Lightning Fast Format Changes And Back Again

[Donna Halper]

At 12:54 PM 10/26/2009, Todd Glickman wrote:

>It turns out because there is no national nor
>state licensing, anyone can call him/herself a meteorologist.

And in radio's early years, that's kind of what happened, with anyone 
who wanted to predict the weather doing so.  But gradually, the field 
did get professionalized.  Perhaps the first and best known local 
radio weatherman in Boston was E.B. Rideout (the E stood for 
Edward).  His name became synonymous with forecasting.  And as early 
as 1925, the press referred to him as a meteorologist.  E.B. was 
known to have excellent credentials in the study of atmospheric 
conditions, and other factors related to forecasting-- given how 
primitive (compared to what weathercasters have today) his available 
equipment was, it's amazing he was as accurate as he was.  E.B. 
Rideout was, of course, on the old WEEI (Edison Electric Illuminating 
Company). WBZ's first meteorologist was also experienced in the 
actual science of weather forecasting-- Geoffrey H. Noyes came from 
the U.S. Weather Bureau, which is also where Rideout had worked 
before going into broadcasting.