going to stay south,
(05:14):
the preset would evaporate, wouldn't reach the ground, yet we
know what happened. It was chaos. It was one of
the worst disasters I have ever covered civil disasters because
of the just everybody was trapped where they were. And
that was a separate that was in twenty fourteen, so
that was before this particular event. But the one thing John,
(05:34):
I was just going to say about this event in
twenty seventeen is, at the end of the week, I
just remember going home and it started out I was
writing a blog about how the week went, how the
forecast unfolded. Next thing I know, I got three chapters wrote.
So I ended up tabling what I was writing on
that day. And then I had Bill Nauyer from Cress Publishing.
(05:56):
He approached me and said, Wes, have you ever been
interested in writing a book talking about story? I said, well,
funny enough, I started writing this book a long time ago,
so it all just fell into place and I was
glad to finally get it done. And it's just a
story about my life and some of these events that
I've covered. But it's funny though now when I kind
(06:16):
of look back and I reflect from where I started,
and John, you know how it was, you know, back
not so long ago. I don't want to say it
was a way long ago, but there was a time
when every evening you'd gather around and watch news, absolutely
and that was always fascinating to me, and especially the
weather segments and seeing what was next, what's about to happen.
(06:40):
You know, in Alabama, the weather's never boring. I mean
it's not just not that we you know, we don't
want tornadoes, right, but we do have severe weather seasons.
And you can remember, you know, severe weather seasons. We
your family, and when a tornado warning or a tornado
watch would happen, you would go to that safe place.
I never will forget my aunt had one of these.
We didn't call them storm shelters. We call them storm pits.
(07:02):
And we go to the storm pit. And I was
always scared of that thing because there were spiders down there.
But you never go and let tornado doesn't get the
spiders exactly. It was just it was just scary. You know,
you're down in this area, you're underground, you hear all
the chaos outside, you hear the the weather radio is
going off, and I mean just just you've got that
aspect of weather, you know, severe weather that happens and
(07:24):
then you turn around, you've got a hurricane season in Alabama,
and wow, I mean, look at this. You know, we've
got these systems out in the tropics, and then you
turn around you've got winter weather that can happen, ice
storms and snow. It really is a fascinating place out
the state of Alabama and just the Deep South in general,
with all the variety of weather. I mean, just look
at last year here. Recently we had the snow on
the coast. I mean that hasn't happened in like a century.
(07:47):
It was, it was crazy.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
And the thing is, you're tasked with this almost impossible
job of you have to predict this craziness every single day,
and people hold you to it. You know, if you're off,
they you hear about it. Right.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Well, listen, there's so many days when we forecast a
chance rain with forecast sunshine and highs and weather forecasting
accuracies over eighty percent. You know, we don't think about
those days, but when you do forecast something like snow,
it's held under such a microscope.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
In Alabama, just the forecast of snow closed the school.
Oh yeah, I can remember times when I was growing
up and the forecasting was not as good back in
the eighties, that like we would go home because snow
is predicted not a flake would fall, but we were
out for a day because they already canceled school.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Well, you take some situations like snowmagainin and you see
what you were the situation that you find yourself in.
You're stuck at work, you don't have any backup supplies.
You know, if you don't take some of these events
serious and just know how things can swing in the
other direction if you are not prepared, if you are
(08:51):
not ready. Some of the events you think. You look
back at ninety three, the blizzard of ninety three, we
didn't have power for a week. I mean we were
out of powerful a week. Some of the ice storms
that happened back in the eighties. You hear the stories
about power being out for not just a week, a
couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
I mean you can especially out in the if you're
out in an area where where the lines are covered
by the trees and the trees fall to the lines.
And Alabama Power, I feel like they prioritize the areas
with the most people first, and if you're like one
of three houses at the end of a dead end
road out in the country, it might be two weeks.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I'm still amazed with how quickly after some of these
tornado events. I went down to just this past March
when we had the tornado that moved through Chiltern County
and just to see how quickly the power companies can
get these lines back up. I mean, it really is amazing,
and that has they've done such a better job, you know,
and it's amazing how quickly they can get the power
back on. But you can quickly be driven back if
(09:46):
it's not just one of whether if it's severe weather,
back to where you don't have power, you don't have communication,
and it's still important to have redundancy in the way
you get information, back up batteries, you know, when we
talk about these emerging to see supply kits, I mean
you need to.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Have that batteries, water, all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
It pops up when you least expect it.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
And that's the reason why on radio we take it
so seriously, because we know if you lose power, that
big screen TV doesn't work. So that's why we simulcast
what you guys are doing, and we appreciate the way
that you always you explain for those who can't see
who are just who are having to listen? Because nothing's worse.
And if you're in this spot, I'm pointing to right here,
where's the spot? So you do always do a great
job of actually saying where the spot is.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Well, radio is great because I mean, this is real
time information. This is real time information. You take Alabama's
a place where tornadoes move faster than any other place
on the planet. You have a tornado moving sixty seventy
miles per hour. Seconds minutes are critical. So when you
think about delays, streaming delays, social media delays, listen all
(10:46):
that's great. I say, have as many ways as possible
to get weather information out because you might touch an
individual that may not have seen that information. So you
never know who you're going to reach there. However, just
know in the moment when it emerges, sees happen. You
still can't beat good old fashioned television, good old fashioned
radio when it comes to real time information. That's why
every meteorologist on the planet tells you to get a
(11:08):
knowl weather radio. It's radio, it's real time information.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
But the knowl weather radio will tell you there's something coming. Yeah,
but it doesn't cover it in real time. I mean,
it issues the warnings, but still it doesn't tell you
right now in this spot if you're on this road,
because that's when I watch you on TV. Severe weather
coverage in Alabama is like a geography lesson. You learn
the name of towns that you never thought you know,
the name of.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
You you know, like I said, I grew up in Tuscaloosa,
So growing up in the state of Alabama, I've traveled
all over this state from west to east, and I
really enjoy when I get to go visit schools and
I take advantage of those opportunities to you know, just
take note of the area I'm in, the businesses, the roads,
(11:49):
how things have changed. And sometimes on a Sunday day,
my wife and I we just love to get out
and drive, you know, it's a pretty day, get out
and drive the roads, you know, and just see the area.
I mean, Alabama is a gorgeous I mean, it's amazing.
