1. E. Zoë Stetson, M.S.
36 Harbour Close, New Haven, Connecticut 06519 203-562-5431
ezoestetson@yahoo.com
(Feature article on Geoff Fox, (former) WTNH-TV weatherman)
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Even though it's been an hour since the 6:00 p.m. evening news ended, WTNH-
TV weatherman Geoff Fox is still "on" as he goes from table to table, shaking hands with
banquet guests at Anthony's Ocean View restaurant in East Haven, Conn.
"Glad you could make it; nice to see you," he says as he works the well-dressed
crowd like a groom at a wedding. The boyish looking weatherman stops to chat at an
awe-struck, mostly female table. He then moves on to another table to crack a few
weight jokes about Ann Nyberg, the svelte news anchor with whom he shares the
weeknight spotlight. The guests smile and twitter in his direction as he leaves them.
After greeting nearly 300 people at the room's 30 tables, Fox, immaculately
dressed in a black suit, walks to the dais in front and assumes the role of MC for Gateway
Community-Technical College's first Hall of Fame fund-raising dinner.
"The television camera adds 20 to 25 pounds to you" he jokes between
introductions of the event's three, community leader honorees. "What they don't tell you
is that it stays on when you're off the air."
The crowd cackles.
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2. Later, on a more somber note, he tells the smiling audience, "So often, the only
news we cover on television is the bad news. I salute the people who have come here for
this fine cause tonight."
The crowd enthusiastically applauds.
On the 11:00 p.m. newscast that night, Fox kicks-off his mid-week forecast with a
similar remark, and then graciously mentions the names of the dinner's awardees.
"Giving something back to the community" has become a regular routine for the
48-year-old personality. The college-fund raiser is just one of numerous, similar
functions that Fox has MC'd, co-hosted or attended during his 15 years as a weatherman
at New Haven's ABC affiliate. By his own estimation he's at an event at least "once or
twice a week" and does "a lot of walks for charity."
Later that week, he's the guest on a student-produced television program at
Quinnipiac College in Hamden, Conn. From the show's newsroom set, he dispenses
advice on breaking into television news to an enthralled audience of 25 undergraduate
mass communications majors.
But make no mistake, reporting the weather remains the first commitment of this
seven time, Emmy-winning forecaster.
"I better know my job," Fox says soberly as he prepares for the 11:00 p.m.
newscast several evenings later. "People are going to make important decisions based on
what I say."
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3. Dressed in an expensive black suit and make-up stained white cotton shirt
accentuated with a red tie with rows of "Scotty" dogs on it, Fox sits at the "Storm Team
8" weather station in the TV newsroom at 8 Elm Street.
The weather station, where Fox prepares his nightly forecast, is an elaborate
combination of a computer and nine television screens showing weather-related graphics
and temperature information. This space also includes his desk, which is strewn with an
assortment of green paper wire service weather reports and a half-full, styrofoam cup of
Dunkin' Donuts coffee.
Fox fiddles with a weather graphic on one of the screens. It's a truck caught in a
snowstorm. Across it reads "Grand Rapids, ND - snowing."
"There is power in this job and an obligation to do it wisely," he says, still
adjusting the screen's image. "I know my mom is watching. I know I could scare her."
Fox's road to weather wasn't crystal clear when he first entered broadcasting in the
mid -1970s, however. Back then, the dark-haired personality's interest was radio.
"I wanted to be in radio as far back as I can remember," says the brown-eyed Fox,
who grew up in Queens, N.Y. "In high school, I was a radio actor in productions for the
board of education. I worked with professional actors and did this instead of taking
English class."
Fox says he played "young parts" in mostly historical productions that were
broadcast in classrooms. "I was 'young' everything; ‘young' Orville Wright, 'young'
Teddy Roosevelt," he laughs.
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4. After a brief stint at Emerson University in Boston, where he majored in mass
communications and worked as a disc jockey at the college radio station, he dropped out
and got his first job as a morning DJ in Fall River, Mass.
Subsequent jobs followed in West Palm Beach, Charlotte, Phoenix and
Philadelphia. In the late 1970s, at the now defunct top-forty Philadelphia radio station
WIFI, Fox met his wife of 15 years, Helaine.
In 1980, bored with radio, he made the switch to television.
"I made a tape of everything that I had done on camera and got hired to co-host a
show called P.M. Magazine at WGRZ in Buffalo, N.Y.," he says.
An opening for a weekend weather anchor at the station created a new
opportunity and Fox, who has "always loved science," was hired.
