It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBSY Boston's new video.
Emma, thank you for introing me. I am Morgan White Junior. What a day. Oh my goodness, there are going to be so many different places I could take our conversations tonight. And I want to let people know my first guest will be coming on right after the fifteen break. It will be Jacob Wyckoff. And when I coordinated Jacob coming on with me, little did I realize he'd be able to talk about I'm gonna call it a mini snowstorm, Boss.
Snow only gets four and a half inches of snow, but that's the second time in the past six weeks we've gotten snow. So it's something for those of you who love snow to applaud and cheer. I'm not in that group. Inauguration Day, as of one o'clock in the afternoon, our President elect Donald Trump became the commander in chief, the president of the United States for the next four years,
and we'll be addressing that. And I want to let you know ABC is going to be breaking in twice an hour to give us any more updates about the first day of Donald Trump's administration. I as well. I can't forget that this is a reflection of Martin Luther King Junior's birthday. His birthday was really on the fifteenth of January, but they converted that to a Monday holiday, and in a way there is a connection between me, Morgan w Junior, and Donald Trump. Listen to Beasy News Today.
Periodically on the news they mentioned a bust of Martin Luther King Junior in the rotunda and the artist who put their bust together, John Wilson, included me a seventeen eighteen nineteen twenty year old Morgan White Junior, and a number of his paintings and portraits. He did a selection called Young Americans where people who were friends of his daughter and son. His daughter was in my homeroom, Rebecca Wilson.
She and I became friends. Introduced me to her dad and her dad said, Morgan, you know I'm an artist because his stuff was all over the house. Every floor of their health Some brookline was a representation of his art work, and he said, I would like to do a couple of paintings portraits of you, and he did, and it's kind of a bit of pride in my part. One of the ones he did of me is hanging in a Baltimore museum. There is a John Wilson art collection beginning at the Museum of Fine Arts first week
of February. I do believe. I don't know if any of my portraits will be a part of it. I have to wait and see, but I'd say that with pride that I can be a part of an artist's history. John Wilson has world renown reputation, and I thought I would tell you that. And now for a perspective on Martin Luther King Junior. I was born in nineteen fifty three, lived in the South End till I was twelve, So throughout the fifties into the early sixties, I'm just another kid,
just another young man from Boston. I did not know about racial strife and conflict. It hadn't touched me, but my mother and grandmother had to sit down and explain certain things to me as I grew older. And if it were not for Martin Luther King Junior, I might not be in front of this microphone right now because he wanted all of us Americans to know that if you want it, you can achieve it. Ever since I
was in Junior High. I wanted to get on the radio and I wanted to do talk radio, partially inspired by people like Larry Glick, Dave Maynard, Dick Summer, etc. And a little bit of luck here and there, perseverance, hard work, I was able to achieve and get this.
And I have to thank Martin Luther King Junior and his part in me getting this, And a lot of you out there have Martin Luther King Junior to thank for what you have achieved, whatever it may be, in any walk of life, in any vocation, and that they've put a day aside to reflect on what he did. And what he did was trying to make all of us realize the pride that we should feel in getting it,
whatever it is. And I am extremely grateful. Yes, I'm grateful to my mother and grandmother instilling proper values in me and various teachers I had over the years, and family members and neighbors. Yes, a lot of people helped cook the finished product that became Morgan White Junior. But this day is a day we reflect upon what he Martin Luther King Jr. Did and the fact that he began by attending college here in Massachusetts and as well,
John Wilson began here attending college in Massachusetts. That says something to me. And I have a show planned not focusing on Mattin, Luther King or Inauguration Day. That's why I've started off with a tip of the hat of both. But as I mentioned, I've got Jacob Wycoff for first. I've got a gentleman who I've spoken with over the years who used to be He and his father they
handled special effects in movies and TV. And my buddy Dixie is going to be here for the final two hours to talk about the National Park Service, which began with a press in a decreeing that such a thing exists. That was Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt who decided that should be. Let me take a break and begin our show here on Nightside, Dann. We'll be back on Wednesday, but I'm here tonight. This is Nightside time. Eight point fifteen, temperature nineteen degrees.
Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
I want to tell you a quick story. This goes back maybe five or six years. It's when BZ Radio was in the same building eleven seventy Soda Field Road as BZ TV, and the studio was next to where some of the TV people were situated. And I met this gentleman. It was his first night, and I took
an instant liking to him. I found out he was the meteorologist on for that particular evening on TV, and we introduced each other to each other, and I struck up not a friendship, not to go out and let's have a couple of beers together, but a couldural respect between he and I. I've had him on with me periodically over the years, and I always look forward to the next time that I have him on. He's on with me tonight. He's here now, please welcome. Can I
say my buddy? Yes, I can't say my buddy, Jack.
