12-4 Tlie Florida Timds-Union,' Jacksonville, Tuesday, Juno 16, 1981 1 ackson ville 9 s TV weathermen are pretty fair - Staff TV-4’s George Wintering, the most experienced of Jack sonville’s weather anchors, looks over his maps. It’s easy to take TV weather anchors for granted if you live in Jacksonville — unless you’re a TV news director. News anchors draw the most attention when they are fired or hired. Sports anchors generally get more time on the air. But these days, it is the weather anchor who is the most difficult to replace. The state of TV weather forecasting in most cities this size — and even larger — is sad. Although many stations have the same sophisticated radar equipment used here, tew have been able to do much with the human element. In the Orlandos, Charlottes and Nashvilles, it is not at all unusual to find people doing the weather who either look like amateurs or sound like they don’t know what they’re talking about. They simply are more polished ver sions of the classic “weather girl" phenomenon of ’60s. That is beginning to change — and Jacksonville is feel ing the pinch “You really are always looking for the best of both worlds,” said WJXT-TV-4 news director Steve Wasser- man, “and they are few and far between. Now the news consultants are moving away from concentrating on news anchors and turning to sports and weather. “The consultants now are telling stations they need to TV in focus Dave Montoro s-Union Television E have a good weather anchor. So the good ones have been snapped up fast. I wouldn’t want to be hiring a weather man right now — especially a No. 2 person. I don’t envy Tom.” The Tom in question is WTLV-TV-12 news director Tom Sanders, who is in the not-very-enviable position of finding a permanent replacement for Bruce Edwards, who left the station for the top weather anchoring job at a West Virginia station. TV-4’s George Winterling, TV-12’s Ray Boylan and WJKS-TV-17’s Glenn Wood all make Sanders’ job even 0D WESM (NBC) CD WSAV (NBC) 0 WJXT (CBS) © WUFT (PBS) d) WDBO (CBS) ® WCtV (CBS) © WJCT (PBS) CD WXGA (PBS) @ WGN (Chicago) <m WVAN (PBS) m WAUi (NBC) (U) WYOC (CBS) Television ©t WFSU (PBS) m WTLV (ABC) SB WJKS (NBC) 02) VVTBS (Atlanta) © WCJB (ABC) © WJCL (ABC) © WECA (ABC) @9 WAWS (ind.) © WVGA (ABC) ED WXAO (ind.) 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EB ® © © © Happy Days Fonzie's imagination Transports ihe gang into a world where a mad scientist is trying to drain the Fonz of his cool. (R) (Area Cablevision 12) The Garden Spot Former county agent and Jacksonville Journal columnist Jim Watson offers tips on lawn care. © Baseball: Atlanta at New York 63 Movie "Cape Fear." (1962) Gregory Peck. ED 700 Club (ESPN) NASL Soccer: Week In Review 8:30 EB ® © @ ® Laverne & Shirley Laverne and Shirley take iobs wrapping gifts at a department store. (R) (CC) (ESPN) Tennis: 1975 Wimbledon High lights. 9:00 ®®® ED Opryland: Night Of Stars And Futu restars (Special) Host Gene Kelly is ioined by Glen Campbell, Tanya Tucker, Ben Vereen, Mickey Gilley and eight aspiring young performers. ®©®d® Mystery (CC) "RumpoleAnd The Learned Friends." (R) ©t Nova "The Dead Sea Lives." (R) (CC) EB®©@@ Three's Company Chrissy moves out and Jack arid Janet are left to find a new roommate. (R) (CC) ED Kenneth Copeland (NIK) Paris: The Dream And The Reality Great Paintings: Gustave Courbet's "Huntsmen Picnic;" (9:10) Grand Pas Clas- sigues: "La Sylphide." A ballet featuring Ghis- laine Thesmar and Michael Denard; music by Schnietzhoeffer; choreographed by Philippe Taglioni; (9:40) “L’Hotel." Flutist Michel harder. By comparision, most candidates look like ama teurs. All three prime weather anchors are certified members of the American Meteorological Society, which means they know the scientific aspects of weather and have es tablished on-the-air experience. But more importantly, all three are professional broadcasters. They have creden tials and appealing deliveries. A station can hire a weekend news anchor who may not be the best reporter around, but has a great on-the-air de livery Sports anchors must have both skills, but there are plenty of general broadcasters out there who know their way around a football field or baseball diamond. But few people have even a passing knowledge of cold fronts and tropical depressions. And if they do, they often end up like Lisa Godfrey, who tried the weekend weather spot on TV-12 two weeks ago. She had a degree in meteor ology, but that didn’t make her a broadcaster — certainly not in comparison to Winterling, Boylan or Wood. After the weekend trial, Sanders let her go. As he points out, the station can’t afford to put someone on the air anymore and let him or her learn how to be good. The weather segment is too important in this part of Florida. It probably didn’t seem that way for viewers who watched the weekend version of Action News this past two months. Fred Matthews and then Miss Godfrey left plenty to be desired. Sanders had hoped both would spar kle once the TV lights came on — but it didn’t take long to change his mind. So with Ray Boylan going on vacation in a few weeks, the Florida heat was beginning to make Sanders sweat in more ways than one. If he can’t take chances with the weekend weather, then he certainly can’t with the prime weeknight forecasts. The solution is a fellow named Nick Gregory, a student at Lyndon State College in Vermont. Gregory may be young, but apparently he’s good, since the Cable News Network has been willing to fly him to Atlanta from time to time to do relief weather anchoring. Sanders has procured him for the two weeks Boylan will be gone ana he hopes to be able to convince him to stay — that is, unless CNN hires him full-time. If you like Gregory, give him a call. Tell him how nice it is in Jacksonville. You’ll be making Sanders’ job a lot easier. The flap following Vicki Verdery’s ouster from the an chor position on TV-12’s Action News has come to an end of sorts. Miss Verdery was given notice in May that she no long er would anchor the news when Morris Jones started with station in June. That led to an involved contract dispute whereby she claimed the station was obligated to continue using her in anchor position for the remainder of her con tract. Sanders took issue with that and offered her a reporting position, then reconsidered and offered the weekend as signments editor spot. When Miss Verdery stuck to her guns about returning only in an anchoring spot, Sanders called it quits and notified her that she no longer worked for the station. It is still not clear whether she will pursue the issue. But she has turned her eyes to TV-4 and the opening there for a weekend news anchor. Wasserman has made no deci sion, but again has not ruled out hiring her. TV-12 could not be in a better position with its parent company, Harte-IIanks Communications, Inc. George Anderson, who was general manager of TV-12 for two years, has just been promoted to president of the company’s television group in San Antonio, Texas.