Holding On To History: The trends in TV weathercasts of the 1960s

DULUTH, Minn. (Northern News Now) - At the start of the 60s, Gordy Paymar of Channel 3 was the grand old man of Northland TV weather.

Before KDAL duty, he forecasted the first TV station in town, the short-lived UHF channel 38 in 1953.

Gordy and co-host Herb Taylor remembered those days in 1964.

“You took over weather from Carl Casperson and you’ve been a weatherman now for twelve years? Yes, going on 12 years. We’re talking about Channel 38 the original station in the Twin Ports that no longer exists,” bantered Taylor and Paymar.

Paymar and Taylor always had fun together at Channel 3 as this out-take from Chef Hans’ cooking show attests.

“Can you guess what Hans Freischel is cooking, Gordy, can you guess what Chef Hans is cooking? Ahhh!” asked Taylor while ribbing Paymar.

Over at Channel 6, Jack McKenna left to try his hand in places like Minneapolis and Phoenix.

Ray Paulsen helmed the weather then with Diane as his assistant.

“Diane was my weather girl when we used to have the weather girl, it was the weather with Ray and Diane and every girl was a Diane. Diane Francisco was the first one,” said Paulsen in an interview around 2010.

The concept of having a weather girl is archaic today, but several women played the “Diane” role in the 1960s.

The last one’s real name was Carmen and Paulsen did not want her to get the job.

“I didn’t even want to talk to her but I learned to respect her because she worked so darn hard at everything and got it right,” said Paulsen.

Paulsen and Carmen got married and worked together on the Mr. Toot kids show which ate up Paulsen’s time away from the weather.

In the late 60s, a seismic event shook up our local TV world: an ABC affiliate went on the air to compete with Channels 6 and 3.

That crew included an anchorman named Dick Wallack, a reporter named Dennis Anderson, and the return of McKenna.

They would become the team to beat in the 70s.

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