Katie Horner: Success is the best revenge on FireKatie.com

How would you like it if you came back to work after a nice, relaxing vacation and found someone had started up a Website demanding that you be canned?

That's what happened in March when Katie Horner, the chief meteorologist for KCTV-5, returned with her family from Hawaii. A viewer named Derrick Smith had created FireKatie.com after storms passed through the rural parts of the Kansas City area on the night of Feb. 28. Three of the four local news stations, including KCTV, pre-empted their prime-time programs for weather coverage, and a lot of viewers that night were steamed.

• Earlier story: FireKatie, an idea whose time has dot com

  Horner got over the initial shock of seeing FireKatie.com and looked up the final reports on the storm, which were compiled after she left town. That's when she learned, for the first time, that the system she'd been tracking that night was a violent F4 tornado, capable of flattening homes and turning cars into missiles.

  “The first F4 in the country (this year) fell in our viewing area, at night, and I stayed on with it,” she said. “Case closed!”

  Then she started to read her email. By the time she sat down with me in mid-April to discuss FireKatie.com, Horner was able to smile and say, in apparent sincerity, “That turned out to be the biggest blessing. I have gotten more support from meteorologists around the country and around the world, saying, 'Girl, sorry this is happening to you but, way to go.'” Her supporters include silver-throated Bryan Busby of KMBC-9, her chief competitor, who also happens to be a close friend.

  “If I'm known as the person who is totally passionate about weather safety, then I will wear that cross,” she said.

  That passion was first revealed four years ago this week, when a series of deadly night storms tore through the country's midsection. After they had left the Kansas City metro area, other stations returned to network programs. Horner stayed on the air covering the ones in the outlying areas. KCTV had already pre-empted the CBS Sunday movie, so there was no real reason to return to it. Lucky or not, that decision changed the landscape of Kansas City local news.

  The tornadoes of May 4, 2003, would kill 37 people in Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee, making it the deadliest storm in years. The station reaped a whirlwind of favorable press and thank-yous from viewers in outlying areas. Horner and her bosses -- then-KCTV news director Regent Ducas and KCTV-KSMO general manager Kirk Black -- saw it as vindication of their decision to go wall-to-wall. (Whenever I mention to Black that KCTV's ratings kept growing through the night, he hotly denies that Nielsens factor into the decision to keep Horner on the air.)

  “That was the event that set our policy on severe weather, because it saved lives,” Horner said.

  There's some evidence to back her claim. Two weeks after the storms of May 4, 2003, researchers at Kansas State University descended on areas hardest hit by the tornadoes. From their interviews, they concluded that urban and suburban communities, like those surrounding Kansas City, were better warned about tornado threats than rural communities.

  A big reason was television. In the well-informed areas, they found that after people heard warning sirens, most would turn to TV coverage of the storms. As for weather radios -- the devices championed by FireKatie.com's Smith as being just as good as TV -- the K-State researchers had trouble finding anyone who used them.

  “When I wake up in the morning I don't think, 'What were the ratings for that storm last night?' I say, 'Was anybody hurt last night?'” Horner said. “That's the very first thing I'm concerned about. It's human nature to form opinions about other people, and if I'm to take on this responsibility as chief meteorologist, that's just one of the things that comes with it.”

  But the very fact she had become, as she put it, the "poster child" for weathercasting excess in Kansas City was a sign of just how far her star had risen since 1998, when she replaced Gary Amble as KCTV's lead meteorologist. She seemed to lag for years behind her male rivals at the other stations. In these pages I criticized her fumbling approach with the station's new Doppler radar and, if you can believe it, for not interrupting with tornado updates enough.

  Once unleashed on the airwaves for hours at a time, however, Horner was able to give voice to what Busby calls her nurturing, motherly side.

  “Listen to her verbiage: 'Here's what I would do.' She explains things to moms and kids,” said Busby. “I don't think I've ever explained to children what to do in a storm during wall-to-wall coverage.”

