---

At the end of April I confessed that I'd applied to be a weather girl for the eNews Channel and failed to get a gig.

When the channel launched I was very interested to see who got it instead so I could get revenge on them and I'm pleased to report that my objective has now been achieved.

After planning my stormy strategy I got hold of the culpit, -


 - and forced him to talk to me at the tip of the world on an icey Cape Town day to make him suff-ff-ff-ff-er as much as possible.


He had no idea before natch - I told him I wanted to meet at the edge of the cliff's in Green Point because of the cool lighthouse backdrop:


Derek, who hails from Grand Rapids, Michigan in the US, was a weather anchor at NBC before relocating to SA three months ago. Here's what he had to shiver:

Tashi: I've read your blog and saw that you arrived in SA and then just didn't go back home.
Derek: Basically yeah - I came to Cape Town, met the people at e.tv, went back home for about ten months - the whole time I was in a Cape Town mindframe, like "I've got to go to South Africa."  I made it happen and here I am.

Tashi: What made you visit in the first place?
Derek: I was doing humanitarian work in Swaziland with a group of missionaries from my church. Afterwards they went back to the United States and I had pre-arranged plans to come to Cape Town 'cos I've always wanted to come to the city.

I rented a villa and documented my trip to Africa for NBC. I went downtown to use an internet cafe, they asked me what I was doing and they say:  "So you work for a TV station? Do you know there's a TV station across the road? Would you like to meet them?" 

I went over to the e.tv studios, met Andrew Barnes and that was that.  He asked me about my contract details at NBC - I told him it was ending soon and he says, "We're launching this 24hour news channel soon and we're looking for a meteorologist." That was all almost a year ago.

Tashi: At NBC, what did you do? The daily weather?
Derek: I was the morning meteorologist: "You wake up with DVD."


Tashi: What's your take on weather anchors who aren't meteorologists? - there's a lot of them.
Derek: Weather actors you mean?
Tashi: Yes.
Derek: Oh those ones. *laughs* In the States there aren't a lot of them 'cos you have to have a meteorology degree to anchor - not with everyone, but it's mostly the case.

So long as they know their stuff - if they can do it accurately with some personality I have no problem with it but my goal here is to hire the most credible team of meteorologists.

Tashi: You're hiring right now?
Derek: Yes we've recently had someone new start - she's a PHD student from the University of Witwaturrrsrahnd so she's been studying meteorology and climatology her whole life.

Tashi: So there's no chance for me?
Derek: Let's see ... Saskia Falken - she's a fantastic woman and she's good at what she does. I think people feel "We really like her, we can relate to her," she comes off as a great weather anchor, she's not a meteorologist but she's great at what she does. As I said I've got nothing against someone who's not one, so long as they can convey to the public what the weather's going to be.

Tashi: How many people are going to be in your team?
Derek: Five - we're in the process of training the people I've hired. They need a little bit of TV training and so on. I've been doing most of the shows but it's daunting to do that.


Tashi: How many inserts are there a day?
Derek: We're working our way up to having it as an hourly thing when everyone's trained and ready to go. One thing I'd like people to understand - we've had an overwhelming response from the public, it's been awesome. 90 - 95% of the mails and phonecalls have been positive, a very warm welcome.

There's been 5% of it - I understand what's going on in South Africa with xenophobia and so on - and people see this foreigner doing the weather on a local channel and what they don't understand is that we're creating all these jobs for South Africans.

Tashi: People have been upset that you're not South African?
Derek: Yes, the thing people don't understand is that I'm hiring South Africans and training them because they want to have that standard - the European and American standard of weather forecasting - that's what e.tv wants. So we're creating jobs and training people - it would be nice for people to understand this.

They say "Why are you on this channel?" and I say "I'm here to help." I understand that South Africa's in a very sensitive situation - it may not pertain to me - but the idea of a foreigner coming in and doing a job here, people aren't too keen on that but we are hiring South Africans.

Tashi: We have to have people from everywhere - it's what the world's about. If South Africans go over and do a job in the US everyone's pleased - no-one anywhere criticises it.
Derek: You have to have a thick skin in this business.

Tashi: Someone once said - can't remember who - that you can't ever take bad comments too seriously and you also can't take the good too seriously. Do you get stressed you're gonna get the weather wrong?
Derek: Yes. Yes I do. *laughs* When I wake up in the morning and see the mountain's covered in cloud when I didn't predict it. I'll be the first to admit that weather forecasting is an educated guess - it truly is.

You can look at the computer data and all kinds of things that tell you the forecast, you interpret the data and then it'll do a completely different thing. I think we've been doing pretty good so far though.

Derek: Have you seen the film The Weather Man? I'm waiting for you to ask me: "Have you ever had a milkshake thrown at your head?"
Tashi: Have you?
Derek: No. *laughs*

Tashi: Can you make a living being a weather anchor?
Derek: Oh yeah, absolutely. You can make great money. I depends on how lucrative you are - if you're good at what you do you can move up pretty quickly. In the States especially - you can make a lot of money.
Tashi: What weather makes you miserable?
Derek: I've seen pretty miserable weather in the States - 30 degrees fahrenheit below zero. My worst is when it's so cold you have to scrape the ice off of your windscreens.

Tashi: Have you ever been in a tornado?
Derek: Yeah I have. A tornado moved through my neighbourhood.

Tashi: Did you cling to stuff?
Derek: It was actually called a straight line wind. This was before I got interested in the weather and didn't know any better. I was peeking out through the window - which isn't something you want to do in a tornado - and I remember seeing trees getting uprooted and people's houses getting smashed - it's very scary.

Tashi: What are you like on a plane when the weather goes crazy?
Derek: I sleep.
Tashi: I always think that if anything where to happen I'd end up in an episode of Lost. Then I look at the people around me and worry about who I'll end up with.

Derek: So how do you feel about not getting the job?
Tashi: I'm still sour. But ... I have to begrudgingly say, that you've been getting the weather right - (used Derek's report to plan the interview day) so I'm thinking of forgiving you.

---

---

---

15 Comments