Last week, after reading an article about the 30th anniversary of the May 31, 1985 tornado outbreak, I wondered if I could find any video clips about it. I didn't find much, but because my query included the year 1985, I did stumble upon yet another long clip of The Weather Channel from many years ago.
The first clip I found posted by MeadeLX50 had all of the local forecasts and commercials cut out. Someone in the comments section asked him/her to leave them in next time. Thankfully he/she listened when he/she posted the clip below! The clip is a little over 15 minutes long and was recorded on May 29, 1985.
The clip starts out with a few seconds of Gay Dawson presenting "A Look Ahead." It then switches over to a taped segment with John Doyle talking about hail. Following that is bumper letting viewers know that their local forecast is coming up, followed by "Travel Weather."
As best I can tell, this "coming up" feature lasted until 1987 or so. And as many of you may remember, it was revived briefly in 1996 (presumably to get viewers used to the new schedule). The background song is an instrumental of "Leather and Lace" by Stevie Nicks.
Next there's a bumper for the "Regional Traveler's Report" and a local forecast featuring a mystery song. Do you know the artist? The local forecasts during this time are interesting in that they're all 1:15 in length. As far as I know, this is the only time this flavor was used.
Then there's an intro for travel weather, which was apparently a collection of travel-based segments. It starts with the "City by City" forecast, which was a precursor to the "Business Travelers Report," later called the "Business Travel Forecast."
If you've looked at my collection of Business Travel Forecast images, you may recognize the artwork for Atlanta, as it was still being used in 1986.
After that we have yet another bumper, following by a commercial for Encaprin. Then there's a taped segment with John Hope discussing the "Wreck of the Sea Venture in 1609." Based on a comment John made in the 20th anniversary special, these kind of weather-related history lessons were a regular feature during this time.
Following that is - you guessed it - another bumper! Then there's a promo for the "Agricultural Commodity Report," followed by Charlie Welsh presenting the "Regional Travelers Report." Then we have a local forecast featuring "Fire Fly" by Sadeo Watanabe.
After the local forecast, there's a general promo. As you can hear, the slogan during this time was "We're Weatherproofing America." And what's this? Another bumper telling you what's coming up!?
Bumper #5 is followed by a promo for a "Beat The Heat" sweepstakes. Apparently contests were a regular thing during this time. I assume they did this to keep viewers tuned in longer.
Next we have an intro for the "Weather & You" segment. The segment is presented by Gay Dawson. Bumper #6 leads to a promo for TWC's recreation weather segments. After that Gay presents the "Agricultural Commodity Report." (I know you were hoping to see that.)
A commercial for Prudential-Bache Securities leads into a local forecast featuring "Monkey Buttons" by Dave Valentin.
The clip concludes with the intro for the travel weather group of segments, which is introduced by Gay Dawson and Don Buser. Don starts things off with the "Travelers Update."
Edit: For some reason, the user that posted this clip has disabled embeds, so you'll have to watch it on Youtube.
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