Wednesday, March 31, 2021

20 Years Ago I Started at KAIT

    Officially, I started at KAIT 20 years ago today. There seems to be some confusion on *when* I started because the official documents say today, but my memory has my first day being March 27th. Regardless, I'm 100% sure my first day ON AIR at KAIT was April 3, 2001. I know this for two reasons. First, it was my birthday. Second, it was for a tornado warning in Cross County. Whew, my coverage was horrible. I stumbled all over the place and I called Wynne.... WINE. At least, I was much skinnier and had more hair.

Anywho, It was a Tuesday night. I had watched Mark Frankum do the 5:00 and 6:00 news and we were in the Storm Center going over several things regarding my new job. A tornado warning was issued at 7:47 PM for Cross County. A storm with rotation was coming out of Jackson County and moving into Cross County. Mark surprisingly handed me a mic, I put in my earpiece, and stumbled through the coverage. When I mispronounced Wynne as "wine", a voice comes in my ear and says "Wyyyyyne"... All confidence was gone for the rest of the warning!  If you notice, this was when a tornado warning included the entire county instead of a polygon:

The storm continued moving south and the warning was expanded to include St. Francis county, too. 

Thankfully a tornado never touched down! Also, thankfully I learned how to say "Wynne". Coincidentally, I was in Wynne for their tornado warning last Saturday night, which I still believe was my real 20 year anniversary of working with this company. 

Side note: I did transfer to another one of our stations for a little over 2 years. I loved my brief time in Alabama, but LOVE that we made Region 8 our home to raise our kids. 

Have a great night!
Ryan

3 comments:

Courtney said...

I've been watching you from the beginning, I was 10 when you came on!
So many memories, from staying up on Christmas to listen to you track Santa,to looking to you for severe storms and guiding us on what to do. Region 8 is so blessed to have you. Thanks for always tracking, always watching and always being there!

Anonymous said...

There are two great weather men that I know of you and mr Dave brown
I will always be grateful for what you do .Thanks so much for your service to the community.

Rick said...

Ryan, we always believed that we had a good weatherman for severe weather but we didn't know how good until we were traveling and ran into some severe weather. There was no comparison. You have built a great team! We appreciate you more now than ever.