Berkshire Residents Will Experience A Major Void In Local TV News

He has been a fixture in capital region television for over 4 and a half decades. Viewers in The beautiful Berkshires and in New York's Capital Region were first introduced to Bob Kovachick back in the late 1970's when he was Chief Meteorologist at WTEN-TV. He remained in Northern Boulevard until embarking on a three year run at WTAE in "The Steel City" of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

But in 1988, Bob decided to return home as the Albany market welcomed back their native son as he was brought in as Chief Meteorologist at WNYT and he remained  there for almost 3 and a half decades, but that will come to an end as the announcement of his retirement was a shock to his loyal viewers. Bob's last broadcast at News Channel 13 airs on October 3rd (ironically on my father's birthday).

Here is when Bob broke the shocking, but not surprising news this past Friday afternoon:

Video clip courtesy of NewsChannel 13 and youtube.com/?v=mXELFtNkcik)

The iconic authority on weather cited it was time to close things out after his successful run on local television, but the question remains: What will become of the weather department without his wisdom and guidance as he led his "first warning" team to bigger and better methods in presenting a top quality product to The Empire and western portions of The Bay State.

For starters, my speculation is upon Kovachick's exit, long time colleague Paul Caiano has been groomed to take over the duties of Chief Meteorologist as he will join forces with another veteran meteorologist, Neal Estano who has also been a fixture for decades on the small screen. Reid Kisselback and Christina Talamo hold the fort during weekend broadcasts. Will there be another addition to the weather department? That remains to be seen as we will keep you posted on the latest developments.

On a personal note, another friend will be leaving the airwaves as Bob and I go back to my days at WCKL-AM in Catskill. While at channel 10, he was on-air source in updating us with weather forecasts in the afternoon hours and we shared quite the conversations speaking about our downstate days (Bob is a native of Portchester, New York which is located in Westchester county opposite the Connecticut border.) He would always provide anecdotes on how hot my native New York City could get during the summer months (and I'll stop right there).

During my time spent at WCKL, Bob invited me to watch a LIVE 6 o'clock newscast at channel 10. It was there where I developed a bond with the late, GREAT Dick Wood and his co-anchor, Marci Elliott. As for Rip Rowan, we collaborated on production projects when he was Public Relations Director for the Albany-Colonie Yankees. Thanks to Bob, I cultivated these treasured friendships from Northern Boulevard.

The trend continued when he returned to NewsChannel 13 as my watching on the sidelines in Menands gave me a cherished, lifelong friendship with Benita Zahn and it was a joy to watch the late Ed Dague anchor the news (Ed was an awesome broadcaster and was very kind to yours truly every time we got together) alongside Chris Kapostasy (now known as Chris Jansing on NBC News). Ironically, Rodger Wyland is also a member of Townsquare's sports station, "The Team" as we became broadcasting colleagues working in the same company (Such a small world, if you ask me). And I can thank Bob for making these all-important connections in life as we have been associated since 1983 (that's over half of my life as time flies).

Guaranteed, Bob Kovachick was the consummate weather presenter in our vicinity as we can rely on his accuracy for the next few weeks, but even with this new regime, his guidance will be sorely missed. The good news is he will STILL involve himself with special weather related projects at NC 13 on a sporadic basis, so if you ask me, we haven't seen the last of him here in The Berkshires (and that to me is a GOOD thing).

Bob Kovachick: A TRUE original who will NEVER be duplicated. Enjoy the next adventure in your life, my friend and for sure, we'll check in with him down the road on a future "Let's Talk" segment. He is also welcome to present his own spin on the weather forecast in our tri-state region. His experience is unmatched in more ways than one!

(Photo of Bob Kovachick courtesy of his Facebook page)