TV Chatting

I don’t know what kind of a person Ken Hirsch was.

I only met him briefly once—in 1991 at the 50th anniversary celebration of Mt. Rushmore—he was the event announcer—and he seemed like a nice enough guy.

Like most of you in KELOLAND (and before that, KSFYLAND) all I knew of Ken Hirsch, who recently died from some long illnesses, was what I saw on TV.

When I was in junior high and high school in the 1960s and 70s, our TV was pretty much locked on KSFY-TV (sorry, KELOLAND). They had powerhouse talent—reporter Jane Hansen, who went on to a long career in New York City, Mr. Smooth as Silk Al Edel as news anchor, Mr. Sports Terry Dean, and, of course, Ken Hirsch on weather.

I lived for Ken’s weathercasts. He had a crazy system of ranking the coming day’s weather on a scale of 1-10. It was purely subjective as far as I could tell, but my friends and I were always excited when he predicted a “10.�? That meant our track meet, swim meet, football game, or cross country meet would be conducted under pleasant conditions.

Even today, I think the gimmick would work. Everyone loves top ten lists and rating systems. Ken was just ahead of his time.

And he was always hawking those damn rain gauges. I can’t believe everyone in the region didn’t have at least two or three. I begged my parents to buy one. They wouldn’t. I’m still mad that they wouldn’t buy a Ken Hirsch Rain Gauge. It must have been a big part of his salary as he was as ever present as Billy Mays selling his crap today.

And Ken loved to give the weather for pilots, which sounded like a bunch of numbers and letters. But it was cool. No one else did it.

I even remember once when he let a chimp “help�? him do the weather. The chimp took his pointer and pounded the living crap out of the weather map. It was side splitting hilarious.

But when there was bad weather, Ken was all business. No screwing around. Just the facts given matter of factly.

What I detected about Ken was that Ken had developed his own unique broadcasting persona. He was not matinee idol handsome. He wasn’t a Stepford Weathercaster. He had, well, personality. A likable on-air personality that was different than any other weatherman’s.

I went into broadcasting largely because I wanted to be like Ken Hirsch. I don’t think I ever approached his style and uniqueness (and certainly not his popularity) as a broadcaster, but for a kid living in a town that picked up four or five TV stations on a blurry 10 inch black and white TV with rabbit ears, Ken was someone I thought I could be.

I’ve never liked a weathercaster quite as much. I think the world of Phil Schreck at KSFY and Jay Trobeck at KELOLAND. I think they are accomplished meteorologists, good guys, and excellent broadcasters.

But no one has ever replaced Ken Hirsch as to who I think of first when I think of a “weatherman.�?

Rest in peace, Ken. May every day in heaven be a “10.�?

Technorati Tags: Ken Hirsch, Al Edel, Susan Hansen, Terry Dean, KSFY, KELO, KELOALND, weather, weatercasters, weathermen, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, aviation

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