Article in Valley News Dispatch: DeNardo, Kudzma Downplay Their Forecasting Roles

[CranberryWX]

Here is an interesting article in the Valley News Dispatch today about two old Pittsburgh TV weather forecasters. I grew up watching these guys. My Mom liked Kudzma and claimed he was a distant relative. My Dad liked Denardo. Denardo had his own weather service business on the side and always interjected professional weather jargon into his on air role. I remember he always was very conservative on snowfall and it used to piss me off as a kid. Kudzma I think just took the NWS forecast and made it his own. I thought it was funny to read that Kudzma drives a school bus in retirement...lol.

DeNardo, Kudzma Downplay Their Forecasting Roles

When they retired, Joe DeNardo and Bob Kudzma had logged a combined almost 80 years on the air.

DeNardo, who retired in 2004, was with WTAE for 35 years, after having been at KDKA for 10; Kudzma was with KDKA for 33 1/2 years before retiring in 2002.

During that time, they were the weather for many Pittsburghers.

Today, the two meteorologists downplay their icon status.

"It seems like the smaller the market area, the more significant the weather person seems to be," Kudzma says. "We became more significant as people relied on the weather (forecast) more and more in the '70s, '80s and '90s."

In retirement, he has been driving a bus for the Bethel Park School District for several years. "It's mostly just for fun. I enjoy the kids and driving," he says. Some of the students have learned of his former life "fixing the weather" (as KDKA's light-hearted promotional advertisement once touted). "Sometimes, their parents or grandparents tell them," he says.

When Kudzma first stepped in front of the camera in 1968, he says, "Weather was almost like a throw-away. It never seemed very important. It was, 'Do two minutes and get out of it,' " Now, he says, "TV is saturated with it."

He admits to missing forecasting "to some extent. I miss getting all the information and coming up with the forecast. The pressure of the job, though, was getting to be more and more difficult."

The field has changed significantly in the past 10 years for television meteorologists with more pressure to do well, DeNardo says...

Read more: DeNardo, Kudzma downplay their forecasting roles - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburg...l#ixzz1YV69U64N

[JamieOber]

I've met both of them working in media in Pittsburgh, and they are both nice people. Joe used to annoy me with his low-balling big storms, infamously 4-8 for the superstorm a few days out.

[CoraopolisWx]

I've met both of them working in media in Pittsburgh, and they are both nice people. Joe used to annoy me with his low-balling big storms, infamously 4-8 for the superstorm a few days out.

I kinda remember that. Although being in 10th grade at that time I was a huge TWC and Bowman weenie, so most of the time I didn't even want to hear what the old crotchety DeNardo had to say.

Also we were a WPXI household, so I rarely ever saw Kudzma and DeNardo forecasts unfortunatly.

[JamieOber]

I kinda remember that. Although being in 10th grade at that time I was a huge TWC and Bowman weenie, so most of the time I didn't even want to hear what the old crotchety DeNardo had to say.

Also we were a WPXI household, so I rarely ever saw Kudzma and DeNardo forecasts unfortunatly.

Joe always seemed a bit angry when he said those numbers, like "forget it weenies, this is what you are going to get and you're going to like it."