The Forecast for Bob Kovachick –
Cool, Calm and Always Pleasant By Maureen Werther, Photos Provided
It’s a cloudy, cold and overcast morning as I grab by my notepad and purse from my car and hurry through the doors of the Saratoga Springs Public Library. I’m meeting Bob Kovachick in the small café inside and I don’t want to be late. I’ve arrived first and I see that all the tables are taken. There’s a group here from Saratoga Bridges having a lively conversation. When Bob enters, one of the ladies immediately comes over, starting up a conversation with him. It’s almost as if they are resuming a chat that was interrupted earlier. Not missing a beat, Bob responds to the woman’s questions with a playful banter and relaxed good humor. After a few minutes, we say goodbye to the lady and wander through the library in search of a quiet place for our interview. Once seated comfortably in some leather arm chairs in the Fiction section, we begin a conversation of our own. “This may sound corny, but I was interested in weather since I was a kid, probably starting in 7th or 8th grade. I don’t know what triggered it, but I used to write down the weather every day- the high and low temperatures, whether it rained or snowed. So, in junior high school, I just began studying it. I spent a lot of time in the library. This was long before the internet, don’t forget.” Listening to Bob, I think to myself how funny it is that some people just seem to know what they are meant to do from the time they are young; while others spend their whole lives searching for work that has meaning for them. I can’t help but be reminded of my recent conversation with Benita Zahn, talking about
the “sorting hat” from the Harry Potter books. The subject just seems to choose the person. For so many of these people who have made news, weather – a public life in media – their careers, the sorting hat seems to have chosen well for them. When it came time for Bob to enter college, He chose Linden State College in VT, where he majored in meteorology and atmospheric science. Following graduation, Bob got a job working in aviation weather from 1972 to 1977, forecasting for pilots. “But I used to watch TV weather all the time growing up in Westchester County and I thought, ‘I’d like to try that someday.’” So, in the late 70’s, the young aviation weather forecaster – with absolutely no TV or media experience – sent a resume and tape to Channel 10 in Albany. And, lo and behold, he got the job. “I didn’t know the front end from the back end of a TV camera,” he says, with a good-natured smile. Bob remained with Channel 10 for the next seven or eight years, leaving the Albany area for a two-year stint on the news in Pittsburgh before returning here. “My wife and I both really liked the Northeast, so we came back here in 1988, and I’ve been with News Channel 13 ever since.” “And I’m still trying to figure out Mother Nature,” he adds. Sitting with Bob in the library, chatting about life, family, and careers, I am struck by the fact that, with this man, what you see is exactly what you get – whether he’s in front of a camera or in the middle of the quietly bustling library on a cloudy
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Wednesday morning. There is no pretense, no ego, no exaggerated sense of self-importance or impatience. Bob has a smile, a nod or a friendly hello for everyone who passes by. As if sensing my thoughts, Bob talks about being in the media. “I learned early on to just be yourself. Don’t try to be somebody else. People can tell when you’re not being authentic.” He goes on to talk about his first time in front of the camera. “I was scared to death,” he says, laughing that laugh we are all so familiar with from listening to him on the evening news for so many years. “I remember it like it was yesterday – it was May 9, 1977 – my first day on TV in Albany --- and it was snowing! I remember saying to myself, ‘Why the heck is it snowing in Albany in May??’” “But, like anything in life you get used to it,” he adds, referring, not to snow in May, but to being in front of a camera. “You get more comfortable and, after a while, it becomes second nature.” I start to think about the weather and what an important topic of conversation it is for people. We invariably use it as a fall back when making small talk with others. Perhaps the same is true for people everywhere, but it seems to be especially important to people living in the Northeast. Whether people are complaining about shoveling snow, or they’re wondering when the streak of humidity is ever going to break, it seems that, no matter what the weather, you just can’t please everyone.
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