Admin: Tell us a little about your childhood.... you're a lifelong New Englander, right?

JOSH:  Yup!  I grew up in western Massachusetts, in a small town called Ashfield.... in a 200 year old house on a dirt road, almost in the middle of nowhere! It was beautiful... set upon about 75 acres of woods, fields, streams, and a small ridge. I attended Mohawk Trail Regional High School and played tennis, soccer, baseball, and football all at one time or another.  It was an excellent place to grow up with my family.....My upbringing taught me to work hard, play hard, and enjoy life.


   <<<<-----Childhood home


Admin:  OK, I know you started in broadcasting at a pretty young age.. tell us about that, and your radio career.

JOSH:  Well yeah, I knew that I wanted to be in broadcasting by the time I reached high school. So, I started hanging around a local radio station (WRSI Greenfield, MA). I continued to hang around (and probably annoy) all the folks at the radio station, until they finally put me on the air... at first, just a little, then by the time I was a senior in High School, I had my own show (at WHAI in Greenfield). Then it was off to Emerson College in the big city, where I spent lots of my time interning, then getting jobs at several Boston radio stations.

By the time I finished, I had a full time job as a helicopter traffic reporter! Yup, we really did fly in a chopper(as opposed to just pounding on our chests) and I was heard live on several Boston radio stations every day! It was a lot of fun, but I'll give you this hint; don't drink a lot of liquids before you go on a 3 hour helicopter flight, because there's no bathrooms up there in the sky! Believe it or not, there were 4 of us in the copter, all doing reports for 3 or 4 different radio stations! Our copter was piloted by the legendary Kevin O'Keefe, and along for the ride was the equally legendary Joe Green (WBZ had stopped funding for his own copter so he rode with us) and also with us was Chris Culkeen. We were all good friends and had lots of fun up there!

<<----The copter Josh flew in!

Several years and radio jobs later, I ended up hosting one of those wacky morning radio shows, and I did it for 8 years. Now in this timespan, I had the chance to do all kinds of crazy things! I broadcast my show in wild places and did a lot of crazy things like: Parasailing, flying, sitting on top of buildings and billboards, broadcasting on ships, airplanes and blimps, from animal pens, and even did a show from a nudist camp! Let's just say that after 8 years of that craziness, I felt like I had done it all and was ready for a change!

*See bottom of page for photo albulm of a few pictures & clippings from Josh's radio career


Admin:  So you reached a point where you decided to go back to school and become a meteorologist...

JOSH:  I was ready for a change, I knew that I couldn't leave broadcasting (it's in my blood). So I decided to pursue my lifelong love of weather! I'd always been interested in it, but never had the nerve to go through the years of schooling required... well, I decided to change that and re-enrolled for a second round of college. What caught me off guard, was how MUCH I REALLY LOVED the learning! I knew that education in weather alone wouldn't get me a weather broadcasting job, so I also started working weather jobs on the side, so that I could get practical experience at the same time! So I figured out a path that would eventually take me to my goal; a full time TV job doing weather....

The first part of this path was to learn about how to work on TV and learn how to speak in front of that "green wall"... I needed a way to learn the craft of it, while still being allowed to make mistakes. I found that opportunity in Boston, at "Smartraveler TV", where we did early morning traffic and weather reporting in front of a "green wall". It was a very low budget operation,  but I was getting experience on TV! We did a FOUR hour program each morning, which gave me LOTS of practical learning time. Believe it or not, they STILL have their webpage online with our pictures!

After doing that for a year, next I needed to learn to speak meteorology, how else but to go back to something I already had some experience in, so I spent a couple years doing weather broadcasting for radio stations all over the country at a company called Meteorologix.



  From there, I got a fill-in job up in Portland, Maine at WGME -TV. It was a bit of a drive, but I didn't mind because it was experience! I must have made that drive several hundred times! 



  A month later, I also got a fill-in job at WMUR in Manchester, NH (where I am now). Both TV stations didn't mind me working at the other, so for the next year, I did that, PLUS the radio forecasting job, PLUS I was still going to school!
 