  But Horner can also turn into a ferociously protective she-bear. When I asked her about WeatheRate, an independent firm that has for years certified KSHB's Gary Lezak as Kansas City's “most accurate forecaster,” she coolly replied, “I'm not going to name any names, but I think about Lawrence, Kansas” -- a reference to May 8, 2003, when a storm caused extensive damage in southwest Lawrence -- “and I think about a meteorologist who claims credibility and accuracy going on the air and saying, 'Lawrence, you're not going to get hit by this tornado,' AS they were being hit by that tornado. And I think, how could anybody claim credibility when they just missed that? When lives are at risk, that's all that matters.”

  “Let the numbers speak for themselves,” Lezak replied in an e-mail.“We have been No. 1 in forecasting accuracy four years in a row now.And the new numbers just came out for this fifth year and once again KSHB is No. 1 and it isn't even close.We take on the challenge every day and welcome it.”

  Horner has not only boosted Channel 5's fortunes, but her own as well. Several reliable sources confirmed that the last time Horner's contract was up, two other stations in town tried to sign her away from KCTV.

  I had been hearing reports that Ducas had pushed Horner to stay on the air longer than she wished to. But when pressed to give her own philosophy about when to interrupt TV shows for weather, she gave a nearly identical response to one Ducas had given two months earlier.

  “If there is a tornado warning, we're going to stay on the air until everybody is out of the path of the tornado,” Horner said. That means anywhere in the 11-county viewing area, “because what makes a person's life in Mound City any less important than a person in Prairie Village?”

• Vote in our poll: Who's your weathercaster?
• Related audio: More of my interview with Katie
• Earlier: Regent Ducas, the exit interview

The Horner file

Born Nellsonville, Ohio.

Bachelor's degree in public relations and marketing from University of South Florida; became weekend weathercaster at WEAR-TV in Pensacola; later earned geoscience degree from the Broadcast Meteorology Program at Mississippi State Univ.

Married to Frank Armato; three children: Chelsea (from first marriage), Anna and Ava.

Was offered job in Chicago; KCTV countered by promoting her from mornings to evenings in 1998, changing places with then-chief meteorologist Gary Amble.

Comments

[Aaron]

Sorry, but I'm erasing this one from a viewer who apparently has forgotten it's only television.

[Aaron]

Ahhh, the love. This one is from George Richardson:

When were you hired as a publicist for KCTV5. Your article on Katie Horner had to be written by the general manager at Channel 5. Katie Horner is nothing but an airtime whore who wants to be in front of what is perceived as a large crowd because she thinks it gives her power. Her ability to forecast is very poor, her onscreen persona is bad and she is like a newbie everytime she is on air. Any one who considers themselves a professional should not cry during a telecast as she did when the tornadoes came through KCK and NorthKC. There are some bad weather forecasters in this town and she is the worst of the worst. It is little wonder that Bryan Busby supports her as he is just as bad as she is and he is another TV personality whose reputation is way over blown and whose ego is enormous. He may be smoother on the air than Horner, a stutterer would be more smooth than Horner, but he is arrogant and repulsive in his presentation of the weather. He always speaks as temperatures being normal and they are averaged there is no normal temperature. There is only an average temperature for the period of time he is speaking of. Katie Horner does nothing but make people see red when she comes on the air. There is no reason for her or any other weather forecaster to be on the air continually when they can scroll information across the bottom or top of the screen. If a tornado touches down then they should come on the air and only then. They can’t warn the people where the tornado hit because that area would have no power and thus no TV reception. That is why a weather radio is important in the Plains States. This storm season there is not a good reason for the nights that they interrupted programming. The tornado was not in our area. The area that was hit is served by television stations that are actually much closer to the storm area than KCTV5. All of the local stations seem to think that St. Joseph, Chillicothe, Cameron and the towns north watch them. I strongly disagree in that KQTV in St. Joseph better serves and is watched by more of the citizenry during storms than the KC stations. The same thing applies to the towns west of KC and north in Kansas. I know that more of those towns watch the Topeka stations during storms than the KC stations because the Topeka station is better for that area. The local weather people are all way to full of themselves and because of KCTV5 we have to put up with repetitious weather talk during storms that people have lived through for thousands of years. Everyone knows when they are in a thunderstorm and we do not need to be told that we are for hours by a bad talking head.