The diversity. As far as I always tell people, Blunt
County is one of the prettiest counties in the state
of Alabama. But you go there and then you got
the golf Coast. I mean, it really is amazing Alabama.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
The beautiful it really on our license is it's still
on our license plate?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah. I think I saw a license plate the other
day with that.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I use the hashtag all the time.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I tell you that this is your point, Alabama. On
the Alabama Radio Network. My name is John Mountain, speaking
with Wes White. He's the chief meteorologist for WBrC six
and also a author. Is this your first book?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
This is my first book, John. Most of the time,
I'm messing around with music. As you know, I play music,
and I write songs and write music, and I've wanted
to do this for a long time.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
I've wrote some published works with respect to research when
I was at the University of Alabama. But as far
as book, this is it, and I'm glad the title
was still available because I've been thinking about it for
a long time. I knew what I was going to
call this book as soon as I started writing it.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Well, it is because as soon as you think snow,
you think. I always wondered if the meteorologists you have
like a cabal with it with it with the supermarkets,
about like you get a kickback every time you predicts.
Know that all right, we're selling the bread. You get
ten percent.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, it really is amazing that that's that's all. Every
time I go and speak to a group, I say, now,
you guys know I control the weather, right so but
uh but yeah, and if if you're interested in it,
it's at west whitebook dot com. You can check it out. Bread,
milk and a chance of snow. And I invite everyone
john to if if you do not follow me on
social media West Wyatt six uh for the weather, at
(13:30):
least follow me for the comments because social media that
that's sort of part of this book.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Social media has sort of changed the game. And I
see I see so many meteorologists. They just they lose patience,
you know, with when people say what about me? I
live here, what about me? And how much snow am
I going to get? How much snow am I going
to get? And listen, you know, I understand people just
want to hear from us, right And and social media
has changed the game as far as there's a lot
(13:57):
of weather enthusiasts that love to share information out there.
And now with AI, that's just the added the AI's
off the charts right now. You have to double check
what you're looking at on the video, it's been it's
been that, next level here.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Later tornado downtown. Why don't you know about it?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, exactly exactly. So who knows where you know that
that's all going to go. But I just say check
with your local meteorologists. Check check the forecast, whether you're
on the Gulf Coast North Alabama. The I always say,
at the checkout line at the gas station or at
the grocery store. You know how you look up and
(14:33):
you have all the tabloid magazines. You know, there's information
you can choose to believe or read, and there's and
and there's the real information. I always say, just check
the forecast. Sometimes apps, weather apps, that's a lot of
automated data that's coming straight from a computer, especially stock app.
So you want to make sure you check a weather
app where metiorologist is actually taking the computer data, the
(14:53):
AI or whatever it is, and actually put some reasoning
into that forecast and posted that forecast. Now, listen, as
a child growing up and a fan of weather, if
I saw a chance of snow, you better believe I'm
posting it on Facebook and I'm letting everybody know, Hey,
it might snow. In a month.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
We used to. I remember gathering when I was a
kid and we lived in Maryland, and I remember gathering
around the radio and listening for the radio forecast, listening
we were in Montgomery County, well, waiting for them to
say schools canceled Montgomery County, just waiting for that to
be announced on the radio. But now you know, you
can get it through social media and the schools they
send it out through like text messages and stuff like that.
But even still, you know, if you don't have that connectivity,
(15:31):
it's always helpful to have the TV, have the radio,
have the those outlets to be able to double check
to make sure you're really going to school.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Wasn't that a special time? It really just sit there,
you know, late at night, and you wait the ten
o'clock newses on you see little.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Crawl, you'll crawling about it and you're and if you
tuned in just past year, if it's alphabetical and you're
looking for like say Vestavia schools, and you tune in,
they just did the w S.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Darn it.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I gotta wait all the way through all my weather and.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Then the phone starts ringing. You know, I just saw it.
The schools out, you know, Englewood's out.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Back in the day in radio, and I've been doing
this twenty nine years, we used to have a code
word when this when the schools would call into the
radio station to cancel, they had to give us a
code word. And the reason why was because kids would
call in and cancel school and they say, yeah, this
is superintendent for Vestavia Schools. We're out tomorrow. Really what's
the code word? Uh, I don't know. Okay, thank you, junior.
(16:21):
But yeah, so so all of this so I guess
it's changed so much in the years. I guess cause
the computers, right, because the way the computers can forecast,
there was a time when you know, you look at
like the old the way it was done, like in
the fifties and sixties, and you guys had basically like
a like a chalkboard and you would have a big
picture of the United States and you and you'd have
like a and you have like stickers you put up
(16:41):
there a sunshine or a rain cloud or whatever. And
now the computers, you're able to tell so much so quickly,
and I mean almost down to sometimes the hour that
it's going to rain in this spot in that spot.
I mean, it's still not one hundred percent perfect because
it's the weather, but what you're able to do is
just incredible, and I think that's the reason why you're
looked at, like I said, with that reverence, like we
look at football coaches of the meteorologists. You guys, know
(17:04):
what you can see the future. Everyone else if you
think about it, the news, everyone else on the newscast
is doing what happened in the past, and you're the
only one on the news saying what will happen. You're
doing future news.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
It really is amazing what we're able to do. And
when you really sit back and you think about all
that goes into forecasting. I mean from starting each day
these weather service offices throughout the country, you have meteorologists.
As soon as the sun comes up, they go out
in the elements, they send up weather balloons. In the evenings,
they send up weather balloons. It's they're severe weather. They
send them up in the middle of the day. Each
(17:35):
one of those weather balloon launches that costs a lot
of money. And you can imagine how many of those
are going up a day across this country. We have
military personnel putting themselves in the harms way to fly
way out over the center where Atlantic. To measure the eye,
go into the eye of a hurricane, fly into this thing,
not over close to home, way out in the middle
of the Atlantic many times. But that data is so critical.
(17:58):
Current conditions is what that that's what we use. We
use a current picture current conditions to forecast future states
of the atmosphere, and we do that using math and
it's amazing. With just numbers, we can take current conditions
and tell you there's a chance of storms, it's coming Saturday,
and it's just it's fascinating and John, the thing these
(18:19):
days is, yeah, technology is better. We have more sophisticated
models now with AI, we are using that self learning
numerical forecast guidance. So in other words, you know, we
have forecast models. If something doesn't go right, if we
don't if it goes in the wrong direction, that model
will learn and it won't make that mistake again. So
(18:41):
that's it will be interesting to see where that goes.
