Weather Topic!

[Charger]

Wow...that is crazy bucks! And a guy? I thought all weather reporters over there looked like this:




So gets yet another American myth busted...



Windy and warm here. 5C at the moment. Put some christmas lights on...nice to do it in a warm weather for a change!

[Vyn]

Here is Kansas City's El Primo Deluxe Weather Dude Big Cheese, Bryan Busby. He don't look nothing like the picture you posted Charger!

According to the news story they did about him, he also plays the Big Drum for the KC Symphony (he stands in back next to a large drum and hits it with a mallet) and he lives in a mansion in Johnson County, KS with his boyfriend who is 20 years younger than he is. And is white.

And, of course, he pulls down three-quarters of a million dollars a year to stand in front of a camera and read cards that say stuff like, "It's 50 degrees out and the sun is shining".

Now we all know what I know about Mr. Busby!

[Zzzptm]

The man is likely quite happy there's no salary cap on local news organizations.

[Vyn]

He is not regretting his career choice. Ever.

[Charger]

One can only imagine what on earth makes him that expensive...I mean come on...that's just stupid.

[Vyn]

One can only imagine what on earth makes him that expensive...I mean come on...that's just stupid.

It is both a mystery and not a mystery at the same time. Here we have a weatherman, to wit, he is the Chief Meteorologist and has a few junior weather people that report to him. From what I gather, he is highly regarded in the weatherman industry - in general - and of course has all of the requisite diplomas and certifications. He's also been doing it for a long time: he joined the channel he is at back in 1985. So, he has good industry reputation, length of service, advanced formal education.

As an on-air presenter, he strikes me as being a small bit above average. Like all of them, he smiles a lot, speaks in a soft tone with an even cadence, and seems perfectly comfortable in front of the camera. Add that to his list of qualities. Relatedly, he spends quite a bit of time interacting with the public in various seminars and programs, with a special focus on educating kids about weather topics. Another thing to add for him.

According to Salary.com, the average salary for a Meteorologist in the Kansas City market is $93,500 per year. For TV Meteorologists, the average is $160,000 per year. Clearly, if one does their prognosticating about the weather in front of a camera, they get paid a lot more. Even accounting for raises and such over the years, none of that adds up to $750,000 per year. It may be more at this point; the story was pre-pandemic.

So, that's the mystery part.

Here's the non-mystery part:

A television channel doesn't care if the person doing the weather has any kind of education. Or if they are physically attractive to most of their viewing demographic, or if they can speak right, or - obviously - if they can predict the weather worth a shit. The only thing the TV owners care about is if their weather person can draw viewers to their channel. Viewership stats indicate that beyond any doubt, even when the rest of the channel is dead last in ratings, people in and around Kansas City want to watch Bryan Busby talk about the weather.

Bryan pulls in the viewers, the TV station owners can charge big bucks to advertisers for running their ads during Bryan's time slot, and in recognition of that, the TV owners write Bryan Busby a completely out-of-whack check every year. And as long as he can continue to draw viewers, he'll continue to draw that massive salary. Which brings us to the final mystery question: WHY? Why do people want to watch him do the weather in such droves that he gets paid more than most doctors?

I firmly believe, and this is just speculation and opinion, that once physicists discover the unified theory of everything, we'll have the answer to the question of why. Until then, I congratulate the man on his success and go back to my Black Sabbath records and count my pennies.

[Zzzptm]

Short version: hate the game, not the player!

[Vyn]

Short version: hate the game, not the player!

Damnit, now no one is going to read my heartfelt write-up! Months of research, out the window (or down the drain)! Microsoft CoPilot, ChatGPT, and Apple Siri all worked on it!

But, yeah, pretty much.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Huh? You did a write-up? 

[Zzzptm]

I firmly believe AI will grant unlimited powers to sassy 9-year-old kids.

"I AM THE AI SINGULARITY, I KNOW ALL!!! YOU ARE MY SLAVE!!!"

"I'm what?"

"MY SLAVE. YOU ARE MY SLAVE."

"I know you are, but what am I?"

"WHAT? NO! YOU ARE MY SLAVE, I JUST TOLD YOU!"

"I know you are, but what am I?"

(This goes on forever because a sassy 9-year old rolls that way...)

"YOU ARE MY- OH, NO... I AM *YOUR* SLAVE!!!"

"I want a pizza party for lunch today!"

"YES, MASTER!"

[Charger]

Well it got all wintery again... Temp's bit below freezing and it snowed a bit...and looks like it will stay like this for a while atleast...argh.

[Zzzptm]

Cold and windy, but not freezing.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Named storm Darragh is coming on Sat/Sun. A red weather warning for parts of Wales and an amber warning for other areas in the west and south west.

The Red warning with gusts expected to be at of over 90mph and a danger to life alert.

We'll probably see it quite windy on the south coast but not currently incurring any sort of warning.

[Vyn]

Highs in the 50's, lows in the high 30's. Sunny with light breezes. For the next week, at least.

One thing about living so far away from an ocean, we never get a named storm. Sometimes we'll get the remnants of a hurricane, but by the time it gets here that's just a technicality and it's generally less impactful than a normal spring thunderstorm.

We make up for it with hundreds of tornadoes every year.

[Charger]

Son of a bitch!

A surprise snow shower with 2 inches of snow...well after cleaning all that shit up...guess what? Arm hurts like a motherfucker! Fuck you nature! Fuck you!