Weather Channel

Mondo Times editors    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 10:37pm on Saturday, July 25th, 2009

Michael J. Kelly has been named president and CEO of The Weather Channel Companies, the company announced on July 20, 2009. From the press release:

Michael J. Kelly, former president of AOL Media Networks, has been named President/CEO of The Weather Channel Companies (TWCC). Kelly will be responsible for the strategic direction and operations of TWCC which includes The Weather Channel, the second most distributed cable network, available in 99 million homes; The Weather Channel Interactive and weather.com, the third most visited news and information brand with 41.5 million monthly unique visitors; and The Weather Channel Mobile, the largest content provider on the mobile Web; as well as Weather Services International and Enterprise Electronics Corporation.

In a joint statement, Lisa Gersh, president of strategic initiatives at NBC Universal who has been serving as interim CEO of TWCC; Michael Chae, senior managing director of the Blackstone Group; and Ian Loring, managing director of Bain Capital, said, "Mike Kelly is a seasoned media executive who will lead TWCC in reaching the great potential envisioned when NBCU, Bain Capital and Blackstone came together to purchase the company last year. He understands how to reach our viewers and users and partner with our advertisers in order to maximize the growth of the business on a cross-platform basis."

Kelly has nearly 30 years experience in media and since 2007 has served as an advisor to Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a media-focused private equity fund, identifying and assessing digital media investment opportunities. He also served on the board of several fast-growing digital media companies -- Eyeblaster, Visible World and American Town Network -- and as an advisor to the board of Contextweb.

As president of AOL Media networks, a division of Time Warner, from 2004 to 2007, Kelly effected enormous change at AOL and in the industry by pioneering the media network strategy through a number of successful acquisitions such as Advertising.com and Third Screen Media. Under his leadership AOL was repositioned in the media and advertising marketplace and experienced significant advertising revenue growth. Previously, Kelly served as president of global marketing at Time Warner, working with all of its companies to bring cross-platform marketing solutions to major advertisers.

"The Weather Channel Companies is a unique organization; it is the premier weather information destination on every platform - TV, Web, Mobile and business to business," said Kelly. "This is a remarkable and exciting opportunity to be part of a powerful media brand which delivers consumers the information they want where and when they want it while offering advertisers cutting edge cross-platform solutions. This multi-platform success will fuel our growth."

Kelly began his media career in 1980 at the Chicago Tribune. In 1983 he began a successful 17 years at Time Inc., first at Fortune magazine where he managed the Southeast and New York sales offices and then as part of the launch team of Entertainment Weekly, eventually becoming EW's publisher. Kelly was named Publisher of the Year twice during the four years he served in that role.

A proven entrepreneur, in 2000 Kelly founded American Town Network (www.americantowns.com), a locally focused and community-based digital platform, serving as CEO and bringing the company from concept to operating entity."

Mondo Times editors    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 8:03pm on Monday, June 8th, 2009

The Weather Channel broadcasted live footage of a super cell tornado in Goshen County, Wyoming on June 5, 2009.

The Weather Channel broadcasted and streamed online live footage of a super cell tornado in Goshen County, WY. The footage was broadcast live and commercial free for over an hour by the TWC team embedded with Vortex2.

TWC broadcasted live transmissions from moving vehicles as they tracked the storm.

VORTEX2 (Verification of the Origin of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment 2) is the largest field experiment in history to explore tornadoes. The VORTEX2 project is designed to study tornadoes as they've never been seen before to better understand how, when and why tornadoes form and to help improve alert skill.

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 4:51pm on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Keith Olbermann's girlfriend Katy Tur has joined The Weather Channel, TVNewser reported on May 11, 2009:

"Katy Tur, girlfriend of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, "is now chasing tornadoes as part of The Weather Channel's Vortex2 team."

Weather Channel meteorologist Mike Bettes introduced Tur on Friday as one of the Vortex2 digital journalists in a short Q&A. What is she most looking forward to? "Tornadoes...duh, Bettes," she said.

But since NBCU owns both MSNBC and The Weather Channel, questions may arise about whether the relationship helped get the job. Olbermann tells TVNewser: "Anybody who suggests so is misinformed, and/or sadly unaware that in this time when the industry is collapsing around us, nobody gets a job based on 'influence,' only talent."

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 7:01pm on Thursday, April 30th, 2009

Al Roker will host "Wake Up With Al" weekday mornings on The Weather Channel, the cable TV service announced on April 29, 2009:

"Al Roker, widely recognized as America's favorite weatherman, has been named host of Wake Up With Al, a new weekday morning program on The Weather Channel (TWC). Roker will join TWC's Stephanie Abrams, who will serve as his co-host. The announcement was made today by Lisa Gersh, interim CEO of The Weather Channel. The one-hour program will air weekdays from 6-7 a.m. ET and premiere this summer.

"Simply put - Al Roker is synonymous with weather. He has an energy and a style that jumps off the screen, and we already know that people want to wake up with him in the morning," said Gersh. "We have spent months coming up with the right way to integrate Al into The Weather Channel programming, and I think, alongside Stephanie, we've come up with the perfect formula with this announcement."

Wake Up With Al will air live from both New York City and Atlanta.

Roker has been the weather and feature reporter on NBC News' Today since January 1996. Until January of 2000, he also served as the weekday weather forecaster for News Channel 4's early evening newscast Live at 5 on WNBC-TV, NBC's flagship owned and operated station in New York City. Prior to joining WNBC, Roker worked as a weatherman for more than seven years."