Morgan. Good evening. How are you? I'm fine, Happy New Year to you likewise, and I don't want to date you or anything. But that's been eight years actually since we've met. I know time flives when you're having fun.
It does. And does that shirt still fit you that I gave you?
Well, it fits a little differently, but yes it does fit.
I like the way you worked around that, and yes, I've got something to start a start us off. Why is it people either blame or thank the weather man when there is a weather event, And I should say weather person because so many weather people both male and female in our city, on Beezy and others. But we always either tip our hat to you, like the ski people. I'm sure the Blue Hills are now full on all their trails with only four inches of snow. Ellie, I
say yay, thanks to the weather man. Or they put an issue when there's a drought and no rain. How come we do that?
You know, that's a psychology question. I think that we are easy targets because we put it out there, you know, with our forecast. But I actually like it.
You know.
It gives me a challenge to make sure I'm as accurate as possible so I can minimize the amount of booing and hissing.
That I get. Okay, and this particular storm, everybody that I heard on TV four and WBZ radio nailed it three to six inches, and it was like four plus. You can't do better than that.
Yeah, it was the good thing is the storm sort of behave the way we thought it would behave, which isn't always the case, and we like that. No surprises for us. So yeah, and the best part about it, For the most part, it was a fairly uniform snow. Where you're out in Worcester, you're getting five to six inches. Boston officially got five inches of snow. So to have that uniformity across the board kind of made forecasting a little easier in that regard, okay, And.
I always wanted to know this, and I had many meteorologists on the legendary darn Kent comes to mind. And when you went to whatever college you went to to learn about meteorology, how many years did it take you to go from a freshman to a senior?
Sure?
So I was at a four year school. It was Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, Connecticut. That's where I got my meteorology degree. It took me four and a half years to graduate because I have a degree in both like broadcast meteorology and also research or theoretical meteorology, so I could work for the National Weather Service or a private organization. So basically it was just an extra semester of schooling to be able to do that.
And I'm assuming broadcast meteorology is a work in progress, because broadcasting has changed. Let's say you, I'm sure in the early two thousands you went to that university, and to compare it to the early nineteen nineties to the early nineteen eighties and so forth, back in the day, things change. Telling people about what it's going to do tomorrow have changed.
Absolutely. Yeah, the technology behind forecasting has changed. The mediums which people ingest their forecasts have changed. So it is something that you know, we're both we're adapting to newer technology, both in the creation but then in the delivery of the forecast.
All right, and I've noticed something by it's missing. It's like something Sherlock Holmes would say, I was obviously because it's not there anymore, the little a MS square that was usually shown at the beginning of a weather forecast on all stations. And you know, I go to Vegas periodically and watching a newscast out there, I saw the same icon on weather forecast on k l A S out in Vegas. Why isn't that around anymore?
So that has also adapted. There is now a new certification program. There's the NWA, which is the National Weather Association. They have a certification program and then they also have what the what the AMS calls the CBM the Certified Broadcast Meteorology Certificate or certification. That is just an additional thing that meteorologists can get my resume thing. A lot of TV stations don't really require it anymore the same way that they used to.
All right, but it jumped out at me in its omission. Sure, yeah, absolutely, I noticed it wasn't there anymore.
It's interesting that you say that because I've actually been studying for my CBM, the AMS certification, so I'm hopefully going to be taking that test within the next few months and cross my fingers that I get the certification.
I hope you do.
Thank you.
One thing I've noticed, and it's it's not just Channel four, it's the other stations in Boston and other cities. Periodically when I travel and I watch the news, and I've noticed this again in other cities. The meteorilegist of the moment does a lot of other things away from the station, away from the green screen. And I've noticed they've put you out at schools, at events, at other circumstances, nowhere near eleven to seventy Soldier's Field Road, and it wasn't
that way. I'm going to say eight years ago, when you started.
Sure, Sure, what I would say is I have really so my wife used to be in TV. She used to work with your son at Channel three w FSB in Hartford, and I learned to tell stories from her, you know, the way that you do it for TV. And so when I realized that there was sort of a gap in science and environmental storytelling, I'm like, hey, I could do this, like I've seen my wife do it for so long, Like maybe I can. And so that's one reason that I've really kind of taken a
liking to doing some of my climate reporting. But on the other on the flip side of that, like I also really enjoy going up to schools talking to kids about science and technology. I remember being one of those kids in third grades and Chris Cross applesauce listened to a local meteorologist come to my school and to be that for somebody else and you know, hopefully they are inspired to follow in a science field is really really cool. Full circle, Absolutely, it sure is.
