By Laura Lane
And he has fond childhood memories of watching the Today Show, especially when Dave Garroway called Washington, D. C. to find out the local weather.
³On the Today Show Dave Garroway would draw a weather map as someone in Washington instructed him on what the weather would be; there wasn¹t a video connection back then,² said Korbel, smiling. ³And I¹d draw it too on my blackboard. But I never really thought of being on television. I wanted to be a meteorologist, period.²
Korbel has lived most of his life on Long Island. He moved to North Merrick six years after he married his wife, Sharon, in 1972. Korbel¹s mother still lived in East Meadow, Sharon¹s family was on Long Island, and Korbel liked North Merrick. ³North Merrick seemed like a nice medium neighborhood,² Korbel said. ³It¹s near the water, and I like the water, and it¹s also near the Long Island Rail Road.²
Growing up in East Meadow, Korbel remembers a simple life. He spent much of his time playing outdoors with friends, who at times challenged themselves by trying to sneak into the Levittown pool, which was off limits to non-residents.
³I remember that everyone in East Meadow came from the same economic background, our parents all made the same money, just had different jobs,² Korbel said. ³There were many kids the same age as me to play with. And sometimes we¹d play baseball or touch football.²
Korbel always loved science. A good student, he kept a low profile at East Meadow High School. He spent a good deal of time hanging out with friends. ³I liked playing with tape recordings,² Korbel recalled. ³I did comedy skits, or I just goofed off. And I liked to follow storms, but my opportunities were limited to the evening weather show.²
After graduation, Korbel enrolled at New York University to study meteorology. Joining the Air Force Reserved Officers Training Corps program gave him an opportunity to start his career. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant, and a month later, he was stationed at Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, N.Y., where he served as a weather forecaster.
³I told the pilots what the weather would be, which is very important in aviation,² Korbel said. ³And when I was later stationed in Southeast Asia, I did forecasting for the fighter wing. They¹d fly into Vietnam and drop the bombs. Every once in a while, someone wouldn¹t come back; that was serious weather forecasting.²
In the military, Korbel put into practical use everything that he had studied in college, and he learned how to work under pressure. Then he was transferred to Washington, D.C. for a two-year assignment as a weather forecaster for Air Force One.
³I did forecasting for all of the big government officials, including the president, national security adviser and the secretary of defense,² said Korbel proudly. ³I got to ride on the plane, see Richard Nixon¹s bedroom; this was the plane that John F. Kennedy took to Dallas. It was cool.²
After five years in the Air Force, he completed his assignment and had to make a tough decision ‹ to stay in or get out. Korbel decided to stay, but in the reserves. Korbel retired from the Air Force Reserves as a lieutenant colonel 20 years later.
The Air Force provided not only an excellent opportunity for a young meteorologist but also a contact. ³I heard that WCBS Radio was looking for a meteorologist through someone that I worked with in the Air Force,² Korbel said. ³I¹d given so many briefings in the Air Force, some over the phone, so I wasn¹t unfamiliar with public speaking. I stayed at WCBS Radio for five years.²
Another Air Force buddy did Korbel a life-altering favor when he introduced Korbel to the woman who would later become his wife. ³Sharon¹s brother heard me on the radio and called me at the station,² Korbel said. ³We got together, and after a few times, he said he wanted me to meet his sister. We met on a blind date and later married.²
The couple have been married for 35 years and made several friends in the Merrick community. ³Bill is the way he seems on television, he¹s real,² said Sharon. ³He¹s true and easy, sweet and good. And he¹s not full of himself either. And he¹s great with our two grandchildren, too.²
Herb Gikofsky, better known as Mr. G, channel 11 News at 10¹s meteorologist, knew Korbel when he worked at WCBS. ³I used to go down there to see Bill and watch and learn,² Gikofsky said. ³He¹s very good at what he does, very professional and very kind. He¹s also very bright.²
Gikofsky said he picked up on Korbel¹s ³conservative nature as a forecaster.² The relationship began with Korbel as Gikofsky¹s mentor, but they soon became friends too. ³Now we share thoughts about different weather situations,² Gikofsky said. ³Bill is solid and a credit to the people who are in television. He¹s a guy who lives up to an image a station wants to have.²
Korbel left WCBS Radio in 1977 to join WOR Radio¹s morning show, the popular ³Rambling with Gambling,² where he stayed for 15 years. WOR was the top radio station in the country, and ³Rambling with Gambling² ended up as the longest-running show in radio history.
