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Decades of Houston Radio Airchecks

Okay, just listened to the 1985 Matt Alan KRBE aircheck. (loved him on KIIS back in the day, too)

In both weather forecasts on this tape, they made sure to give a boating forecast for Galveston Bay.

Was this ever a thing? Did anybody really care about choppy waters, or was this something to make someone in a suit happy?
 
johndavis said:
Okay, just listened to the 1985 Matt Alan KRBE aircheck. (loved him on KIIS back in the day, too)

In both weather forecasts on this tape, they made sure to give a boating forecast for Galveston Bay.

Was this ever a thing? Did anybody really care about choppy waters, or was this something to make someone in a suit happy?
Click to expand...

Back then it was quite normal to hear "....the boating and recreation forecast for Galveston bay and vicinity:...." It was more prevalent in the 1970s.
 
Are you kidding? The greater Houston-Galveston area and the nearby bays have one of the highest concentrations of recreational boats in the country. Over my 45 years in radio I cannot remember ever NOT including the Boating and Recreation forecast when we did the weather. And it wasn't just to make some suit happy.

Windy weather causes choppy water on lakes, rivers and bays, and that's no fun if you're out there fishing or trying to enjoy being out on your boat. People planning to take the boat out want to know about that in advance so they can make other plans.
 
Yet the only time I ever hear a marine forecast is on NOAA radio, delivered by synthesized female voice that stumbles a bit on the word "Galveston." I never heard you do one on KUHF. :)
 
OK I confess I overstated it a bit in my previous posting, but my point was that for the longest time the B&R forecast was regarded as important information for listeners.

And you are right about not hearing me read it on KUHF. KUHF has used Impact Weathercasters for some years, and before that we used Mike Arrellano and others at The Weather Center. In the few seconds I had to mention the weather I rarely had time to mention B&R.

But it's still important information, and stations that don't provide it are shortchanging their listeners.
 
FilioScotia said:
OK I confess I overstated it a bit in my previous posting, but my point was that for the longest time the B&R forecast was regarded as important information for listeners.
Click to expand...

Years ago, during the oil boom, perhaps more people could afford to own a boat, and the B&R forecast was more important. Economic changes and overall increases in the cost of living might mean that fewer people have boats these days, thus less of a need for such information. Also the metro population has shifted west, in areas further from the coast.

Fretting about boat owners is what some people would call "First World Problems."
 
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the feeling that you think of boat owners as people with luxury yachts, cabin cruisers and sail boats they keep parked at the marina. What you call "first world" people. You should get out more.

You don't need a six figure income or live in Memorial to afford a boat. There are hundreds of thousands of middle income, and yes even a fair number of low income people in the Greater Houston metro area who keep their bass boats and jon boats at their average and low income homes in their garages, driveways, backyards and in rented stalls in the hundreds of boat storage places you can find all over the place.

In case you're interested, a recent study showed that Texas has more recreational fishermen than any other state. Florida and California rank second and third. Combining fishing and hunting, Texans spend $6.6 billion annually compared to Florida at $4.8 billion.

That spending supports 106,000 jobs in Texas, 85,000 in Florida and Wisconsin is third at 57,000. So recreational boating is a major industry in these parts.

So to get back to my original point, I think radio and TV stations that don't include the boating and recreation forecast in their weather segments are shortchanging the boating public.
 
FilioScotia said:
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the feeling that you think of boat owners as people with luxury yachts, cabin cruisers and sail boats they keep parked at the marina. What you call "first world" people. You should get out more.
Click to expand...

B&R forecasts tended to emphasize larger bodies of water, such as Galveston Bay and the Gulf, not the domain of small boats that normal people have. And such info is readily available on the Internet.

Fisherman and other small boat owners will want lake conditions, which would eat up too much time on the radio, and such info is also available elsewhere.

I was thinking of the larger waterways anyway. And this is probably the first thread I've ever seen that discussed B&R forecasts...!
 
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