[Aaron]

Not sure why these people aren't using paragraph breaks. From Scott Hensley:

Fireaaronbarnhart.com Interview people and write a story about all the people who could care less about the weather people and their so called expertise in forecasting the weather. I think Larry Moore should just read a paragraph from the Farmers Almanac each night. It would be more accurate, sorry "Sleezstack". Yea, I read it cause I'm one of those guys who think the weather reports are overblown and over used. I want all the weather people fired. Who else can be as consistently wrong as they are and still keep their jobs. Did ESPN hurt the people who want more sports coverage? What happened to the 2-3 minute forecasts? I want Dan Henry back. Why do "they" think we need to know how cold it is in Des Moines. Poll the people! The weather people here in town will give you some sort of statistic that "people" want to know but honestly they really really don't care. FInd those people. Coining a phrase from Coach Mangino, "dollar signs"! Ratings, it's about ratings. "If we scare the people enough and say we are the most accurate forecaster they'll tune in for sure". I am tired of the scare tactics to keep me planted in front of the tube because there might be severe weather sometime in a few days, maybe, possibly, we think. When I hear the little sounders and beeps on the TV and see the annoying county map pop up over my baseball score I find something else to do while cursing the geeks under my breathe. At lease it makes good lunchroom conversation. Two things we love to bag on, the weather forecasters and Carl Peterson. Don't get me started on King Carl! Sorry had to vent Bryan Busby told me it would be sunny and nice all week!

[Vivian Thomsen]

I'm writing in total support of Katie Horner. If you have ever been threatened by a tornado and lived in a rural community you would appreciate on air coverage by someone who "CARES" about your safety. I have lived in Kansas City for 30 years but I grew up in Onaga Kansas, population 800 and I lived through the Topeka June 8th tornado. I have been threatened on multiple occasions and lived in Kansas City when no one ever came on the air even when the metro area was threatened and I was appalled. I will never wish to watch some stupid TV show over on air coverage which saves people lives not just in the metro area, but in the small towns where people are killed because they didn't know it was coming. I hope your other 2 male commenters get blown away while pontificating with their buddies or perhaps one of their loves ones from a small community gets killed because there was no on air coverage to warn them. I can assure you if it happened to them they would change their tune.

[Jason]

People really get fired up over weather forecasters, don't they? Are their TV dials broken and stuck on that one channel?

Here's a tip: the weather comes on around 10:17pm every night. Turn off the TV and go to bed!

Interesting article-- and nice extra web content, Aaron.

[Aaron]

Or flip over to the Daily Show -- last night Jon actually had the "Suicide Killers" filmmaker on. There's riveting, and then there's rivetingest.

[Aaron]

Well, at least this reader used his Enter key. From James Schmitt:

Katie should be home with the Kids! And go back to Fla.....

If you want the weather go to The Weather Channel. The folks at the news desk really look pissed when the hog takes all their time. Where we live we go to the basement with a police scanner that is battery powered. We lose power even though we have all underground lines. I don't need a battery type TV and only a FM radio will work in the basement.

To cure this situation a scanner operating on batteries with the local, state and county folks you get a first hand coverage at once....A few years ago we missed the big one by one quarter mile and did not need Katie at all. All they need is to put a crawl on the picture for the folks who don't know about scanners and she could be home making cookies!

If I ran the station I would put her in a 18-wheeler and have her chase a storm to St. Louis and maybe she would get lost around Terra Haute, Indiana.....Does the boss of the station have a 8x10 of her?

