[Skywarn] Mass - Radio station fires amateur meteorologist who has beat the experts for the last 35 years

[Greg Williams]

Radio weatherman airs his final forecast

By Christopher Marcisz 
Berkshire Eagle Staff

NORTH ADAMS -- As a self-taught, amateur meteorologist, George Trottier
did not think much of the regional weather forecasts aired by radio
station WMNB in the 1960s.
"They never got it right, and it used to annoy me," he remembered.

Back then, a disc jockey named Paul Scott had a call-in request show,
"Radio Rack," that broadcast every weeknight. One evening in January
1969, Trottier stopped by to say hello, and they got to talking about
the National Weather Service reports.

"I was a little cocky back then," he said. "I said to him, 'I can do a
heck of a lot better than that.' "

Scott told him to call back the next night. When he did, Scott said he
had told station owner Donald Thurston about Trottier's boast. If he was
game, Trottier was welcome to contribute a few of his own local reports
for a two-week trial period. They would compare them with the weather
service reports and see who was more accurate.

Within a week, Trottier was hired. 

"That was the beginning," he said.

After 35 years as North County's own weatherman, the end came last week
for Trottier, whose distinctive bass voice and three daily reports were,
for many, the final, localized word on what weather to expect.

He was told by the station's new management shortly after Thanksgiving
that he would no longer be needed after the end of the year. His
departure came a few months after longtime newsman Ron Plock was fired
in May by Vox Radio Group, and represents another loss of several
decades of local broadcasting experience.

The station -- now WNAW (AM 1230) and WMNB (FM 100.1) -- will do without
the personal forecasts and return to wire reports. Station manager David
Luyk told the North Adams Transcript last week that there are many
credible ways to get weather forecasts, including from The Associated
Press and the National Weather Service.

"The tough thing is that it does hurt, and it is hard to say good-bye to
a member of our family," Luyk said. "I don't think the listeners of WNAW
will notice a decline in the weather information we provide to them."

Trottier, 65, is unhappy about the decision and blames the new
management for the change. He said he has always had a good relationship
with the employees of the station through various owners.

"I always had a great rapport with the employees down there," he said.
"They all were very good to me."

He said he does not understand the motivation, particularly since he
made a modest few hundred dollars a month for his reports. "It can't be
a cost-cutting move," he said. "That's certainly not going to break a
corporation."

Trottier, who is legally blind, works from his home in North Adams,
where he has pored over raw data from the National Weather Service to
put together his forecasts.

He has put together his reports over the past 10 years with the help of
a computer program that translates the data on his computer screen into
audio.

"It doesn't affect me," he said of his vision. "If anything, I work
harder at it, and I think it makes me better."

Trottier says North County is characterized by "vest pocket weather,"
where the mountains and valleys create their own weather system that is
hard to understand from a computer model and that can be quite different
from nearby regions.

"Other services kind of regionalize their reports for a wider area, so
the accuracy hurts," he said. "I focus on one area and from that make up
my own local forecast."

He also said that local knowledge is a key component in creating
accurate forecasts. As a North Adams native, he feels this is a clear
advantage over other services.

"The weather here is something I grew up with," he said. "I know exactly
what each system is more than likely to do."

That knowledge has come in handy in the past. On Oct. 4, 1987, a wet,
heavy snow began to fall on North Adams, at a time when the leaves were
still on the trees. That also happened to be the day of the annual Fall
Foliage Parade.

Trottier said Mayor John Barrett III called that morning to ask whether
the festivities should be canceled. It was an important decision that
turned Trottier into a "nervous wreck," because an event of that size
can't be postponed or rescheduled.

He advised Barrett to cancel, which the mayor did without argument. "By
parade time, [snow] was coming down to beat the band, and it kept up
until late afternoon," he said. If the parade had gone on, everyone
"would have been marooned here."

Through the years, he has provided forecasts and reports for other
sources, from city crews to ski areas, and is by no means planning to
retire. "I'm working on a few possibilities, and I'm almost positive in
the near future I may have something else," he said.

Since word got out Thursday about the station's decision, he said he has
received many calls of support from friends and well-wishers.

"It makes me feel good," he said. "I can't believe it was so popular. I
thought it would just come and go, but some people were irate."




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Gregory S. Williams
k4hsm at knology.net