Weather days with Liz

When I saw that The Weather Channel is celebrating its 25th anniversary today, I thought of our own Liz Fabian.

Liz is, by far, the most versatile journalist to work for The Telegraph. Some readers may not know that she was with The Weather Channel during its “salad days.’’ Liz spent three and a half years working for the network, which is based in Atlanta.

In fact, she is the answer to a trivia question.

She was on the network's first-ever storm "live" shot when she followed Hurricane Gilbert to Brownsville, Texas, in September 1988.

About 100 people worked for the network when it made its debut back in 1982. Now, there are about 800.

The network could only be seen in about 1.5 million homes when it was launched. Now that figure is about 93 million.

Some folks are downright religious about watching TWC. I know who keep it tuned in all the time, even on a clear, pleasant day when there is no prospect of inclement weather.

Here is what Liz had to say about her days at TWC:

My arrival at The Weather Channel in summer of 1986 coincided with a push to increase ratings by hiring anchors to host morning and evening programming. During the earlier days, the on--camera meteorologists worked four 10-hour days a week, which made continuity an issue Monday through Friday.

They held focus groups across the country and hired two new people and promoted two others on staff already, Dennis Smith and the late Charlie Welsh. Dennis and Charlie alternated hours on the night shift and Dave Nemeth and I took the mornings. It was really unusual because Dave and I knew each other from Macon and we were the only two hired from outside the Channel. Dave was the first anchor at WGXA when it debuted in 1982. He left as I was joining the staff at Channel 24 in 1983 after my first year in Macon at Channel 41.

I learned of the anchor position from Rebecca Erwin, a meteorologist who worked with me at Channel 24. She had taken a position at TWC from Macon.

Those early days were exciting. They were building a new studio, which is a fraction of the size of the studios that followed. We had a new advertising campaign that included a jingle, "You need us, the Weather Channel, for Everything you Do."

The staff, with Dave and I in front, sang that jingle for a promotion outside our building.

I remember my first Christmas there when I brought some decorations in from home to spruce up the set. The only adornment previously was a HUGE poinsettia sent to us from Today Show weatherman Willard Scott, whom I had met when he visited Macon for the first Cherry Blossom Festival.

I remember he signed the card - P.S. I'm in love with Liz Jarvis. I still have that card somewhere. It was a thrill to be recognized by a REAL celebrity.

Because of my strong reporting background, I became the principal storm chaser and hit the road during hurricane season as storms approached. In the early days, we shot video and brought it back to edit and put on the air. Then during Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, we did our first live shot from the coast of Texas as we piggy-backed with WXIA-Channel 11's satellite truck.

As part of the new anchor format, the Channel wanted to encorporate weather news into regular programming. I had envisioned traveling all over the country to cover weather events, but the budgets did not allow much travel in those days. I did have the opportunity to travel to the west coast and points in between for a documentarly I produced, wrote and anchored called "'Til the Well Runs Dry."

Now it seems as soon as clouds form, a team is in the air on the way to pending disaster.

We had a lot of fun in those early days. Our president was from Chicago, so we took a bus every year to a Braves-Cubs game at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. We had a bowling league and held regular picnics, parties and golf tournaments. I remember naming our bowling team, Lightning Strikes. I always thought I would have really been an asset if I could swap my bowling and golf scores during those years. I also became an unofficial photographer of sorts for our newsletters and company events.

It was a great place to work and we all felt like family. I think some of that's changed now that the network is a corporate empire. The current studio is fabulous as I toured it last summer. Many familiar faces are still there.