[SEE PHOTOS OF DOUG THROUGH THE YEARS]
Doug Brown is a weatherman and has been for 50 years in broadcasting. Not bad for a boy who grew up in Brady, at the crossroads of Texas. He got the media bug in Armed Forces radio in Korea. When he returned home, he wanted to be on TV so his parents could see him. That was in 1958.
"They were going to save up to get a TV set if I got the job and then of all things, I was sent away. So they couldn't see me all the way down in south Texas," recalled Brown.
His first stop was at KRGV in Weslaco and then onto Waco. After a few years there, he got a call from a young man named Dave Ward, who told him there was a weather job at KHOU and Doug landed the job.
"Then an opening came up over here. He came over and joined us here at Channel 13 and we've been buddies ever since," said Ward.
Doug teamed up with Don Nelson, who has a different memory on how Doug came to Channel 13.
"Doug actually, before he started here, used to get inside of this robot suit and he used to give weather forecast at the local shopping mall, the Sharpstown Center, back when the Galleria mall opened," said Nelson.
"They would put in a quarter into a slot?" asked Eyewitness News reporter Deborah Wrigley.
"He'd give them like a one-day forecast. For four quarters, you would get a 5-day forecast. That was way ahead of Doppler," said Nelson.
And that began a pairing that would last decades on Eyewitness News. As it turns out, Doug is a natural comedian.
"You see, Doug knows all of my jokes because he worked with me for all the years, so he knows this joke about how we started numbering the jokes so that I don't have to tell him again. I just yell out a number and then he laughs because he knows them all," said Eyewitness News anchor Tom Koch.
"It's a guy that walks in a bar with a parrot on his shoulder...and then I can't remember," said Doug.
Fortunately, his forecast abilities were better than his punch lines. Doug was with us, rain, shine or storm. The constant has been his personality and character -- a genuinely nice man. After 50 years in broadcasting, Doug will be able to sleep in and play golf when he wants. But not having an audience may take some getting used to.
"So I guess I'll walk down the street and see a stranger and say, 'Hey, do you know if it's going to rain today?' No, I probably won't and then they'll say 'What's the percentage'," said Doug.
The percentage for Doug -- a 100 percent probability that he is taking our best wishes with him, and gratitude for staying ahead of the Texas weather for 50 years.
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This report was posted upon Doug Brown's retirement from KTRK in February 2008