Some of the European Model data is they now have
a European Model AI. But the thing is all this
data for television meteorologists that we didn't have Back in
the day, the Weather Service had access to a lot
of this data, but we have with the Internet, you know,
so much more data we have access to as television
(19:03):
meteorologists and as meteorologists that you see at home, and
we're able to put our forecast together, and we do
put our own forecast together, and we use that. That's
sort of our base message for the day, whether it's
here on the radio, whether it's on our ten day forecast.
And that's the first thing we do every day, we
put together the forecast, but we also look at each
(19:24):
other's forecasts from previous days and we build upon that.
We don't just come in and chase models and change
it on a dime. We always look for consistencies what
makes sense. There's a lot you would be surprised where
we need to step in as meteorologists and say, okay,
the computer's not right here, this is wrong, especially you
know when it comes to timing out storms, forecasting things
(19:46):
like I said, winter weather, things that are held under
a microscope, but basically things that are going to have
a major impact on our plans in our daily lives.
Now what we do and you'll see this at our
stations throughout the state, whether it's Huntsfielle, Waffs f and Montgomery,
we first Alert, First Alert. It's a big thing that
we do these days as sort of a call to
(20:06):
action for our television station. And you just think about, John,
how many weather events do we go through that's very
impactful to you. Some days we have tornado watches. Obviously
that's a day that that's sort of a red letter day, right,
But have you ever driven through a storm in the afternoon,
(20:28):
summer afternoon, Some of these storms that pop up, Man,
you won't even have a severe thunderstorm warning, and I
mean it's just out of nowhere. Out of nowhere, you
got gusty winds, intense cloud to ground lightning. So when
you step back and you look, there's so much weather.
Just because there's not a severe thunderstorm warning or there's
not a winter storm warning, there's so much impactful weather
(20:50):
that impacts you and what you do every day and
whether you need to cancel a job or go to
work or so. So what we do is if we
see anything impactful, and you'll see this in at our
sister stations throughout the state, we will say first Alert
weather day for extreme heat or possibility of flash flooding
and all these different things that happen, and same goes
(21:12):
for winder weather of course, which I know it kind
of got off on another subject, but that's just sort
of one of the changes that we've been able to
implement because we have so much data readily available.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
So I've got one more question for you before we
get back to the books. I do want to plug
the book one more time before we get out of here.
But when I watch the coverage and it goes on
and on and on for hours and hours and hours,
how do you Because you know, when you watch the
other TV people they've got prompters in front of they've
got all the words there. You don't. You're basically making
it up off the top of your head, and you
go on and on and on and on. What do
you do when you have to go to the bathroom?
Speaker 2 (21:45):
That's always a question. Well, I always say, hey, I
got to hand it off and got to change the
batteries in the mic.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Right is that code?
Speaker 2 (21:52):
That's code we know? Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, we do that,
and yeah there's times, you know when we have to
really change the batteries in the mic, you know, and
things like that, so we do have some backup. But
people often ask me, John, one of the questions I
get is is, look back at April twenty seventh. You know,
Mickey and I we started covering that morning. You know,
(22:13):
we had two rounds of severe weather and tornadoes that day.
That morning round, I mean it was like four am
until it didn't That day didn't come to an end
until well after sunset. And then after that, of course,
we had all the I mean, the state was devastated.
You know, we had all the stories, and we were
up all night covering all these towns like Tuscle Loocid
that had been heavily impact and things like that. But
(22:34):
people ask me, when you get in that studio and
weather it's happening in John, you know this from breaking news.
It's sort of like, I don't want this. I'm not
trying to say it's fun, like watching a football game,
but you know, when you're watching a game, you turn
around and you say, wow, it's a fourth quarter already,
And that's sort of the way it is. You know,
you kick off these events and next thing you know,
(22:55):
you've been in the studio all day. It just it
just flies by. It's not what you think. We're sort
of in the moment and basically, you know, doing what
we do.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
There's a lot of adrenaline there. And with that adrenaline,
I feel like time it's kind of like time compression,
Like you don't realize how much time actually elapsed because
you were going and going the whole time, and then
it's like, wow, that was seven hours. And meanwhile you
got your sales director for the radio station TV station. See, yeah,
we missed a lot of commercials there West. I sure
hope that was important.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
So right right, it's it's and we're sort of trained
at WBrC. You know, we got the largest weather team
in the state and do the most news. You know,
we do over seventy hours of news a week. I've
noticed that, and you know what, the viewers reward us,
and we're proud of that. And we started something John
a few years ago. It was the only we actually
(23:42):
do a thirty minute weather show five nights a week
that airs at six thirty. We started this a few
years ago and it was an experiment and turned out
it's been an incredible success. And I spoke to mediorrologists
all over the country here recently up in Huntsville at
the National Weather Association about this show, and a lot
of stations are trying this now. And when we all
kind of gathered and talked about this idea, we said,
(24:03):
a thirty minute weather show never been attempted any local
TV station in the country. This is the first time
we've had a five nine a week live local television show.
But we got thinking weather impacts everything, right, so whether
it's farming, whether it's washed, the car forecasts, and we
even had a segment cooking up a storm, your favorite
soup recipe for cold weather. And it's worked out very well.
(24:25):
So if you're in the Birmingham area, tune us in
for Weather Extra or on the internet or on the internet. Yeah,
we have the rokus and the we have the weather
apps and and we have live streams there and those
abilities as well. But again I'll just reiterate, you know,
when it comes to severe weather having redundancy multiple ways, radio, TV,
(24:48):
get those updates. You know, we're coming up right now,
We're getting closer to November, which means we're getting closer
to that fall secondary severe weather season in Alabama. So
stay weather alert absolutely.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Okay, this book is bread, Milk and a Chance of
Snow available online at your website.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Or yes is go to west Wyatt Book dot com.
West wyitebook dot com, Bread Milk and a Chance Snow.
Check it out. Let me know what you think and listen.
Let's hook up on social media so you can follow
me there. I mentioned Facebook Wes Wyatt six. I'm on Instagram.
Still trying to figure out the tiktoks. But I'll tell
you what John does, an incredible job on TikTok you
got to check out is quite entertaining.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
My daughter really makes me do most of that stuff. Well,
thank you so much for joining us. This is Viewpoint
Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network. Check out the book.
