Requiem for the Chromakey

Wednesday, May 5, 2004

My favorite cute weatherman (and inducer of many a warm front) Steve Rudin is leaving the airwaves next month.

Steve Rudin, the WTTG-TV (Channel 5) weekend weatherman who settled a discrimination lawsuit with his bosses last year, plans to leave the Fox affiliate in June.
    He will focus on a business he started a few years ago converting old brownstones in the District into condominiums. Mr. Rudin also plans to get his master's degree in business administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
...Mr. Rudin, despite having a made-for-the-camera face, hasn't had the easiest time in TV.
    The Farmington Hills, Mich., native came to town in 1995 as a weekend weatherman at CBS affiliate WUSA-TV (Channel 9), where he worked under Doug Hill, whom he idolized when Mr. Hill worked in Detroit televison during Mr. Rudin's youth.
    In 2000, Mr. Rudin became one of the first staffers David Roberts canned when he joined the station as news director. The next year, the producers of CBS' "Survivor: Africa" named Mr. Rudin an alternate player but never brought him off the bench.
    Mr. Rudin doesn't rule out returning to TV one day — he wouldn't mind joining CNBC as a business analyst — but he wants to focus on life off the air for now.
    "It's unfortunate, but so many people in TV think they can only do one thing. I think if the lights went out one day, a lot of people would have some major problems, and I mean that respectfully," he said.

Well, good for him -- I wish him lots of luck, and wish I had the guts to change my life and try a new direction.
I just wish he could do something new yet still do something that let me look at him longingly for a few minutes on weekend nights.

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