And I've got a news hit coming up and tonight I've got to be precise because we're joining ABC News eight times between now and midnight. Obviously, Okay, because of today President Trump taking over for the next two years. So I'll squeeze this question in. Take that break, and then Ron, Gary and Alex you're on hold, don't hang up. You'll get your chance to speak to Jacob, I promise. But I want to give you a chance to say
hello to the weather watchers there. I can tell there are so many people who send a little clip of themselves and reporting on their community as far as what happened last night overnight in the weather. So I want to just speak to your weather watches just so they know that you pay him attention.
Yeah. Absolutely, our weather watchers are so crucial, as you said. You know, we broadcast from eleven seventy soldiers Field Road, and we kind of sometimes get in a bubble of what's happening in our immediate neighborhood. And to have our weather watchers report what they're seeing in their towns and their cities and their neighborhoods is so crucial for us to tell a weather story. So we wouldn't be the TV station that we are without the support of our weather watchers.
Okay, Well for all of you, and I know you must have more than and you will ever use over the next hundred years. But let me get out of here in time for the break you want to call in on night Side six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty, eight, eight, eight, nine to nine, ten thirty. I've got Jacob Wikoff here from TV four doing the weather, and he along with his other five colleagues, make sure you know what it's going to be over the next day or two. This is Nightside no Dan Ray tonight.
I am here. I'm Morgan White Junior, and let's take our break. Time and temperature eight thirty and nineteen degrees.
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Dan is off tonight and tomorrow. He will return on Wednesday, and I'm sure he'll have a lot of discussion points for you the night Side listeners. I've got my buddy Jacob Wycoff here with me and Ron and Stoughton. I know you've been waiting for this because Ron is, among other loves of Ron, he is a weather nut. So Ron, you've got Jacob. You two just have your conversation. I won't interrupt, Okay.
First of all, Happy New Year, Jacob. It's nice to get a chance to talk to you again. I was out for thirteen hours with my plow crew on this storm. But so I'm a little bit tired, but.
I have a inches wait, wait, hold on, five inches of snow.
You're out there for I have a lot of accounts. I have a lot of accounts. Anyway, this past storm was not really considered a true nor'east or a type a storm on the surface map. A true north northeaster comes usually comes out of the Gulf and comes up a batterers. I guess they call that hooking up with the tight B storm on the surface or a phasing of the A and B, and that comes a bomb cyclone. What's the actual last time we had a real big bomb cyclone? Wasn't it about four or five years ago?
The last one that comes to my mind right off the bat would be like the end of January twenty twenty two, officially a blizzard. Boston picked up twenty plus inches of snow. I remember that because I was in the sandwich and visibility was just zero and the wind blown seventy miles an hour. That's the one that comes to mind, or might have been one in between, like maybe in February. I think I think February was the last time Boston got February of twenty two was the
last time Boston got over six inches of snow. Yeah, that might have been a classic nor' Easter two.
Yeah, yeah, I you know, I still remember. I'm one of those guys that still remember is this blizzard of seventy eight. I su I just suggested to Morgan last week that next time that you come on, maybe if they can hook you up with Bob Copeland, who was around during the Blizzard of seventy eight, because I think he was one of the few guys that predicted the Blizzard of seventy eight.
Absolutely. I actually recently saw Barry Burbank too. He was at Busy at that time. So, yeah, it's such a wild time to think of. You know, that's almost fifty years ago at this point. Yeah, and just the technology advance ends. But you know, we still have those situations where people get gridlocked in snow, oh yeah, flaming and stuff like that. Even though technology changes, human habits don't.
No, You're exactly right, And I'll tell you I think one day again we're going to see something like that. I really don.
Word it hasn't happened in a little while. But yes, you're probably right that we will be honest.
The reason why you're saying that is because you have a plow truck. Truck that's what that's white gold is the people.
That is exactly what correct. When when it when it snows, I see the colored green. I love it. Take you, guys, taken, Let's go.
To Gary and Woburn. You're next here at night side. Good evening, Gary.
Yes, you know everybody talked about Blizzard of seventy eight, of course, but does everybody remember five to seven years ago we got two feet of snow in this area Jacob, right.
Yeah, I think that's what we just kind of talked about. It was February or it was January twenty ninth of twenty twenty two. We got two feet of snow with that storm. It was officially a blizzard for Austin and that was a big one. That was I think twenty twenty inches of snow.