This is John Mounts and West White.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
You're listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program from
the Alabama Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
The other day, I went to work trying to fix
a problem with my sink and I only made it worse.
And the reason why is because I'm not a skilled plumber.
So I had to go and find a skilled plumber.
And if you've been through this experience, it's expensive to
call it in the plumber. And one of the reasons
expensive is because there are not a lot of good
plumbers still out there. There's all sorts of people out
(26:01):
there who want to do all sorts of like make
work jobs where they sit there at their chair and
they poke around on the computer on Facebook. But when
you need somebody to actually get their hands dirty and
get stuff done, there's not a lot of those people
out there. Joining me now is an expert in skilled trades,
Steven Stewart. Stephen, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
Thanks John, glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
There's a shortage of people who are able to do trades.
It's really gonna bite us pretty soon because we just
don't have the people to do stuff, and those people
who are willing to do it are going to get
paid pretty well.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
And it's not just say plumbing our age factor, it's
across the board. Everyone's looking for new people to come
into the fields. At seeing that shortage across the nation.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
We've been kind of conditioned to say, when you get
out of high school, you gotta go to college, and
you got to get a four year degree because you're
never going to have any money if you don't have
a respectable job with a degree. And so people are
going to college, but they're getting their degree in underwater
basket weaving or I don't know, broadcast communications, and there's
there's not a lot of jobs for those people out there.
But one of the things we are always going to need.
(27:04):
AI is not going to be able to fix your
garbage disposal. You have to have somebody to lay hands
on that equipment.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
We're not going to see many robots crawling around our
homes anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
There's a lot of people who don't have problem solving skills.
They're not able to look at an issue and instantly say, oh,
I've seen this before. They kind of a routine where
they go through if this then that. They don't really
have a logical way of looking at They just go, well,
there's something broken, let's just replace the entire thing. But
a good technician can come in and go, oh, the
reason this is doing this is I've seen this before.
(27:36):
It's this particular capacitor right here that has failed. I
can replace this capacitor and this will be a couple
hundred dollars as opposed to no, let's throw out the
whole thing and you need a new ten thousand dollars system.
And it's so important to have a technician who knows
the difference.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Sounds like you've had a pleasurable experience in the past,
but yet having a technicians walk through that and for example,
if it's that capacitor, you'll then given client options. You
know it's a capacitor, but then I also you know
the reason your capacitor field is this other component a
bad motor, bad contactor that's going to die in the
(28:12):
next thirty sixty days. You know, recommend you replace that
as well, and give you options on what's coming up
that's going to die, which comes with training experience.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
You can't get that from a book. You actually have
to be out there in the field. When you go
to hire somebody. What do you look for? How do
you screen them to know that they're able to do
the job?
Speaker 4 (28:30):
For me to say, it's client service. We do a
lot of residentials. So can they talk to people, explain things,
communicate and then that it's that technical aptitude. Do they
have an understanding so?
Speaker 1 (28:43):
And that's so true, Stephen, because you have to have
the mechanical skills in that know how, but you also
have to be good with people, because if you don't
have the people skills, you're not going to be able
to interface with the clients, to adequately figure out their
needs and take care of their needs and have them
have a good experience, because when it's all over, you
not only want your air conditioner working, but you want
the client to be able to say that guy is
(29:04):
able to do a great job. I want to have
them back so they're able to fix my air conditioning
or my heat or whatever it is the next time,
because they're good at what they do, and I, you know,
I feel like I had a friend in my house,
not just some jerk who is here to fix the
air conditioner.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
Exactly. Yes, agreed.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Well, bottom line, a good skilled technician is worth their
weight in gold. Steven, you're doing a great job out there,
and thank you for giving skilled people a place where
they can make money and while doing it, keeping us
all cool because.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
We really need that, No problem, John, appreciate you having
me yet.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
You've been listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program
from the Alabama Radio Network. The opinions expressed on Viewpoint
Alabama are not necessarily those of the staff, management, or
advertisers of this station.
In Alabama. The two professions for whom we have the
greatest reference are football coaches and meteorologists. Hey, it's John
Mounts and this is your Point Alabama on the Alabama
Radio Network. Joining me now is the chief mediaorologist for
WBrC six, Wes Wyatt Wes, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey, glad to be here. John.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Normally we talk to you because there's a tornado headed
our way and oh my gosh, we're all gonna die.
But today we're not talking about that. We're talking because
there's a book headed our way and you wrote it,
the book Bread, Milk and a Chance of Snow. What
in the world possessed you to us? Hey, I'm gonna
go write a book.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well, John, I know we have folks listening from all
around and I've been covering the weather for WBrC and Birmingham,
the station I grew up watching as a child. I
grew up in Tuscaloo, says, and I've been doing the
weather now for over around twenty five years. A little
over twenty five years. It's hard to believe, but covering
events like hurricanes and massive winter storms that have impacted
(00:58):
the state of Alabama. Tornado out. I think back to
April twenty seven, twenty eleven, just all these events that
I've covered throughout my career, but I always think back
to what got me into this, and as a child,
it seems like snow was that one thing that just
always sparked my curiosity and I just never will forget
(01:19):
years ago. It seemed like when I was a child,
we it seemed like we had a lot more snow
around here. But I just there was some events like
the like in the eighties we had ice storms, and
until this day, just from childhood memories, I don't think
I've ever seen anything like it. I thought, you're gonna
bring a winter storm ninety three, Well, winter Store, I
(01:40):
remember that one. I remember that one which I had
a chance to go out, you know, and have some
fun in that winderstorm, which I talk about it in
my book. And the entire concept around the book, John
is that I talk about how winter weather influenced me.
But now as a meteorologist, having covered the weather throughout
(02:00):
my career, I see it from the other side, sure,
and the craziness that goes with winter weather. So the
you know, when you talk about snow in the state
of Alabama. One thing that always comes up, gotta go
get bread, milk, right exactly. So that was just like
right there top of mind when I thought about it.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
And I think the reason why is at Alabama, we're
in this goldilocks area of We're not like say, way
up north, where they get tons of snow and so
they're prepared and they have the chains, they have the
salt trucks. But we're not Florida where they don't really
ever get snow. So we get some snow, We get
enough snow for it to cause a problem, but not
enough for us to really super be prepared. So it's
sort of like this magical thing when we get snow.
