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| Gene Norman |
"I’m looking forward to working with a strong team committed to giving Alabama viewers life-saving information when the skies grow dark," Norman said online.
This after parting ways with KHOU 11 in November after working for the Belo station for about five years.
I hear Norman starts on air at the LIN Media owned station April 22nd. This will be no cakewalk for Norman as he goes head to head with market legend James Spann of ABC 33/40 WBMA.
Now Norman and his number are just one of the many changes WIAT has had in the last few weeks. Since LIN Media has taken over the station, main anchor Ken Lass has left the station. Anchor Brooke Smith has also apparently left the station.
In terms of the weather department, morning meteorologist Kalee Dionne is moving to KSHB in Kansas City. Sources tell me current chief met Mark Prater is going to mornings.
And if all of this wasn't crazy enough for viewers, the station had transmitter issues over the weekend.
Since leaving TV, Norman has been operating a weather consulting firm called Wise Weather, LLC and still giving the forecast and other things at genenormanweather.com. Although this has all slowed down in the last few weeks as he has been obviously packing up and leaving Houston.
"It has been an honor for me to help Houstonians deal with severe weather," Norman told mikemcguff.com last January. "I'm looking forward to expanding my role as a severe weather expert for the Houston area and beyond. As I continue to pursue media opportunities, I am developing services to help people deal with severe weather incidents through my web site genenormanweather.com."
David Paul ended up taking Norman's chief meteorologist spot at KHOU earlier this year.
Norman came to Houston in January 2008 from WGCL in Atlanta. Before that he served as the weekend meteorologist at KTRK abc13. Where Norman's resume really starts to differ is the fact he worked at NASA developing weather monitoring software for the space shuttle and did not get a degree from Mississippi State University (got his bachelor's from MIT and a master's in meteorology from the University of Maryland). He got into TV while at NASA by driving to Beaumont on the weekends and doing weather there.
As for the man with his own weather number, Norman has some powerful family connections and knows how to network.
