On 9/08/2010 NBC affiliate WAVE 3 Television will broadcast the final segments of their early evening weather with Meteorologist John Belski at the helm. This will be the end of a long stint for Belski with this affiliate that he has been with for over two decades. Belski was part of the Louisville weather scene long before this with a then local ABC affiliate WLKY 32, so he career spans over two and a half decades in Louisville.
Belski is not your average local TV Meteorologist, he has thrown himself into the community by taking his weather segments on the road, helping numerous charities and always happy to stop and say hello to a fan who may run across him in public somewhere. In an earlier life I would be dazzled when I would see some celebrity in public regardless if it were a national or local celebrity, I can tell you from experience that 9 out 10 celebrities would rather you not approach them even to shake a hand, say hello or ask for an autograph for sure. Belski always embraced his followers.
In throwing himself into his job like this and especially live TV out of studio there were numerous times that of course things don't go well as we all know what can happen on live TV. Belski took all unfortunate events that occurred in stride, he could laugh at himself as well as at and with others. I won't go into specific details of some events but you can Google it or try Youtube.com if you would like to see some things he has done.
Belski in throwing himself into his job didn't let up one ounce when taking his job as serious as I have ever witnessed anyone do. During severe episodes in and around Louisville a good deal of viewers would turn towards Wave's Belski for a calming (although sometimes alarming) reassurance that you either were out of danger or you should take action to get out of danger. No matter what time of day or night it was if severe weather was expected during any season, Belski was there on TV giving out his calming or alarming voice to viewers who were seeking the most up to the minute information to ensure their safety.
Belski also took a lot of heat for his decision to pre-empt local or national programming to stay constantly on the air in Tornado Warning Events. He would stay on air until the danger of a Tornado was gone in a multi-county coverage area. There is no telling how many lives Belski has saved in his career, there is just no way to tell but I will say this, when a F-5 tornado hit during an afternoon in the 90's and headed for a highly populated area where over 1000 homes were damaged or destroyed there was not one fatality, not one. Think Belski may have saved a life or lives that day? I would assume so.
Just recently within the past few months when no severe weather was expected at 1:30 in the morning I looked outside and saw one hell of a storm coming, I checked the stations and none had anything indicating severe weather approaching. As it got closer a few of the stations ran crawls by the time the storm had reached Jefferson County. I posted on Belski;s blog the next morning that all the stations and NWS were asleep at the switch. When Belski got to reply to my post I found out that Belski was on his Blog posting from home at 1:00am that severe weather was approaching, 1:30 am this guy is blogging that things are going to get severe! In a pretty stupid retort I asserted back on the blog that who in the hell is reading a weather blog for weather warnings at 1:00 am? Well if you know Belski and his followers there were probably thousands, egg on my face. This is one of many all nighters Belski has put in especially during Winter Weather that gets severe, his blog cranks up and there are thousands following his blog during wee hours of the morning.
It;s just amazing.
Ok so here we have a fellow that is still young, still in good health and as the aforementioned attests to has more damn enthusiasm for his work and love for his fans than any Met in the country. A city like Louisville doesn't deserve such a Met in my opinion but oh how lucky we have been. So imagine our surprise and shock that Belski announces he is leaving WAVE TV on 9/8/2010 in a non-eventful indifferent manor during a recent 6PM broadcast! I don't know what the official story is but retirement has been floating around but from what I have taken is that he has decided to leave television. But what I assert is that he was ran off television by his current employer Raycon and it's local affiliate WAVE-3. Things have been sort of out of place for months now. I have noticed a change in Belski and especially since the announcement of his departure.
I assert that Bekski didn't want to leave he was essentially forced out by ownership of WAVE and possibly WAVE itself. You may say Rakemaker you are a moron! Well I might be but let me explain something and give my theory.
First, a guy that loves the hell out of his profession and job, who is regarded as one of the top Mets if not Top Met in the country is just throwing in the towel on TV?
A guy that has the highest following of any Weather Blog around the country in such a small market and has developed a following as far as California (I know I have gotten e-mails from them) and is without question at the top of his game, is just going to throw in the towel on a TV career?
A guy that gets out of bed at 3am to post about severe weather or heads into the station if need be with all the enthusiasm you could imagine at the top of the day, is going to throw in the towel on TV?
Look I might buy it if Belski was a "go out on top kind of guy" I don't buy that. If it was a simple situation of wanting to spend more time with family, wants to explore more options whilst his age allows, or whatever a number of personal reasons might be OK, that's his call and none of my business. But recently I received an e-mail from a person claiming that he has a friend that works at WAVE and the this person was exposed to the negotiation of Belski's new contract and wish list of updated financial expectations etc etc. This e-mail claims that WAVE would not meet the salary requests of Belski, so off he goes.
I know the variables are numerous my friends believe me I know! Belski may have thought I am throwing this number out there, this is what I think I am worth and if they balk at it then maybe it's time for me to try something different. Or he may have thrown a ridiculously high number out there to sub-conscientiously force himself into making a change. I have no idea but the reason I took so much time explaining this guy gives me the impression that he would do neither and I contend that he more than likely asked for a realistic figure that would compensate him and his family while continuing his fabulous career on TV and breaking new ground in the process as I am sure he would have continued to break new ground in the ways of presenting the Weather to all of us.
So with this assumption I say that Belski was forced out of WAVE by a company that has no intention of putting the financial resources to give us the product that Belski gave us for decades. I feel they will run this market on a shoestring budget and make it up in other markets and if so this is a damn shame for everyone.
So yeah lots of speculation, lots of rumors, lots of scenarios that could have led up to where we are now, this again is Rake's take. I could be a complete moron and some of you have said so but I am not buying that Belski is simply taking another avenue and that was his intent all the while, I just ain't buying it.
So to me Belski's departure is an inside job executed by Raycon or WAVE and we the loyal viewers and blog readers are left holding the bag. Yeah I am taking it hard. I check his blog almost daily even in calm times of no real exciting weather.
So WAVE you have lost a viewer for good, I intend to take you off the remotes as well as not support your sponsors (and let them know about it and why). This stinks from top to bottom. I am going to miss the Small Lord immensely (and to you that think calling him a small lord is a derogatory term you are exactly opposite, a Small Lord is just under Heysus in the mortal world) it's going to take a long time to get over it and recover.
I don't think there is anyone locally or nationally that can fill his shoes.
I wish the Small Lord the best, I will miss you and your blog and miss interacting with the others that follow you and the blog, We have a great little thing going in Winter and I am going to really miss that.
So best wishes to you Small Lord, I hope you can find a way to continue to blog and even more so hope you find a Medium to continue practicing what you do best! If you decide to take the high road and never address this that is your call and I will understand but I sure hope we all get the truth some day and soon.
To Wave I hope your rating drop like a lead balloon.
Thanks for all the memories Small Lord, we are all going to miss you.
I am
RAKEMAKER
