Heading For 50 Years

The phrase “83 year old TV personality signs multi-year deal” is not something you would hear in pretty much any other TV market.

But this is Cleveland, and he’s Dick Goddard.

The Plain Dealer’s Mark Dawidziak reports that the veteran weatherman, who has been forecasting lake effect snow and summer sun in Cleveland longer than a large chunk of his audience has been alive, has indeed inked a multi-year deal with Tribune Fox affiliate WJW/8 that keeps him with the station through his 50th anniversary.

That’s 50 years on the air not just in the market, but at the same station:

Goddard, who turns 84 in February, made his debut as a Cleveland weatherman on May 1, 1961, with KYW (now WKYC) Channel 3. He has been with Channel 8, now owned by Tribune Broadcasting, since 1966.

Of course, since 1966, a lot has changed even at the station now located on what’s called Dick Goddard Way.

WJW was Cleveland’s long-time CBS affiliate, until owner Storer Broadcasting sold the station to a succession of new owners. New World Broadcasting was the owner that flipped WJW and its sister stations to the young Fox network, CBS heading for now-Raycom Media owned WOIO/19.

The younger-skewing Fox audience may mean that Dick’s forecasting the weather to viewers young enough to be his great-grandchildren.

A quote from “Fox 8” programming boss Kevin Salyer in the PD article sums it up:

Dick Goddard remains both a legend and fixture here at Fox 8 and on Cleveland television,” said Kevin Salyer, Channel 8’s vice president for programming and promotion. “Northeast Ohioans obviously still have trust in him, his expertise and his many years of experience as evidenced by our continued dominance in ratings and how, when the weather gets bad, Cleveland still turns to Goddard and his Fox 8 weather team.”