(02:39):
People don't understand even how it forms. I guess that's
why you went to meteorology school.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
You said the perfect line there. It's like this magical thing,
and it really is. There's just something special about when
it snows here other than any other place. My wife's
from Pittsburgh. She always tells me I don't want to
see snow again, but even when it snows here, I
see that sparkle in her eye. It's something special just
(03:06):
to see our area covered underneath the blanket of snow. Now,
we don't want snow mcgeddon, right.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Right, Yeah, Well that wasn't really even snow. That was
what ice mcgeddon really, it really was.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I mean it was just a little bit of snow
and it froze over all the roads. That was a mess.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Now.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I talk about that in the book, and I talk
about how forecasts have been a success, how forecasts have
gone the other way. But it's interesting because years ago,
I mean this was back in like twenty seventeen, my
former chief JP Dice and I we were covering winter
weather throughout. It was a week. It was a marathon
(03:43):
week in John I remember covering Hurricane Ivan. I spent
the entire day in the studio until the lights went
out with a laptop, computer and a internet cable stretched
across the studio and just sitting there going from computer
to weather wall, you know, tracking this hurricane. It seemed
like it was it was going to take it forever
to move through the state. It was a long day.
(04:04):
It was a marathon. However, something about this week covering snow,
and I believe it was the added social media in
the Facebook and the answering questions and what week was this?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
This was.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
It was a week back in twenty seventeen, and we
had we had like multiple winter weather.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Because I'm trying to remember, because you know here at
the radio station, I'm right along with you guys here
in Birmingham were at viewpoint. Of course we cover the state,
but in Birmingham we're on WERC and we're the where
the weather station for our cluster of stations, and we
always rely on you guys to get us our way
over over at WBRS six and anything you guys have covered.
I remember because I was stuck in the studio. I
(04:43):
remember the the snow mcaddam. We were stuck up in
the building because we used to be up on the
mountain right and we were stuck in the building for
three days. Nobody was really prepared for that one.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
On a state wide level. We saw that system coming.
We thought it was South Alabama. South Alabama was prepared
and they actually had from a statewide level, they had
efforted resources, closed businesses and planned for that snow. But
the track shifted, it shifted north unexpectedly, and we ended
up We thought it was all going to stay south,
(05:14):
the preset would evaporate, wouldn't reach the ground, yet we
know what happened. It was chaos. It was one of
the worst disasters I have ever covered civil disasters because
of the just everybody was trapped where they were. And
that was a separate that was in twenty fourteen, so
that was before this particular event. But the one thing John,
(05:34):
I was just going to say about this event in
twenty seventeen is, at the end of the week, I
just remember going home and it started out I was
writing a blog about how the week went, how the
forecast unfolded. Next thing I know, I got three chapters wrote.
So I ended up tabling what I was writing on
that day. And then I had Bill Nauyer from Cress Publishing.
(05:56):
He approached me and said, Wes, have you ever been
interested in writing a book talking about story? I said, well,
funny enough, I started writing this book a long time ago,
so it all just fell into place and I was
glad to finally get it done. And it's just a
story about my life and some of these events that
I've covered. But it's funny though now when I kind
(06:16):
of look back and I reflect from where I started,
and John, you know how it was, you know, back
not so long ago. I don't want to say it
was a way long ago, but there was a time
when every evening you'd gather around and watch news, absolutely
and that was always fascinating to me, and especially the
weather segments and seeing what was next, what's about to happen.
(06:40):
You know, in Alabama, the weather's never boring. I mean
it's not just not that we you know, we don't
want tornadoes, right, but we do have severe weather seasons.
And you can remember, you know, severe weather seasons. We
your family, and when a tornado warning or a tornado
watch would happen, you would go to that safe place.
I never will forget my aunt had one of these.
We didn't call them storm shelters. We call them storm pits.
(07:02):
And we go to the storm pit. And I was
always scared of that thing because there were spiders down there.
But you never go and let tornado doesn't get the
spiders exactly. It was just it was just scary. You know,
you're down in this area, you're underground, you hear all
the chaos outside, you hear the the weather radio is
going off, and I mean just just you've got that
aspect of weather, you know, severe weather that happens and
(07:24):
then you turn around, you've got a hurricane season in Alabama,
and wow, I mean, look at this. You know, we've
got these systems out in the tropics, and then you
turn around you've got winter weather that can happen, ice
storms and snow. It really is a fascinating place out
the state of Alabama and just the Deep South in general,
with all the variety of weather. I mean, just look
at last year here. Recently we had the snow on
the coast. I mean that hasn't happened in like a century.
(07:47):
It was, it was crazy.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
And the thing is, you're tasked with this almost impossible
job of you have to predict this craziness every single day,
and people hold you to it. You know, if you're off,
they you hear about it. Right.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Well, listen, there's so many days when we forecast a
chance rain with forecast sunshine and highs and weather forecasting
accuracies over eighty percent. You know, we don't think about
those days, but when you do forecast something like snow,
it's held under such a microscope.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
In Alabama, just the forecast of snow closed the school.
Oh yeah, I can remember times when I was growing
up and the forecasting was not as good back in
the eighties, that like we would go home because snow
is predicted not a flake would fall, but we were
out for a day because they already canceled school.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Well, you take some situations like snowmagainin and you see
what you were the situation that you find yourself in.
You're stuck at work, you don't have any backup supplies.
You know, if you don't take some of these events
serious and just know how things can swing in the
other direction if you are not prepared, if you are
(08:51):
not ready. Some of the events you think. You look
back at ninety three, the blizzard of ninety three, we
didn't have power for a week. I mean we were
out of powerful a week. Some of the ice storms
that happened back in the eighties. You hear the stories
about power being out for not just a week, a
couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
I mean you can especially out in the if you're
out in an area where where the lines are covered
by the trees and the trees fall to the lines.
