CBS11 goes with incumbent Scott Padgett as chief meteorologist
09/09/16 12:08 PM
By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Five months after Larry Mowry’s departure to Chicago’s WLS-TV, CBS11 has decided to remain in-house by naming incumbent Scott Padgett as the station’s new chief meteorologist.
Padget, who took an extended leave of absence earlier this year for undisclosed personal reasons, immediately will join anchors Doug Dunbar and Kaley O’Kelley on the weekday 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts, CBS11 announced Friday.
“We’re pleased to give Scott this well-deserved promotion,” CBS11/TXA21 president and general manager Gary Schneider said in a statement. “He has two decades of experience forecasting a wide range of severe weather, from tornados to ice storms to hurricanes. Scott knows Texas weather, and CBS11 viewers can depend on him to keep them ahead of the storms that come our way.”
Padgett joined CBS11 in September 2013 from Miami’s WPLG-TV. He initially was hired as the station’s weekday morning weathercaster. Mowry had been CBS11’s featured meteorologist for eight years.
Padgett’s elevation comes shortly after CBS11 fired Mike Garber as news director, with assistant news director Laurie Passman for now serving as interim ND.
The position of chief meteorologist carries increased weight in times when local news stations are tempted to treat a drizzle threat in Palo Pinto County as breaking news. Padgett is a solid known quantity in this respect. Bringing in another outsider and building that person’s credentials from scratch would have presented another steep marketing challenge, particularly when Fox4’s Dan Henry, TEGNA8’s Pete Delkus and NBC5’s duo of Rick Mitchell and D-FW’s dean of meteorologists, David Finfrock, have all become solidly entrenched.
Here’s how CBS11’s other meteorologists will be deployed.
Jeff Jamison has the weekday early morning shift and also will be the featured forecaster on the station’s 11 a.m. weekday newscasts.
Lisa Villegas is assigned to the weekday 4 p.m. newscasts three days a week and also is CBS11’s weekend evening and late night newscast meteorologist. (Padgett fills in for Villegas at 4 p.m. on the days she’s off.)
Jeff Ray is the weekend morning meteorologist.
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