In May of 2002, I got a big break!  WHDH TV (NBC) in Boston hired me to be a Weather Producer (making the weather maps) and they eventually put me on the air to fill-in....before you knew it, I was on all the time!

 <-----on WHDH-TV (2003)

From that point on, I continued working all 3 TV stations, a very difficult balancing act because as time went on, all 3 started using me more and more. I often had days when all 3 TV stations wanted me to work, so scheduling days became difficult! I had several days a week where I worked on one station in the morning, and then another one at night and woked without a day off for months at a time!
 

 Admin:  Well, we know you went to WMUR full time since that's your job now....


Sure is!  In September of 2003 I got the break I'd been waiting for. There was a full time opening at WMUR... this had been my goal since the first day I changed career direction.  It really is a great place to work.. great facilities and equipment, super co-workers, and it's in New Hampshire, which I love.  So now I work all weekend long at the station, which is a bit challenging at times, because we have   newscasts both early morning,  late night, and in between all weekend! That means I am constantly going all weekend long, and sometimes going extended periods with very little sleep. But working all weekend also means that I get several weekdays off. That's great, because it allows me to spend time with my son, Adam. I love my job at WMUR and hope to stay a long time. Since I've already worked in Boston, I am not trying to work my way to a larger market, I love New Hamsphire and want to stay.... even though New Hampshire weather is among the toughest to predict in the country (and can be VERY frustrating sometimes)!

Admin:  OK, I know you're a bit modest about this, but you you HAVE won some awards and honors over the last few years... which ones?

JOSH:  Yeah, I don't like to brag about them or anything, but I certainly am proud of what I've been able to accomplish....

In March of 2004, I was awarded the prestigious "AMS Seal of Approval" (American Meteorological Society).  The AMS has now created a NEW higher tier level of the seal called the "Certified Broadcast Meteorologist". In order to upgrade to this new seal level, you had to take an all-inclusive (and quite difficult) exam.. this is intended to weed out meteorologists who don't have a very thorough knowledge of the atmosphere and meteorology. At the time of taking the exam, there were only a handful of meteorologists around the country that had achieved the designation, and I'm pleased to say that in July of 2006, I took the exam and passed, to successfully upgrade!

Admin:  OK, I'll list the rest.....

April of 2006: Associated Press award for "Best Weathercast". 

Voted "Best Weathercaster" in the NH Magazine "Best of New Hampshire Awards" 5 years in a row.

Multi-time winner: New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters "Best Weathercast"

Admin:  I'm sure you don't want to give us TOO many details, but can you tell us a little about your personal life?

JOSH:  Of Course!  My wife, Donna, and I have been married since August 1991. We have a son, Adam, and a house in southern NH. In the summer of 2009 we made two long trips to Russia and adopted a baby girl, Adelina.  She is now 5 years old. She is incredible and it has been a long and expensive, but WONDERFUL experience.

My personal interests are; weather (obviously), playing tennis, skiing, aviation, and watching the NE Patriots and Red Sox (since childhood- not just the championship years!), boating, and, many others.



Also, I visit a lot of schools and libraries to talk about weather with kids, and I get a lot of enjoyment out of doing this too.

Admin:  You've now written two books, "Weather Facts and Fun" and "Extreme New England Weather" ... what led you to do this and how much work was it?

JOSH:  I'm really enjoyed it! I wrote the first book for kids to teach them about weather and show them how it can be fun, as well as how important weather is in our lives.  Kids are so much fun to teach because in order to hold their attention, you have to be "interesting".  I enjoy trying to be "fun" with them, plus it allows me to let my inner child out for a little while.

The second book featured contributions from over 15 other TV meteorologists around New England.  It was a tremendous success in not only New Hampshire but also all 6 New England states and that was very satisfying.  I also enjoyed touring around the region and doing joint appearances with those meteorologists in their home states... I'll never forget those memories.

Below is a collection of images from Josh's radio career, these pictures are primarily from the 1990s from the New Hampshire chapter of Josh's career.