And Alabama Power, I feel like they prioritize the areas
with the most people first, and if you're like one
of three houses at the end of a dead end
road out in the country, it might be two weeks.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I'm still amazed with how quickly after some of these
tornado events. I went down to just this past March
when we had the tornado that moved through Chiltern County
and just to see how quickly the power companies can
get these lines back up. I mean, it really is amazing,
and that has they've done such a better job, you know,
and it's amazing how quickly they can get the power
back on. But you can quickly be driven back if
(09:46):
it's not just one of whether if it's severe weather,
back to where you don't have power, you don't have communication,
and it's still important to have redundancy in the way
you get information, back up batteries, you know, when we
talk about these emerging to see supply kits, I mean
you need to.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Have that batteries, water, all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
It pops up when you least expect it.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
And that's the reason why on radio we take it
so seriously, because we know if you lose power, that
big screen TV doesn't work. So that's why we simulcast
what you guys are doing, and we appreciate the way
that you always you explain for those who can't see
who are just who are having to listen? Because nothing's worse.
And if you're in this spot, I'm pointing to right here,
where's the spot? So you do always do a great
job of actually saying where the spot is.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Well, radio is great because I mean, this is real
time information. This is real time information. You take Alabama's
a place where tornadoes move faster than any other place
on the planet. You have a tornado moving sixty seventy
miles per hour. Seconds minutes are critical. So when you
think about delays, streaming delays, social media delays, listen all
(10:46):
that's great. I say, have as many ways as possible
to get weather information out because you might touch an
individual that may not have seen that information. So you
never know who you're going to reach there. However, just
know in the moment when it emerges, sees happen. You
still can't beat good old fashioned television, good old fashioned
radio when it comes to real time information. That's why
every meteorologist on the planet tells you to get a
(11:08):
knowl weather radio. It's radio, it's real time information.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
But the knowl weather radio will tell you there's something coming. Yeah,
but it doesn't cover it in real time. I mean,
it issues the warnings, but still it doesn't tell you
right now in this spot if you're on this road,
because that's when I watch you on TV. Severe weather
coverage in Alabama is like a geography lesson. You learn
the name of towns that you never thought you know,
the name of.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
You you know, like I said, I grew up in Tuscaloosa,
So growing up in the state of Alabama, I've traveled
all over this state from west to east, and I
really enjoy when I get to go visit schools and
I take advantage of those opportunities to you know, just
take note of the area I'm in, the businesses, the roads,
(11:49):
how things have changed. And sometimes on a Sunday day,
my wife and I we just love to get out
and drive, you know, it's a pretty day, get out
and drive the roads, you know, and just see the area.
I mean, Alabama is a gorgeous I mean, it's amazing.
The diversity. As far as I always tell people, Blunt
County is one of the prettiest counties in the state
of Alabama. But you go there and then you got
the golf Coast. I mean, it really is amazing Alabama.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
The beautiful it really on our license is it's still
on our license plate?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah. I think I saw a license plate the other
day with that.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I use the hashtag all the time.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I tell you that this is your point, Alabama. On
the Alabama Radio Network. My name is John Mountain, speaking
with Wes White. He's the chief meteorologist for WBrC six
and also a author. Is this your first book?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
This is my first book, John. Most of the time,
I'm messing around with music. As you know, I play music,
and I write songs and write music, and I've wanted
to do this for a long time.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
I've wrote some published works with respect to research when
I was at the University of Alabama. But as far
as book, this is it, and I'm glad the title
was still available because I've been thinking about it for
a long time. I knew what I was going to
call this book as soon as I started writing it.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Well, it is because as soon as you think snow,
you think. I always wondered if the meteorologists you have
like a cabal with it with it with the supermarkets,
about like you get a kickback every time you predicts.
Know that all right, we're selling the bread. You get
ten percent.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, it really is amazing that that's that's all. Every
time I go and speak to a group, I say, now,
you guys know I control the weather, right so but
uh but yeah, and if if you're interested in it,
it's at west whitebook dot com. You can check it out. Bread,
milk and a chance of snow. And I invite everyone
john to if if you do not follow me on
social media West Wyatt six uh for the weather, at
(13:30):
least follow me for the comments because social media that
that's sort of part of this book.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Social media has sort of changed the game. And I
see I see so many meteorologists. They just they lose patience,
you know, with when people say what about me? I
live here, what about me? And how much snow am
I going to get? How much snow am I going
to get? And listen, you know, I understand people just
want to hear from us, right And and social media
has changed the game as far as there's a lot
(13:57):
of weather enthusiasts that love to share information out there.
And now with AI, that's just the added the AI's
off the charts right now. You have to double check
what you're looking at on the video, it's been it's
been that, next level here.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Later tornado downtown. Why don't you know about it?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, exactly exactly. So who knows where you know that
that's all going to go. But I just say check
with your local meteorologists. Check check the forecast, whether you're
on the Gulf Coast North Alabama. The I always say,
at the checkout line at the gas station or at
the grocery store. You know how you look up and
(14:33):
you have all the tabloid magazines. You know, there's information
you can choose to believe or read, and there's and
and there's the real information. I always say, just check
the forecast. Sometimes apps, weather apps, that's a lot of
automated data that's coming straight from a computer, especially stock app.
So you want to make sure you check a weather
app where metiorologist is actually taking the computer data, the
(14:53):
AI or whatever it is, and actually put some reasoning
into that forecast and posted that forecast. Now, listen, as
a child growing up and a fan of weather, if
I saw a chance of snow, you better believe I'm
posting it on Facebook and I'm letting everybody know, Hey,
it might snow. In a month.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
We used to. I remember gathering when I was a
kid and we lived in Maryland, and I remember gathering
around the radio and listening for the radio forecast, listening
we were in Montgomery County, well, waiting for them to
say schools canceled Montgomery County, just waiting for that to
be announced on the radio. But now you know, you
can get it through social media and the schools they
send it out through like text messages and stuff like that.
But even still, you know, if you don't have that connectivity,
(15:31):
it's always helpful to have the TV, have the radio,
have the those outlets to be able to double check
to make sure you're really going to school.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Wasn't that a special time? It really just sit there,
you know, late at night, and you wait the ten
o'clock newses on you see little.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Crawl, you'll crawling about it and you're and if you
tuned in just past year, if it's alphabetical and you're
looking for like say Vestavia schools, and you tune in,
they just did the w S.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Darn it.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I gotta wait all the way through all my weather and.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Then the phone starts ringing. You know, I just saw it.
The schools out, you know, Englewood's out.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Back in the day in radio, and I've been doing
this twenty nine years, we used to have a code
word when this when the schools would call into the
radio station to cancel, they had to give us a
code word. And the reason why was because kids would
call in and cancel school and they say, yeah, this
is superintendent for Vestavia Schools. We're out tomorrow. Really what's
the code word? Uh, I don't know. Okay, thank you, junior.