Know what I have the blizzard where care hold on? The Blizzard of seventy eight had an amalgamation of several things. A full moon, which affects snowfall, winds that were I'm gonna say if I'm not mistaken at peak in the high fifty mile per hour range versus the one you're talking about that was just what five six years ago didn't have those same elements to it. And I don't recall seeing photos of Route one twenty eight, the exit near Channel five where people were their cars were stuck.
They couldn't go anywhere. It was like a parking lot or a used car lot. Would have been more appropriate to say, I'm gary going, I don't mean this step when you tell us go ahead, But I got no.
That was a good point one, Jacob. I have two very interesting questions. I have one stupid question that's also silly for comedy. My question is, this is California, with climate change and so forth, shouldn't they be telling public address announcing on TV and radio that they're going to be dropping water on the woodlands all year round to wet down their brush so they don't have this catastrophe happen again.
Yeah, so I think that's a little bit out of my wheelhouse. But what I would say is they do have a water shortage issue to begin with, and despite them being so close to the ocean, if they dumped salt water on inland on your backyard. That would just terror It would cause soil chemistry issues. So they really don't have access to the water to be able to do something like that. Hope they get to a point where they can break this sort of you know, perpetual drought.
They actually a lot of the reservoirs I was looking at it were actually in good shape. It was just the insane demand placed upon the supply at that time. You know, four large fires being fought in different places, some of them in the hill, so gravity working against
the pressure to get the water up. It was I hate using the word, but it was like sort of a perfect storm of just bad conditions playing against you know, the firefighters and the people that lived there, which was insane, a crazy tragedy.
And the celization issues. If you use water from the Pacific, you know that's where they're next to the Pacific Ocean, it would do vegetation great harm, right versus fresh water? Gary, what is the comical car?
Well?
No, serious?
Next serious question is this? Okay? Is Jacob? You're in the confession box right now. So here we go. As a weatherman, I would imagine you're praying for snowstorms all through the one that because obviously you're going to be in the limelight. And then with the spring, summer and fall, what are you praying for weather? So you guys are in the limelight.
Sure, so I would say that I enjoy some snow, but keep in mind I have to shovel too, so I don't want to have to spend too much time at a chiropractor. No, I enjoy New England for the four season. So yes, I enjoy winter because it gives
me the challenge of forecasting. But my ideal like beautiful day would be like, you know, the sixty eight degrees, a lot of sunshine, maybe a little breeze, and then the fall, you know, the just the amazing conditions that you have in fall, with the nice sunshine, constant sunshine, and then there's cool overnights like that's chef's kiss for me. That's that's perfect. And I'll take all the data boys and the pats on the back that I can when when those type of days come around.
Okay, here's my comedy question. Yeah, okay, this is a comical, but it's also serious. Here we go all ready, we have the ocean, we have ponds, and we have lakes. My question is too when it becomes severely cold and the width of time in the East Coast and so forth. My question is, is fish in those ponds and lakes and ocean are they freezing to death? Are they uncomfortable?
Are they happy?
And thank you for your time?
Sure, and we'll have so.
Specifically for the ocean, salt water freezes at a lower temperature and it's a lot harder to freeze the ocean, so usually fish aren't affected. For ponds, it's really hard to get a pond to comple completely freeze from top to the bottom. So a lot of times, even though you're going to be able to go, you know, ice ice fishing, there's still plenty of water that is unfrozen underneath.
And fish are cold water animals, so I think, yeah, creature, So I think that they, you know, kind of appreciate just the cooler temperatures and they thrive.
And you heard them frozen this weekend. I think it was in New Hampshire. Somehow a gentlemen driving a U haul moving truck got confused and wound up on a lake and get to drive, if I remember the story correctly, right restly five hundred feet before the ice cracked and the ice was only one inch thick. And we know that ponds and lakes, et cetera. Are dozens of feet deep and they don't free They freeze from the top down. They don't freeze forty eight feet down right, That doesn't
it doesn't happen that way. Let me take one more before I have a break to take, and let's go to Alex and Millis. Alex, you've got Jacob Wikoff from TV for news department with the weather.
Hey, good eating. Hey Jacob, I have I have a silly question too, But I was going to ask you because I do watch all the meteorologists just to see and it seems like you're all you know on the money. Uh, you know, so do folks likewise do that, you know, like watch a competition and does one does one station have better technology than another? And the other was about punks? And actually the Farmer's Almanac is that pretty pretty accurate?
