But look who's laughing now. It recently launched a Spanish-language service, and has become a potent brand name on radio and the Internet as well. So can the voices of its on-air meteorologists, who make not the slightest effort to conceal their enthusiasm for severe storms and whatever else Mother Nature stirs up. And we'll be watching. In a decade dominated by reality TV and quantum leaps in technology, weather has become a major form of infotainment.
People are people and they like to watch things going on in real life.
The Weather Channel was the brainchild of a TV forecaster who was a star in his own right. But for all his bluster, Coleman was a consummate weather geek whose maps teemed with activity. He also made one long-range forecast that was right on target. The public had an endless fascination for weather, and Coleman realized it was waiting to be unleashed upon the new frontier of cable television. Once people started getting used to this concept, the idea that they would not only accept but also embrace an all-weather channel became inevitable.