KIFI 65 Years: Weather tech and forecasting in the early days of broadcasting
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - Since the very start of KIFI’s 65 years of broadcasting, weather reports and forecasts have been a fixture of our live broadcasts.
From a simple map, podium, and pointer, the first weather reports on KIFI were fairly basic. More of a weather report than a forecast.
Former weathercaster and news anchor Steve Cannon says, “I would drive to the airport and get the upper air configuration and the radar chart. Draw it out on the board. When it came time, we had three studio cameras, as we do now, and the charts would be there and I say, the radar shows us… and the camera would go there. Then pan over to the upper air chart. Then back to me at the weather desk.”
Steve Cannon worked in eastern Idaho television for over 40 years, retiring from KIDK and KIFI in 2019
Long before computer graphics, on-air weather presenters needed some perfect penmanship
“I had five colors, black, green, blue, red, and something else…We had a big map, covered with plexiglass.” Cannon said. “I would take these vis-a-vis water soluble markers and draw everything. Then at the end of the weathercast, I had a bottle of Windex and paper towels. Spray it down, wipe it all down, go have my supper, come back and start all over.”
Today, we take computers and weather data for granted. A meteorologist can import layers of live and forecasted data instantly.
Cannon says when remembering the first weather computers, “It will do what? Oh yeah, it will chart this and that, it will do everything. I learned that first one, then the second generation came in, then the third generation, and then everyone added to each other. The animation you could use and the color pallets you could use, that was just amazing.”
Weather technology moves so fast these days, for example, since 2006 and since that time we have updated or completely changed weather computer systems at KIFI 9 times.
