Endless Thread - Singing About the Rain

Episode Date: August 16, 2024

What is it about weather reporters that makes them so goofy? Whatever it is, today, meteorologists have appeal far beyond the airwaves. Several have gained celebrity on TikTok and YouTube. One such weatherman is WeatherAdam, a.k.a. Adam Kruger. Chief meteorologist for CW39 in Houston, Kruger has garnered millions of followers on TikTok by slipping the lyrics of pop songs into his weather reports. As Endless Thread co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson learn, that is not as easy as it sounds. ***** Credits: This episode was written and produced by Dean Russell. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski. It was edited and hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson.

Support for endless thread comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink Software, to design and develop engineered systems, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at Mathworks.com. Support for WBUR comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from the Mayrotra Institute at Boston University that explores questions like, why is innovation in healthcare so hard? Is ESG just greenwashing? of course, is business broken? Listen, wherever you get your podcasts. WBUR Podcasts, Boston. Amory, Shady, with a chance of tornado Sievertson. Ben, uh, spicy with a chance of meatballs, Johnson. How's, how's the weather? How's the weather over there? You know, I'm in a windowless, room at the moment, but last I checked, it was looking promising. How do you get your weather information? Do you, are you like lick your finger and put it up in the

wind kind of person or are you using an app? I read the almanac. Typically, no. The farmer's almanac. Let's see, caterpillars are shorter this year, which means... Go to page. I do use an app. I also listen to the radio every morning. And so that between the two, I'm like, well, so-and-so says this, but my phone says that. Who would believe? Say more about this radio that you speak of. What is that? You know, you turn the dial.

Okay. Why? What do you do for the weather? Well, I live, oh, oh, you know what I should say? There is a guy. I don't know anything about him. His name is Dave Hayes, the weather nut. and he is massive in central mass.

He's the guy that everyone goes to. His name is Dave Hayes the Weathernut. Look him up on Facebook because that's where he seems to spend his time. Oh, he's not an official meteorologist on a television station. I don't think so. I think he is. I think he's an official meteorologist, but he's not on any television station. He's just like a weather blogger who everyone trusts with their life.

Wow. And he seems to be really good. which is interesting because most weather reports seem wrong. So it may not shock you to know that maybe not surprisingly, the most common way Americans get their weather these days is through a weather app. 53% according to a 2023 poll by UGov. But given the choice between an algorithm and a real living, breathing, massive weather person like Dave Hayes, the weather nut,

more Americans think the person is more accurate. The downside of that is that you put your faith in this person and then when they're wrong, you're like, Dave. Dave. Come on. Why you got to do me dirty, Dave? You let me down. I got caught in the rain because of you, Dave. Yeah.

So it gets personal. Listeners, have you figured out that this episode is about the weather? Is a question. If you haven't, then. Yeah. Because even though we currently live in the world of absent algorithms, and fewer and fewer people are watching local news, the weatherman, the weather person, the weather correspondence, they have a reputation that goes beyond the airwaves and into that thing we call the internet. That's right. Weather people are a thing in American culture. They have a whole vibe. Here's the forecast. Volcano for Monday. Global superstorm on Tuesday.

Godzilla Wednesday, after that, though. Well, Justin Stacy, I'm happy to say that snow and wind are no longer relentlessly pelting me in the face. Whether or not you liked it or not, that's the weather. Ooh, that's funky. There's no business like a show. Business there's no business I know. Anyway, I'm sorry. We'll just get to the weather.

A few of them have become internet celebrities, and this is what we are talking and singing about. today. Oh boy. Here we go. Endless thread. Singing in the rain or about the rain. Okay, we're going to get to one specific weatherman who has been making the rounds on TikTok. But first, I want to stick with this question.

What is it about the weather reporters that make them so special, Amory? Why are they so well known as being goofy? Well, because they were all theater kids. But if you think about them in pop culture, In movies, in TV, they really are everywhere. On the list of actors who have portrayed zany or odd weather people, Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Nicole Kidman, John Travolta, Jim Gaffigan. Jim Carrey, Nicholas Cage. And of course, famously, Steve Carell in Anchorman. Rick, can you hear me?

I can't hear you, Ron. Okay, but you're answering the question, so I think you can hear me. No, I can't. What about, like, what about IRL? Ben, can you think of any real ones who are super popular other than your hyper-local Dave? Dave Hayes, the weather nut. Thank you very much. Yes. Well, on unofficial lists, you will find that one of the most popular weather reporters is from the Weather Channel. Shocking. Jim Cantori.