Webster's doesn't think much of the 'study' of weather....

[Aaron]

And so far, I have to say, I don't think much of these male commenters. Battery-powered police scanners make weather radios look sensible by comparison.

[Steve]

It's a good thing the male chauvinists aren't writing in.

(before the typo police get me...)

[Aaron]

I gotcher equal opportunity right here. From "Pam in KC":

I enjoyed your article about Katie, but let's face it, the weather reporting has turned into total drama in the KC area. All of our meteorologists overdo it in my opinion. Believe me, I truly do like and appreciate the work they do, and agree that we should save all the lives we can, but when we have a stormy night, you'd think we'd gone to war! I survived the famous Ruskin Heights tornado in 1957, so I don't take this lightly. It's not necessary for them to completely take over the airwaves, sometimes for the entire evening! I have relatives here from out of town a lot and they have tornadoes and severe weather where they live, but every one of them have commented on how overdone our weather people are here in taking over our TV's. Why do they insist on ambushing our televisions, promising us our shows will be on later, but never telling us exactly WHEN, so we miss them anyway. Not only that, but do they honestly think we need to WATCH them stand at a weather map and read faxes to us on the latest weather info during severe weather?? This begs the REAL question..........DO THEY NOT THINK THAT WE CAN READ?? Why can't they just run a small banner across the bottom of the screen with a small beep every few minutes to get our attention like CNN does, telling us which counties are presently under severe weather, which need to take cover, etc. I can learn just as much without watching them all compete for airtime so we can decide who did the best job in keeping us informed. They can claim it saves lives all they want, but all they need to do is tell us with a banner to tune into a radio station if we want to listen and otherwise, just let us READ the information we need! For God's sake, why doesn't this town just have ONE channel we can tune into for those of us who want to watch a weather person stand in front of a map all night? Do they really need to monopolize the entire viewing area for several hours? NO! Isn't that why we have a channel called the WEATHER CHANNEL?? Why don't they just tell us with a banner to tune into the local and national weather channels for details? I would tell you, but I think you already know the answer!

[Aaron]

By the way, when we went through this exercise two months ago, after all the emails, comments and voice mails were counted (hundreds), the opinions were almost evenly split between "stop picking on Katie" and "je deteste."

[great_scot]

The story totally missed the point.

I can overlook Katie's motherly drama - turn the channel, but it is when she cuts into the KU tournament game ALL DAY (about a year ago) well after the storms have passed to tell us what the weather is doing in Conneticut (and in places the cannot pick-up her broadcast) that is too much and should not be congratulated.

[Mark Jeffries]

Once again, shouldn't you be blaming Horner's bosses at KCTV for wanting to break into programming at seeming whim? Doesn't she have a news director who has to approve these things--or will order her to go on the air?

And would this be such a big deal if she was a man? I hate to think what you people would say about her if she was an African-American or an out lesbian.

[kenton]

"I'm totally passionate about weather safety" = "I'm totally passionate about overdramatizing the weather and butting into programming as often as possible to get more face time."

[Mark Jeffries]

Once again, why do you Horner-bashers (and they're all men--isn't that interesting?) think that she alone decides if she gets air time? Hasn't she had bosses that could easily be accused of sensationalism who have given her orders to pump up her presentations? Isn't KCTV essentially a tabloid-style news shop?

And even if it's on the fringes of a station's coverage area, presenting severe weather warnings is public service. Not "The Amazing Race." Not David Caruso and his Sunglasses of Doom. Not Doug James and his hot babe wife. Not some syndicated geekboi SF show. Not even Dave Letterman (sorry, Aaron, but I'm making a point).

And you Horner haters have already proved you're sexists--what's your opinion of African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans, Native Americans, Jews, gays and lesbians--as if we didn't already know?

[Mark Roberts]

Some perspective for those who are complaining about weather coverage: do you think the people of Greensburg, Kansas are complaining about weather coverage from the Wichita stations?