Mary Caroline Powers –
From Weather Girl to Woman of Distinction By Maureen Werther, Photos Provided “Oh, goodness no, there was no such thing as women in broadcasting when I first started out!” That was Mary Caroline Powers’ rather amused response to what I immediately realized was, in fact, a very dumb question. So much for impressing a broadcasting pioneer! I would have to chalk it up to nerves. After all, here I was, interviewing a woman who helped pave the way for all the women who are in broadcasting today, some of whom take it as a “given” that they have a place on the air or in the newsroom. Mary Caroline Powers is probably not very well known to members of generation X, who were either in diapers or heading off to the classroom when she was on TV. And millennials will undoubtedly stare blankly at you if you mention her name as a well-known local news broadcaster in the Capital Region. But for baby boomers, who were either witness to – or part of – the struggle to carve out a niche in workplaces that were historically male-only territory, you know exactly who Mary Caroline Powers is. Mary Caroline is as erudite as they come and, at the same time, she is as warm, open and kind as a dear friend. Starting out as an
English teacher back in the 1960’s, she had no idea her career would take such interesting – and rewarding – twists and turns. It seems like a combination of being in the right place at the right time, combined with a sharp mind, a quick wit and, in her words, the Irish ability to tell a good story. It all started soon after she returned from a trip to South America. “I had the opportunity to travel to Peru early in my teaching career, as part of the Saratoga County Community Ambassador program,” says Mary Caroline. “One of my obligations, in return for the opportunity to travel there, was to speak about my experiences at schools and other groups.” One of those requests came from WMHT radio, who asked her to do an on-air interview for them. Soon after that interview, Mary Caroline received a call to do an educational TV program for local schools. “Back in the late 60’s and early 70’s, educational television programs were being piped into the schools,” she explains. “The woman who had been doing them became pregnant and the TV station needed a replacement for her.” “You have to remember, these were the days when Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke
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slept in separate beds. You couldn’t have a pregnant woman on TV!” Mary Caroline got the job, balancing her workload as a full-time teacher and going to school for her master’s in communication theory, while learning a great deal about scriptwriting and performing on camera. Soon after, she received another call – this time from the woman who was her director for the educational TV program. “Martha Ingerson was one of only three female directors in the U.S. at the time,” said Mary Caroline. “She was working as weekend news director at WRGB, and she heard they were looking for a weekend ‘weather girl.’” If you’re thinking what I’m thinking at this point in Mary Caroline’s story, you’re probably picturing the Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie and her colleague, Dylan Dryer, who both stayed on the air this past year until, quite literally, days before giving birth. And incidentally, Dylan isn’t the Today Show “weather girl.” She’s a meteorologist. In addition to the title, most “weather girls” were also “tall, lovely, model-like statuesque women,” recalls Mary Caroline.
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