It just came flying by. Oh, no, Jim. Oh, Jim. It's that guy. We almost lost you. Oh, man. So Cantori owes much of his fame, obviously, to reporting out in storms. He's like that guy that's like leaning sideways into the wind trying to say something. It's so ridiculous that they make him do that.

But also, according to Time Magazine, he kind of became famous on Vine. Remember Vine, Amory? Oh, yeah. I miss Vine. There's nothing quite like Vine. I know. But apparently Cantori got famous for kneeing a would-be heckler in the groin. And then continuing to deliver the news.

We have not gotten into the worst part of this storm yet. That is to come a little bit later on tonight. So obviously here at the College of Charleston, they're already having a good time. Wow. Doesn't skip a beat. That was masterful. Okay, I have one for you, Ben. Have you seen the dancing weatherman?

No. Okay. Nick Kosher, a meteorologist for Fox Charlotte, started dancing in the studio because his Boss told him he needed to start posting more content online. Who among us? Right. Now he has more than 8 million followers on TikTok. It's the first day above 75 degrees in New York City.

Time to shake it. Wow. Oh, boy. Yeah, this has gotten him a promotion, and he now works for the National Fox Weather Channel. Another famous weather person that I have been thinking about in preparation for this conversation is Frankie McDonald. Do you know who that is? Mm-mm. So he kind of popped up on our Reddit feed a few years ago.

He is an amateur meteorologist from Nova Scotia. He's known for giving these kind of boisterous weather reports. This is Frankie McDowell, my own TV station live in City, Nova Scotia. Major storm is heading for South Dakota on Friday, October the 4th, 2,000 to 13. It's going to bring up to 30 plus millimeters of rain. So I am into that Yeah, me too And so are millions of other viewers

Frankie has thousands of videos on YouTube Some people have been a little bit mean towards Frankie He does have autism But for the most part He has received a lot of beautiful love on the internet Since he made his first YouTube video back in 2009 Oh, put me in the love column I would much rather hear from Frankie

than get a random, like, dance break after my weather report. Same. So a few months ago, a couple of folks on the Endless Thread team came across a new hero. This one particular weatherman who goes by the name Weather Adam. Who is Weather Adam? Adam Kruger is his real name. He's chief meteorologist at CW39 Houston, a local news station in Texas, with the tagline, no weight weather and traffic.

And like many weather reporters, Adam has a sort of, you know, a kind of brand, a kind of stick, Emery, if you will. Let us watch this video together. I've got temperatures up here for the next few days. Now take it to the floor. Tuesday, Wednesday morning. That's when we're in that hard freeze territory. You can see the speeds, 369.

We're just fine. But a cold front's going to sock it to us one more time with strong winds blasting in here tomorrow. We have a couple of cold fronts on the way. and temperatures will get low, get low, get low, get low. Look at next week. High is only in the 30s. Very likely we're going to see a hard freeze

and that's why you need to protect your home to the window, to the wall, and basically everywhere in between, especially the pipes. So he's doing a weather report, but he's obviously incorporating the lyrics of a huge pop hit into the video itself.

He's not wrapping the weather, but he's folding in some lyrics. and making it all work. Yes. All right. Let's watch another one. Okay. Now on radar and satellite, I see a little silhouetto of a shower west of Austin.

North Texas is where we expect to see thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening perhaps, for three days in a row. And fun fact for you, kids, it was in the 1500s when the thermoscope was invented by Galileo, which led to the invention of the thermometer. Galileo? Galileo. Yeah, not just an astronomer. I mean, I guess it's funny. right? Like I guess what's happening here is we've already described the weather as something that's generally very boring. So like in some ways, Adam is just like making it more interesting and engaging. I'm on his TikTok page and he has two million followers on TikTok. But like I'm so curious how many people in, where is he based? Where did we say he's based? Somewhere in Texas. He's in Houston. Yeah. He's in Houston. So like how many people do you think watch weather Adam? Adam,

Kruger on his, you know, local station in Houston and are picking up on all of this. It's like on TikTok, he has a home where he can say, you guys got that, right? You see, did you see what I put down? You know, like did you pick up what I put down? Whereas I wonder how many people just watching his weather reports actually pick up on it. So he's slipping it in for his TikTok audience. He's doing it for the, exactly, exactly. These are Easter eggs for the TikTok.