So I'll get to that question first. The Farmer's Almanac, I like it for good reading material. I would say that they are both specific and vague enough that you know they make a forecast work well, they'll say, you know, they issue this six months ahead of time, and they'll say there could be a snowstorm on the East coast in the middle of January. It's like, well, yeah, it's the middle of winter. That's what we would we get, you know, So there, I guess they can kind of
finagle the wording to make any condition work. So I like it for for a lot of things, but forecasts are are not one of them. But as far as the other stations go, I know, personally I don't tune into other stations. That's not to say I don't respect them, because I have great respect to the people at the other stations. I just don't want any sort of outside
influences sort of distorting what I'm thinking. We have a very good team at WVZ and you'll throw, you know, forecasts ideas off each other, but I don't look at others for any of those ideas. We all basically have the same technology, And what it boils down to is how are you interpreting the weather models and then the experience that we have, like, all right, is this storm going to behave like this one or this one? And that's that's where it all boils down to.
Answered your three questions, do you have something else.
I was gonna say, I I am not complaining about New England winters. You know, have the snowblower and the generator. But I'll say we're very fortunate because we don't have wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, nor landslides. Maybe a hurricane here, yeah, we have hurricanes.
Right, you're right overall, Alex. Thank you for making the phone call.
Thank you, Thanks Alex.
You're welcome. Bye bye, Chris and Hudson. I don't have time to get to you right now because I have an ABC News break literally a minute away, but I will get you on with Jacob because you took the time to call in. And I'm gonna say, maybe I could get another call or two on pending six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine to nine, ten thirty. We'll get you through here tonight's side and Jacob. One one quick question and I know the answer. You can
work anywhere in the world. Where would you like to do weather? In twenty seconds?
Oh, Italy is a place so close to my heart love Italy. Yeah, that'd probably yet, all right.
And now that I know that you ain't leaving, you're staying here, don't with or without a beard all right, Time and temperature eight forty nine and nineteen degrees.
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World Nightside Studios.
I'm WBZ News Radio. I'm Morgan Morgan White Junior, filling in for Dan Ray. I'll be here until midnight tonight and tomorrow night eight to midnight. Dan will be back on Wednesday, I promise. Jacob Wycoff from TV for news and weather and sports. Speaking of sports, real quick, our teams both the Celtics and Bruins beat up on California. The Celtics beak Golden State and the Bruins beat the Sharks.
So it's a good day sports wise. Let's go to Chris calling from Hudson, mass and most likely the last call I'll take with Jacob. Whycoff Chris, good evening.
Yeah, Hi Morgan, great show is usual. Hi Jacob, nice to talk with you. I used to live in the Nadnock area, okay, and I remember I think it was around two thousand and four we had a major major ice storm. Okay, I don't know if I think it was around that time, but people lost power for two months. Okay. It was crazy and the only thing that kept us
going up there. Everybody had a woodsow okay, but you know, it's not so much the snow, it's the ice that really really hammers us, and it hurts us, you know how Absolutely.
There was a big one that I think was in two thousand and eight in December.
Okay, that could have that could have been the storm, and that's the one I'm thinking about.
Yeah, yeah, that's about an hour for like millions of people across the northeast.
Yeah, you couldn't buy a generator, you couldn't rent a generator. Everything was sold out. But like I said in the Manad Knox, everybody has a woodsoew, you know, and people help people, the neighbors, you know. And you know, another weird thing. When now I'm sixty two, but when I was younger, like eighteen twenty, I used to go ice
fishing to Lake Champlain for a long weekend. Okay, now up in Burlington, Vermont, right near there where I fished, it was like ten below zero for two months, but the ice was only four inches thick because there was so much movement under the ice, it could never really freeze to like twelve inches.
You know.
It was it was kind of weird, you know. Yeah, that's that's why.
We always caution people when they want to, you know, do some pond hockey whatever it is, that they always check because depending on the current of the lake or you know, if there's wind, the depth of the lake, like, all of those things play a huge role in how much I should get. So we always tell people, you know, check before you go on.
Yeah. Plus, I think that's okay. Thanks Morgan, Thanks.
Thank you for almost out a time. And Jacob in about thirty seconds, can you tell people who in their neighborhood, police, fire what have you is a good source to find out if it's safe to go on whatever body of water is in your neighborhood.
Yeah, usually that falls upon like the DCRs or the parks and Recreation or something like that. It never hurts to call the non emergency line of the fire department. They may know sometimes they do training on the ice themselves, So yeah, I would check with some of those local officials non emergency lines though.
Jacob, thank you for giving me time. I appreciate it. You know, I'll call you back because and I'm not ashamed to say this, of all the meteorologists in Boston, four, five, seven, ten necking and that's about twenty five thirty people. You are the best and you are my favorite.
Okay, thank you, Morgan. I appreciate you.
Thank you, Jacob. Let's take our break here on nights side time and temperature eight fifty eight nineteen degrees