³I enjoyed being a part of a group of broadcasters who I used to listen to before I got into the business, and the guests were big names like Dolly Parton and Charleston Heston,² Korbel recalled. ³It was very fun.²
Sharon said it was lonely at times when her husband worked at WOR. If the weather threatened, he¹d leave early in the morning to miss the start of a storm, and if a blizzard hit, he might not return home for days. ³When we first moved to Merrick, we got a dog so I wouldn¹t be left alone,² Sharon said. ³Bill would sleep on the floor at the station if there was a storm. I used to worry about him when he worked in the city.²
In 1985 Korbel set up a sound studio in his basement and began to work for WOR out of his house. This was to satisfy a request by the station that he report the weather during the day and evening, which would have been impossible otherwise living on Long Island.
³Bill had a designated line going to the city, and the basement was soundproofed,² Sharon recalled. ³Bill would stick the microphone outside and walk around. It was fun having him home.²
Never afraid to try something new, Korbel contacted News 12. He said he¹d be available to fill in when a meteorologist was needed. Korbel worked his first assignment at News 12 the day he left WOR in 1993. He worked at the station¹s regional news outlets in Connecticut, and after a year, he was offered a job on Long Island. He loved working on TV, but had challenges to overcome, including the blue wall.
The blue wall, or chromakey, is the wall behind the weather person and is lit so that the entire area is shadowless and equally bright. The studio recognizes only that particular blue as the color to be replaced. So, when the forecaster¹s image is electronically combined with the computer-generated weather map, the map replaces the chromakey blue, but not the performer.
When you stand in front of the blue wall, you don¹t see the images that are being shown on television. ³I had to figure out what side I should stand on for the graphic,² said Korbel, pointing to the three television monitors that he uses to follow the progression of weather slides while forecasting. ³It took me a month or two to get comfortable with the camera,² he said.
Korbel chooses which slides will be used for his weather forecasts, always remembering that his viewer might be someone who saw his last forecast. ³I choose the slides for my six live weather forecasts, and I¹m always looking at the latest weather reports in between my forecasts,² Korbel explained. ³I use different graphics for each show, and I always try to keep it fresh. To do this, I try to look for a graphic or an image that may surprise me, like that maybe the temperature in Illinois is 100 degrees.²
Korbel also does not work with a teleprompter to feed him his lines for his segment. ³The weather is the only part of the newscast that isn¹t scripted,² Korbel said. ³It helps if you understand the topic, if you understand the workings of the weather. If you don¹t know much about the topic, it would be hard to ad-lib.²
Korbel¹s style is different than a number of weathermen now on TV. Craig Allen, also of Merrick, the former meteorologist for WCBS Newsradio 88, joined News 12 in January. He admires Korbel¹s style, which he said he emulates.
³I have fond memories of tuning in to Bill when I was a kid to find out if I had school or not when it looked like it would snow,² Allen said. ³I molded myself to be like him. We don¹t scream or hype our show. Bill and I are the last of a dying breed of meteorologists who want to do weather instead of self-promoting ourselves, saying look what I see.²
Allen described Korbel as low-key, laid back and quick to smile. ³Bill is very smart, especially about the physics of the atmosphere because he¹s a pilot,² Allen said. ³I learned it in the classroom, but he¹s been up in the air and can feel the different weather conditions. He knows his stuff.²
Korbel said it¹s all about reaching his audience. ³Meteorologists like to use what they¹ve learned, the technical terms,² Korbel said. ³We interpret the science of weather. I try to keep my reports light and easy to understand. I just try to let the viewer know what kind of day lies ahead and whether they¹ll run into any weather problems.²
If you know of any East Meadow graduates who have gone on to make a difference or are pursuing an unusual career contact Laura Lane at Llane@liherald.com.
Comments about this story? Llane@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 236.
