CBS News and Stations Shares Plans for New Weather Unit

Michael Malone
·2 min read
KPIX San Francisco chief meterologist Paul Heggen delivers a forecast on the station’s virtual reality set. .
KPIX San Francisco chief meterologist Paul Heggen delivers a forecast on the station’s virtual reality set. .

CBS News and Stations is launching a weather unit that it hopes will enhance coverage of critical weather stories at both its owned stations and CBS News. Wendy Fisher will head CBS Weather Network as VP of weather strategy. She starts April 22 and comes from ABC News.

The group has not announced the official launch date for CBS Weather Network.

“Weather is consistently among the most urgent and important content we provide local and national audiences,” Adrienne Roark, president of content development and integration, CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures, said in a note to staff. “Year after year, studies show it is the biggest driver of audience engagement. From life-impacting to life-threatening weather, audiences turn to us for community connection, context, and clarity. With extreme weather events becoming worse and more frequent, having best-in-class weather and climate coverage is more important now than ever.”

Joining Fisher is Ashton Altieri, who was named senior coordinating producer for weather at CBS News and Stations in January, and David Parkinson, CBS News senior producer. Both will report to Fisher.

Scott Warren, KPIX San Francisco president and general manager, will work with the weather unit to share technology, including augmented and virtual reality, that the station has deployed to cover weather. “We have been so pleased with his innovative approach that we have tapped him to roll out these features and technology across the division,” Roark said.

Also at KPIX, Eliot Curtis is being promoted to director of technology innovation and Chad Simpson is being promoted to studio operations and integrations manager.

Roark said CBS News and Stations will continue working with The Weather Channel on breaking weather stories and investigative reports related to weather.

“I look forward to this experienced, energetic and visionary team coming together to put our new weather strategy into place and take our coverage to new heights,” Roark said.