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Community Corner

Writing a Daily Blog Is Fun for Weatherman Geoff Fox

Longtime Connecticut television weather prognosticator and Hamden resident says writing and rewriting every day has made him a better writer.

 

Back when he was in school, writing just seemed like a chore, but longtime Hamden resident and TV weatherman Geoff Fox said writing a daily blog for almost seven-and-a-half years has taught him that writing is fun.

He said he also enjoys going back several years to see what he was thinking about on one day or another in the past.

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The Internet blog is just one of the "extracurricular activities" Fox enjoys when he’s not broadcasting weather reports on Fox 61 News, the Fox Broadcasting Company’s affiliate station in Hartford.

"I get a few thousand page views a day," he said, making it a moderately popular Internet destination.

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Fox said the blog contains his own personal musings, just whatever happens to attract his attention that particular day. Late on Thanksgiving week he was filing entries from Milwaukee where he was visiting his parents for the holiday.

He started the blog on July 4, 2003 and hasn’t missed a day since. It has made him a better writer and the importance of revision, he said. "I’ve learned, nothing that’s in the blog that’s not rewritten."

Most Connecticut residents know him from his 26-year stint on WTNH in New Haven. Many of his fans were shocked in 2010 when that station did not extend his contract, and the New Haven Register reported some of them followed him to his new station when he joined the staff last April.

It’s a longer commute from his Hamden home for Fox, but he is happy with his new job and proud of his colleagues.

"I’m a city boy," he said. He grew up living in apartments. "This is not only the first house I’ve owned, it’s the first house I’ve ever lived in."

Fox started off as a radio disc jockey. He moved to television in 1980 in Buffalo, N.Y., and joined the New Haven station four years later.

Since then, he has taken a broad range of science and math courses in a certificate program at Mississippi State University to earn the Broadcast Seal of Approval from the American Meteorological Society.

Oh, and by the way, he said, the Fox Broadcasting station in Hartford has nothing to do with the Fox News Channel. "We’re owned by the Tribune Company," he said, noting that some people won’t watch him because they confuse his station with the conservative cable news channel.

Fox said he hopes his presentation of the weather report helps viewers better understand what the weather means to them.

"I think that my ability as a communicator and people’s understanding of what I say helps me give you something that’s unique," he said. "It’s a matter of putting it in perspective: 57 degrees in August is different than 57 degrees in January."

At age 61, he doesn’t know how long he will continue as a television weatherman. Besides his blog, he likes to travel and enjoys photography.

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