All right. And on the list is. Hey, yeah, by Outcast. Love that. Down with the sickness. Disturbed. Baby one more time. Big pimping.

All right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. By Usher. It was a good day by Ice Cube. I didn't even have to pull out my umbrella. I have to say it was a good day.

It's good. So whether Adam has talked about what he does, and obviously he's taking the lyrics from songs and putting them into weather reports. Sometimes he starts with a song. Sometimes he's like looking at the forecast and he just. knows what song he needs to do. So I think if you're up for the ride, up for the challenge, Amory, I think we should try this. We're going to sing the weather. Are you ready? No, but here we go.

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Reach new audiences. Whatever your goal, we can help. Discover how the magic is made at WBUR.org.org slash creative studio. Okay. So we are on a creative journey together. We're going to sing the weather, sort of. All right. I'm going to look up the weather.

You look up the weather. And then we'll do it. As we've established, it's a pretty nice day in the Boston area on the day that we are recording this. So I feel like I should look up the weather in Melbourne, Australia. Where are you looking up? I'm going to do it for here. Oh, my God.

What does this mean? This is excellent. What does what mean? So in Melbourne, Australia, Melbourne. So it's going to rain. tomorrow and I scroll down and it says severe weather alerts and effect. Sheep grazer warning. What does that mean? Like if you're putting your sheep out to pasture to graze, you might not want to do that because the weather is severe. Right. Riverine flood.

Sheep grazer warning. Yep. Riverine flood. Okay, we might have some flooding. Okay. Okay. Can you just do it? What do you think? Oh my God. I can do one and I'll do it for you and then you think about yours and you do it for me. Okay. Okay. If you're in Boston this week, you're going to like the way Boston is working in. No diggity. All week it's going to be warm. 85 on Monday, 85 on Tuesday, 83 on Wednesday. on Thursday. 78 on Friday. So if you've got some raw meats,

you're going to want to bag them up. I think it's Saturday is going to be a perfect 10. So if there's a pool around, you might want to get in. No diggedy. All right. All right. Okay.

This is just the first thing that popped into my head. Cool. All right. No pressure. In West Australia, where sheep are graced. Uh-huh. Go on. You know, with giant spiders is where I spent most of my days.

It's going to rain for a couple of days. But on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, you'll be able to shoot some B-ball after school, because it'll be nice and sunny. Yeah, which is also a good time to start trouble in your neighborhood. It's a perfect time, yep. But something you could say to the bad weather, if it gets sunny, is, yo, Holmes, smell you later. Well, we're not quite as good as Adam, are we? No, we have room for improvement.

But we are doing it right off the top of our heads. So, you know, at least cut us a little bit of a break. Now, this is a story all about how the weather gets flipped turn upside down. I'd like to take a minute. Just sit right there. I'll tell you how we go from warm to cool air. First of all, starting up in the... I mean, mad respect to him for doing this. Yeah, I mean, you have a theory, which is they're all former theater kids. I do still wonder what makes weather people so kooky.

My theory is that the weather is very mundane. Mm-hmm. He has like five or six bullet points he has to get across in any given update. Yep. And then it's just about like, how do you make those five or six bullet points entertaining enough that people really pay attention to it? Yeah. And remember it. And also I would bet also that you develop a relationship with the kooky weather person and you keep coming back for more.

And most days it's like a pretty mundane topic. But then when it is really bad, you know, it can wipe out cities. It can bring down civilizations. Yeah. And it's threatening our current civilization with, you know, climate change. So we'll see how the hurricane season is this year. All of which is to say, for a topic that it's typically made fun of for being mundane, we have a lot to say about the weather.

I guess we do. Yeah. Yeah. And also just fun fact, as we bounce out this podcast door after being very silly and chaotic, chaos theory was born out of meteorology. So maybe it's just chaos theory. Maybe because the weather can be scary and it's extremely hard to predict, maybe that draws a certain person with an aptitude for silliness and chaos to the weather person vocation.

Sure. Or maybe they're just bored. All right. Listeners, send us your favorite weather person bloopers or weather persons. we'd really like to know who your weather person is or how you get your weather. And we wish you clear skies in the meantime. Have a nice day.