Al Brown Media

It was a great day at Old Waverly. Thanks to my friend Skip!

Mistakes aren’t setbacks, they’re stepping stones. I relearned that this week. Grateful for every lesson that helps us grow stronger.

Every mistake is a chance to improve. We learn, we adjust, and we keep moving forward with purpose.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

James Spann, a television meteorologist, TikTok, and podcast host based in Birmingham, shared his thoughts on the topic on Monday night during the WeatherBrains podcast. Spann has been a meteorologist working in television for 47 years, starting in 1978.
“Some people are just furious. They feel like those local meteorologists are part of their family,” said Spann. “They have been in their child’s school to teach them the weather. They have held their hand through violent tornado outbreaks, vicious floods, or whatever high-impact events for years. And just like that, they are gone. They are out of here. I feel so badly for them that they have lost their jobs. I have been so blessed. Most everybody loses their jobs multiple times if they do what I do for a living. I’ve been pretty blessed. I don’t know exactly what it feels like, but I have had some heartbreak in my life personally, and I know that it is traumatic when you lose a job, and it just happens like that.”
“I am so sorry for those men and women who have lost their positions in broadcast meteorology. But having said that, I want everybody to hear that I am so positive about what we are going to do in the future. There will be a lot of short-term pain, and this is an example of that. There will be long-term gains in that the products and services we deliver will still be on different platforms in a much more efficient way.”
He asked the people listening to or watching the podcast what they watch at night while at home.
“You are going to watch Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, or YouTube,” said Spann “You don’t watch linear TV.”
The award-winning meteorologist then explained that the media has to provide products and services that people can consume on a regular basis and during high-impact events in order to be successful.
“Having said that, I want people to understand that as horrible as this is, in the long term, I am excited. Can the Weather Channel adequately do live tornado warning coverage for Tupelo, Mississippi, or Huntsville, Alabama? I guess we will have to wait and see. I really don’t know until it happens. But I will say this – You can’t do severe weather right unless you understand the people, culture, geography, and microclimate of the market where you serve, and you can’t do that from a distance. …. I think there will always be local meteorologists.”