(16:21):
But yeah, so so all of this so I guess
it's changed so much in the years. I guess cause
the computers, right, because the way the computers can forecast,
there was a time when you know, you look at
like the old the way it was done, like in
the fifties and sixties, and you guys had basically like
a like a chalkboard and you would have a big
picture of the United States and you and you'd have
like a and you have like stickers you put up
(16:41):
there a sunshine or a rain cloud or whatever. And
now the computers, you're able to tell so much so quickly,
and I mean almost down to sometimes the hour that
it's going to rain in this spot in that spot.
I mean, it's still not one hundred percent perfect because
it's the weather, but what you're able to do is
just incredible, and I think that's the reason why you're
looked at, like I said, with that reverence, like we
look at football coaches of the meteorologists. You guys, know
(17:04):
what you can see the future. Everyone else if you
think about it, the news, everyone else on the newscast
is doing what happened in the past, and you're the
only one on the news saying what will happen. You're
doing future news.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
It really is amazing what we're able to do. And
when you really sit back and you think about all
that goes into forecasting. I mean from starting each day
these weather service offices throughout the country, you have meteorologists.
As soon as the sun comes up, they go out
in the elements, they send up weather balloons. In the evenings,
they send up weather balloons. It's they're severe weather. They
send them up in the middle of the day. Each
(17:35):
one of those weather balloon launches that costs a lot
of money. And you can imagine how many of those
are going up a day across this country. We have
military personnel putting themselves in the harms way to fly
way out over the center where Atlantic. To measure the eye,
go into the eye of a hurricane, fly into this thing,
not over close to home, way out in the middle
of the Atlantic many times. But that data is so critical.
(17:58):
Current conditions is what that that's what we use. We
use a current picture current conditions to forecast future states
of the atmosphere, and we do that using math and
it's amazing. With just numbers, we can take current conditions
and tell you there's a chance of storms, it's coming Saturday,
and it's just it's fascinating and John, the thing these
(18:19):
days is, yeah, technology is better. We have more sophisticated
models now with AI, we are using that self learning
numerical forecast guidance. So in other words, you know, we
have forecast models. If something doesn't go right, if we
don't if it goes in the wrong direction, that model
will learn and it won't make that mistake again. So
(18:41):
that's it will be interesting to see where that goes.
Some of the European Model data is they now have
a European Model AI. But the thing is all this
data for television meteorologists that we didn't have Back in
the day, the Weather Service had access to a lot
of this data, but we have with the Internet, you know,
so much more data we have access to as television
(19:03):
meteorologists and as meteorologists that you see at home, and
we're able to put our forecast together, and we do
put our own forecast together, and we use that. That's
sort of our base message for the day, whether it's
here on the radio, whether it's on our ten day forecast.
And that's the first thing we do every day, we
put together the forecast, but we also look at each
(19:24):
other's forecasts from previous days and we build upon that.
We don't just come in and chase models and change
it on a dime. We always look for consistencies what
makes sense. There's a lot you would be surprised where
we need to step in as meteorologists and say, okay,
the computer's not right here, this is wrong, especially you
know when it comes to timing out storms, forecasting things
(19:46):
like I said, winter weather, things that are held under
a microscope, but basically things that are going to have
a major impact on our plans in our daily lives.
Now what we do and you'll see this at our
stations throughout the state, whether it's Huntsfielle, Waffs f and Montgomery,
we first Alert, First Alert. It's a big thing that
we do these days as sort of a call to
(20:06):
action for our television station. And you just think about, John,
how many weather events do we go through that's very
impactful to you. Some days we have tornado watches. Obviously
that's a day that that's sort of a red letter day, right,
But have you ever driven through a storm in the afternoon,
(20:28):
summer afternoon, Some of these storms that pop up, Man,
you won't even have a severe thunderstorm warning, and I
mean it's just out of nowhere. Out of nowhere, you
got gusty winds, intense cloud to ground lightning. So when
you step back and you look, there's so much weather.
Just because there's not a severe thunderstorm warning or there's
not a winter storm warning, there's so much impactful weather
(20:50):
that impacts you and what you do every day and
whether you need to cancel a job or go to
work or so. So what we do is if we
see anything impactful, and you'll see this in at our
sister stations throughout the state, we will say first Alert
weather day for extreme heat or possibility of flash flooding
and all these different things that happen, and same goes
(21:12):
for winder weather of course, which I know it kind
of got off on another subject, but that's just sort
of one of the changes that we've been able to
implement because we have so much data readily available.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
So I've got one more question for you before we
get back to the books. I do want to plug
the book one more time before we get out of here.
But when I watch the coverage and it goes on
and on and on for hours and hours and hours,
how do you Because you know, when you watch the
other TV people they've got prompters in front of they've
got all the words there. You don't. You're basically making
it up off the top of your head, and you
go on and on and on and on. What do
you do when you have to go to the bathroom?
Speaker 2 (21:45):
That's always a question. Well, I always say, hey, I
got to hand it off and got to change the
batteries in the mic.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Right is that code?
Speaker 2 (21:52):
That's code we know? Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, we do that,
and yeah there's times, you know when we have to
really change the batteries in the mic, you know, and
things like that, so we do have some backup. But
people often ask me, John, one of the questions I
get is is, look back at April twenty seventh. You know,
Mickey and I we started covering that morning. You know,
(22:13):
we had two rounds of severe weather and tornadoes that day.
That morning round, I mean it was like four am
until it didn't That day didn't come to an end
until well after sunset. And then after that, of course,
we had all the I mean, the state was devastated.
You know, we had all the stories, and we were
up all night covering all these towns like Tuscle Loocid
that had been heavily impact and things like that. But
(22:34):
people ask me, when you get in that studio and
weather it's happening in John, you know this from breaking news.
