Storm Awards

Best on Scene Reporter- WHDH channel 7's Steve Cooper. In a 2 minute shot he moved from a local Emergency vehicle to the top of a mountain of plowed snow in the Burlington Mall parking lot. Most reporters would just shown the top of the pile nearing the bottom of a traffic light. Not Steve. He climbed to the top while we were seeing shots of cars driving and plows plowing. Then he climbs down on camera to end the report. I keep waiting for him to fall like the chef on Sesame Street who announces how many chocolate cakes he has then tries to go down stairs. His crash is always funny and so would have been Steves' were he not a super cool on scene reporter who's middle name is "Danger". Steve knows what you need to do to report well from the middle of a storm. You have to let the storm abuse you. The viewer has to see how bad conditions are. Maybe its the waves crashing over a sea wall on to your head or the struggle to stand up in the face of powerful wind. Danger Cooper knows he has to live the storm so we the viewers can experience the storm from underneath our Sunggies.

Best Weather Graphics- WBZ Channel 4 in a surprising upset takes this award for the suprising number of ways in which they show the same fact about the storm with different colors and 3D effects. At first I thought this was stupid until I realized I had watched the whole report with out switching to J.C. Monohan on channel 5 or Dyl on 7. For the forgettable team Todd Gutner and Ken Barlow that's saying something. These two have no chemistry. They make the weather sound as interesting as a PG story about a company christmas party. Channel 4 does always have the best looking water graphic during their regular news casts. I don't really have a reason why it just looks cool.

Sissy Voice Award- Todd Gutner still has his pre pubescent high voice. Its like seeing a really wealthy school's Middle School News report. Because they can afford such awesome graphics. Dawn Haswbrook's voice is like 2 octaves lower. I figure the difference is the same as if Kermit the Frog was speaking to Michael Clarke Duncan.