1970s-era KWTV Weather Coverage

[@denelson83]

No question about it Gary, you are a living legend in the state of Oklahoma.

[@impalaman9707]

See those dials on the wall at 2:07---when I was a kid growing up, this was how I identified CBS and their affiliates. They were the station with the clocks, or dials, on the wall! Whether it was the channel 9 weather forecast, Walter Cronkite with the national news and all the clocks behind him, or even Mary Tyler Moore with all the clocks on the wall in the office behind them--CBS was the network that liked clocks and dials on the wall!

[@JamesJones-cf4hw]

We moved back to Oklahoma from California in 1976. Gary England was our go to for storm coverage. My parents requested a pamphlet from KWTV that had a map of the counties and information about tornadoes. Unfortunately, we moved back to California. I really miss the Oklahoma weather and people. It's horrible living here.

[@kylea.185]

I moved to Oklahoma for a few years too, and I as well have relocated back to California. (Humboldt County) whereabouts are you from in California. For some reason I seemed to meet the vast majority of California transplants that had moved from Bakersfield to Oklahoma. I met a couple dozen people who were from Bakersfield before they decided move to Oklahoma.

[@John-ls2gp]

Do you remember Lola Hall, she had magnets on the OK map to indicate snow ect.. Grew up in Norman but back in the Mojave desert CA. myself again and again.

[@heartlandauthor]

Starting at 5:34, Gary England invented the polygon warning (albeit in its 1970's form) on-the-fly.

[@Deacon_T]

Gary saved my bacon a few times. Gary England is King of 🌪 alerts.

[@rogerwilco71]

This is back when Val didn't have live feed.... He had to find a phone booth somewhere 🤣

[@princessamber18]

That’s hilarious!!!!!!!

[@andrewd.conard5088]

At :47, appears to be meteorologist Dennis Smith, who was one the original OCMs at The Weather Channel.

[@case139]

@andrewd.conard5088 You are correct. Dennis did weekends at Channel 9 in the 1970s before venturing off to Wichita, KS, and then to the Weather Channel.

[@furnitureconsortium]

yes! I recognized his face too.....I do remember some of the original Weather Channel dudes and he was one of them. Of course he had the 1970's porn stache' here, heh!

[@christophermilner1808]

Now they're calling all of Oklahoma County. Twister movie.

[@cheddar2648]

And at 6:55, that radar shot was in the first scene.

[@PatBrooks-u6w]

Gotta love 3:18 and the way on-air talent talked. These days, they sound like corporate robots or AI figures. And Gary handled the tornado warnings as calm as possible. Now, it's drama and fear mongering to keep viewers tuned in.

[@furnitureconsortium]

Gary England as a young man! awesome footage!

[@toddwall5346]

A throw back or back in time ☺️

[@drewski1535]

We sure have come a long way in technology Miss the old times

[@way2muchNFO]

Man gotta love those oscilloscope in a submarine lol Amazing y’all have that radar in computer graphics even back then shurrlot is changed

[@JaShields]

Most of the clips was in the opening in twister

[@jackgill9965]

The scenes from Twister start at 6:00.

[@RobertKeilOK]

Imagine David Payne during this time period. Oh dear Lord

[@PatBrooks-u6w]

The biggest drama queen in weather history.

[@douglasskaalrud6865]

A near-white leisure suit! Look at those lapels! That is priceless. The weather around the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/ St.Paul) has become pretty tame the last ten years so I’ve been watching the Oklahoma weather on the National Weather Service website. The weather system that sunk the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in 1975 came right out of Oklahoma.

[@jeffbryner5355]

And this is when the Gary England drinking game was invinted 😂

[@johngligo4049]

Awesome!

[@shaylawatson1244]

Anyone else like watching 1970s news and weather forecastor viedos more then they do in the current generation

[@jw870206]

0:42 Dennis Smith, who would go on to be part of The Weather Channel in the 1980s and 1990s.

[@sharonbertram-fj1ku]

I grew up watching Gary England, and I'm an early 1960's Oklahoma baby. I will always watch channel 9!

[@brittanybraden2465]

I grew up watching him and Mike Morgan. I’m an 80s baby!!

[@JamesSmith-jq6om]

Oklahoma had the greatest and skilled meteorologists. Gary at OKC's channel 9 and Jim Giles at KOTV channel 6 in Tulsa, Gary Shore at KJRH channel 2 in Tulsa, and Travis Meyer at KTUL channel 8 in Tulsa and who is currently the chief meteorologist at KOTV.

[@makemake5400]

1990 I worked for a shop display company in Tokyo

[@kylea.185]

Imagine David Payne using those colorful printed maps, which allow sticking temperatures and shapes to the map to help viewers find out what they can expect in regards to weather. I bet David would have a chalk board during those special weather broadcasts that air for hours as storms roll through the state. He'd be drawing clouds, lightning, tornadoes, and arrows with chalk trying to predict the path of the storm. Occasionally an old fashion telephone would ring, the storm chasers will phone in from a rural gas stations payphone booth. I wasn't raised in Oklahoma, I grew up along California's Northern Coast. Therefore extreme weather/ Tornadoes were a completely new experience for me. I quickly discovered the days with severe weather/ high risk of tornadoes would give me stress and anxiety, the news teams doing the special weather broadcasts on Every network TV station would only freak me out even more. ESPECIALLY David Payne. He really has a way of creating a high risk, incredibly suspenseful situation whenever he'd go on air for those things. I eventually had to ban myself from accidentally flipping the station to 9, just thinking about it and visualizing channel 9 storm tracking show is giving me the heebie jeebies. I spent many unnecessary hours down in the shelter below the garage because I had been so terrified by the extreme danger, incredibly suspenseful situations constantly forming often times for hours. And a tornado, sometimes multiple tornadoes have good potential to be heading straight towards my house!

[@cheddar2648]

At 3:56 we have three funnels under a wall cloud. Sheesh.

[@friesareyummy]

Woah!

[@richperigo660]

The Thunder Lizard

[@Jdwify]

This was just fun to watch.