It's sort of like, I don't want this. I'm not
trying to say it's fun, like watching a football game,
but you know, when you're watching a game, you turn
around and you say, wow, it's a fourth quarter already,
And that's sort of the way it is. You know,
you kick off these events and next thing you know,
(22:55):
you've been in the studio all day. It just it
just flies by. It's not what you think. We're sort
of in the moment and basically, you know, doing what
we do.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
There's a lot of adrenaline there. And with that adrenaline,
I feel like time it's kind of like time compression,
Like you don't realize how much time actually elapsed because
you were going and going the whole time, and then
it's like, wow, that was seven hours. And meanwhile you
got your sales director for the radio station TV station. See, yeah,
we missed a lot of commercials there West. I sure
hope that was important.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
So right right, it's it's and we're sort of trained
at WBrC. You know, we got the largest weather team
in the state and do the most news. You know,
we do over seventy hours of news a week. I've
noticed that, and you know what, the viewers reward us,
and we're proud of that. And we started something John
a few years ago. It was the only we actually
(23:42):
do a thirty minute weather show five nights a week
that airs at six thirty. We started this a few
years ago and it was an experiment and turned out
it's been an incredible success. And I spoke to mediorrologists
all over the country here recently up in Huntsville at
the National Weather Association about this show, and a lot
of stations are trying this now. And when we all
kind of gathered and talked about this idea, we said,
(24:03):
a thirty minute weather show never been attempted any local
TV station in the country. This is the first time
we've had a five nine a week live local television show.
But we got thinking weather impacts everything, right, so whether
it's farming, whether it's washed, the car forecasts, and we
even had a segment cooking up a storm, your favorite
soup recipe for cold weather. And it's worked out very well.
(24:25):
So if you're in the Birmingham area, tune us in
for Weather Extra or on the internet or on the internet. Yeah,
we have the rokus and the we have the weather
apps and and we have live streams there and those
abilities as well. But again I'll just reiterate, you know,
when it comes to severe weather having redundancy multiple ways, radio, TV,
(24:48):
get those updates. You know, we're coming up right now,
We're getting closer to November, which means we're getting closer
to that fall secondary severe weather season in Alabama. So
stay weather alert absolutely.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Okay, this book is bread, Milk and a Chance of
Snow available online at your website.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Or yes is go to west Wyatt Book dot com.
West wyitebook dot com, Bread Milk and a Chance Snow.
Check it out. Let me know what you think and listen.
Let's hook up on social media so you can follow
me there. I mentioned Facebook Wes Wyatt six. I'm on Instagram.
Still trying to figure out the tiktoks. But I'll tell
you what John does, an incredible job on TikTok you
got to check out is quite entertaining.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
My daughter really makes me do most of that stuff. Well,
thank you so much for joining us. This is Viewpoint
Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network. Check out the book.
This is John Mounts and West White.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
You're listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program from
the Alabama Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
The other day, I went to work trying to fix
a problem with my sink and I only made it worse.
And the reason why is because I'm not a skilled plumber.
So I had to go and find a skilled plumber.
And if you've been through this experience, it's expensive to
call it in the plumber. And one of the reasons
expensive is because there are not a lot of good
plumbers still out there. There's all sorts of people out
(26:01):
there who want to do all sorts of like make
work jobs where they sit there at their chair and
they poke around on the computer on Facebook. But when
you need somebody to actually get their hands dirty and
get stuff done, there's not a lot of those people
out there. Joining me now is an expert in skilled trades,
Steven Stewart. Stephen, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
Thanks John, glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
There's a shortage of people who are able to do trades.
It's really gonna bite us pretty soon because we just
don't have the people to do stuff, and those people
who are willing to do it are going to get
paid pretty well.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
And it's not just say plumbing our age factor, it's
across the board. Everyone's looking for new people to come
into the fields. At seeing that shortage across the nation.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
We've been kind of conditioned to say, when you get
out of high school, you gotta go to college, and
you got to get a four year degree because you're
never going to have any money if you don't have
a respectable job with a degree. And so people are
going to college, but they're getting their degree in underwater
basket weaving or I don't know, broadcast communications, and there's
there's not a lot of jobs for those people out there.
But one of the things we are always going to need.
(27:04):
AI is not going to be able to fix your
garbage disposal. You have to have somebody to lay hands
on that equipment.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
We're not going to see many robots crawling around our
homes anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
There's a lot of people who don't have problem solving skills.
They're not able to look at an issue and instantly say, oh,
I've seen this before. They kind of a routine where
they go through if this then that. They don't really
have a logical way of looking at They just go, well,
there's something broken, let's just replace the entire thing. But
a good technician can come in and go, oh, the
reason this is doing this is I've seen this before.
(27:36):
It's this particular capacitor right here that has failed. I
can replace this capacitor and this will be a couple
hundred dollars as opposed to no, let's throw out the
whole thing and you need a new ten thousand dollars system.
And it's so important to have a technician who knows
the difference.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Sounds like you've had a pleasurable experience in the past,
but yet having a technicians walk through that and for example,
if it's that capacitor, you'll then given client options. You
know it's a capacitor, but then I also you know
the reason your capacitor field is this other component a
bad motor, bad contactor that's going to die in the
(28:12):
next thirty sixty days. You know, recommend you replace that
as well, and give you options on what's coming up
that's going to die, which comes with training experience.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
You can't get that from a book. You actually have
to be out there in the field. When you go
to hire somebody. What do you look for? How do
you screen them to know that they're able to do
the job?
Speaker 4 (28:30):
For me to say, it's client service. We do a
lot of residentials. So can they talk to people, explain things,
communicate and then that it's that technical aptitude. Do they
have an understanding so?
Speaker 1 (28:43):
And that's so true, Stephen, because you have to have
the mechanical skills in that know how, but you also
have to be good with people, because if you don't
have the people skills, you're not going to be able
to interface with the clients, to adequately figure out their
needs and take care of their needs and have them
have a good experience, because when it's all over, you
not only want your air conditioner working, but you want
the client to be able to say that guy is
(29:04):
able to do a great job. I want to have
them back so they're able to fix my air conditioning
or my heat or whatever it is the next time,
because they're good at what they do, and I, you know,
I feel like I had a friend in my house,
not just some jerk who is here to fix the
air conditioner.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
Exactly. Yes, agreed.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Well, bottom line, a good skilled technician is worth their
weight in gold. Steven, you're doing a great job out there,
and thank you for giving skilled people a place where
they can make money and while doing it, keeping us
all cool because.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
We really need that, No problem, John, appreciate you having
me yet.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
You've been listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program
from the Alabama Radio Network. The opinions expressed on Viewpoint
Alabama are not necessarily those of the staff, management, or
advertisers of this station.
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