I just had to correct an erroneous notion that appears in the message above, and about which I have firsthand knowledge. Tom Siler had plenty of time left on his contract when he left WTXL -- time the ownership would have honored. But Tom wanted more money elsewhere, so he faked his "retirement," one of the few contract "outs" the WTXL ownership would allow. Tom told everyone at the station he was leaving the business and moving the the Philippines (!), where he would snooze away his golden years in a beachside hammock, sipping pastel drinks with little umbrellas in them. Siler was entirely unethical in his subterfuge and left a sour taste in everybody's mouth once his duplicity was discovered. But by then, the management had replaced him with a far better meteorologist and didn't see any sense in hassling Siler -- the attitude quickly switched from "bon voyage" to "good riddance." He never generated any real viewers anyway, and the "Weather Wizard" label was just a last ditch effort by a ratings consultant to pump some life into his otherwise flat following. He was rapidly becoming a dead letter anyway, because he lacked the qualifications for an AMS Seal...he had one from the NWA, but it only applies to TV people, not professional meteorologists. Tom was a nice guy, and he knew how to read a National Weather Service forecast just great, but the "retirement" stunt lost him a good many friends in the business. For the record, I found the above-referenced mistake while Googling my way elsewhere. I recognize that my post is more than two years too late, but since the offending entry is still available I could not, in good conscience, let it stand as a slur on WTXL, whose ownership and management at the time (IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT IN DEC. 2005 THE COMPANY WAS BOUGHT BY SOME TRULY NASTY PEOPLE) was very good to their employees and would never have been party to any action that could be even remotely construed as discriminatory. I registered at this site solely to make this one post, in the interest of an accurate history.