"I decided to learn more about weather to make myself more valuable," says the
admitted hard worker with a "huge ego." “I'm very self-motivated."
Fox became so good at his job, in fact, that the news director of the competing
station in Buffalo referred him to New Haven for a weather opening at WTNH.
"I took it as a compliment that he wanted to get rid of me," he grins. Fox was
hired in May, 1983. He moved to Hamden with Helaine and three years later their
daughter Stephanie, now ll, was born.
Fox pauses for a moment to survey a green sheet that has just spewed forth from
the wire service machine at his desk. Looking at the intricate notations he marvels, "It's
fascinating that you can take columns of numbers like this and make them mean
something."
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5. It's now ten minutes until news time and Fox begins to get ready. It's a ritual he
goes through three times each evening, Monday through Friday, as he prepares for his
two and one half minutes of air time on the 5:00 p.m. or 5:30 p.m., and 6:00 p.m. and
11:00 p.m. newscasts.
He stands up and straps a black metal box, the size of a transistor radio, to his
waist. The box controls his weather graphics. Unlike the rest of the ten-person
newsroom, which is frantically trying to determine if the news should lead with a story
about the New England Patriots football team coming to Connecticut, Fox is calm.
New anchor Ann Nyberg shouts to someone to call the station's political reporter
Mark Davis at home "immediately" and ask him to call the governor to confirm the story.
The lady-like anchor then utters a stream of unseemly expletives. Fox just smiles.
He has worked with the attractive, blond Nyberg for most of his 15 years at the
station and socialized with her and her husband outside of work before both had families.
He jokingly calls Nyberg and the other members of the nightly news team "one big
family - the Manson family."
Once on the news set, located in a large, chilly room directly off the newsroom,
the camaraderie and joking between the anchors continues up until airtime.
Acting silly both off and on the air is something for which Fox has become
known. Earlier, he had said, "I know when it's OK to screw around on the air because I
know my job. Knowing the weather allows me to do this."
"I know I act silly sometimes," he continued, "but people know that I have their
best interests at heart."
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6. All kidding aside, Fox concedes that “there is pressure to complete a story and do
it right.” But despite the pressure, he proudly says, "There's not much I don't like about
my job. Sometimes I disagree with my bosses, but that's about it."
Fox lingers on the sidelines of the set waiting for his cue to lead in to a
commercial with a weather "tease." One of the set's three cameramen points to him and
he becomes instantly animated.
"Don't go to bed yet," he admonishes the viewing audience with a dimpled grin.
"There's more news channel 8 to come."
As the station breaks for the commercial, he races back to his "Storm Team 8"
desk for one last look at new green wire copy. With a satisfied look, he returns to the set
to dispense his two-plus minutes of weather.
Like thousands of similar, uneventful forecasts he's predicted, the time goes by
quickly, and it's on to sports with news about the Patriots.
Fox leaves the set one final time and heads toward his weather desk. "Today was
great," he says as he takes off the black box from his waist and drops it on the table. "It's
difficult to make a mistake when there are no clouds in the sky."
As another day in the newsroom draws to a close, Fox heads for the station exit
and enthusiastically says he'll keep "doing the weather as long as I can."
"After almost 30 years on the air, I still get off on doing what I do."
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7. All kidding aside, Fox concedes that “there is pressure to complete a story and do
it right.” But despite the pressure, he proudly says, "There's not much I don't like about
my job. Sometimes I disagree with my bosses, but that's about it."
Fox lingers on the sidelines of the set waiting for his cue to lead in to a
commercial with a weather "tease." One of the set's three cameramen points to him and
he becomes instantly animated.
"Don't go to bed yet," he admonishes the viewing audience with a dimpled grin.
"There's more news channel 8 to come."
As the station breaks for the commercial, he races back to his "Storm Team 8"
desk for one last look at new green wire copy. With a satisfied look, he returns to the set
to dispense his two-plus minutes of weather.
Like thousands of similar, uneventful forecasts he's predicted, the time goes by
quickly, and it's on to sports with news about the Patriots.
Fox leaves the set one final time and heads toward his weather desk. "Today was
great," he says as he takes off the black box from his waist and drops it on the table. "It's
difficult to make a mistake when there are no clouds in the sky."
As another day in the newsroom draws to a close, Fox heads for the station exit
and enthusiastically says he'll keep "doing the weather as long as I can."
"After almost 30 years on the air, I still get off on doing what I do."
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