Ken Cook, the venerable meteorologist at Fox affiliate WAGA-TV, announced his retirement earlier this week after 35 years at the same station, longer than any other on-air weather person in town.
He said he plans to leave sometime over the summer.
“I never thought I’d work in one place, right here in Atlanta for 35 years,” Cook said on air. “I’ve grown up here. My children have grown up here. Now my grandchildren have grown up here in this wonderful community. It’s been a wonderful career … I’ve done this a long time. I’m ready to do something else. I don’t exactly know what but I think it will be fun to be with the family.”
Former colleagues and rivals said his longevity has very much to do with his clear delivery, his trusting persona that emanated off the screen and his expertise whenever a bad storm hits town.
“I have total respect for the guy,” said Paul Yates, who spent nearly 35 years with Cook at WAGA until he retired last year. “He’s a great guy on the air, even better off the air. He’s your classic local news star.” He said Fox 5 could place him on air during a major weather event for hours, and he never had a problem filling airtime with useful information.
“He brought professionalism to the weather circuit during a time when many stations were still using the pretty weather girl,” said Sidmel Estes, a WAGA-TV producer from 1979 until 2006. She nicknamed him Cookie. “Cookie brought science into the picture. He was almost never wrong in his forecasts. Whatever he said was going to happen, I believed him!”
Glenn Burns, a rival at Channel 2 Action News, called him a “rock solid meteorologist and good competition. He was the consummate professional.”
Cook said he had contemplated retirement for quite a long time. Rumors of this announcement were floating around for weeks.
He started his meteorological career in Austin, Texas, at the National Weather Service, eventually moving to Atlanta. He joined WAGA-TV in 1979 when it was a CBS affiliate, and his friendly smile and signature mustache made an immediate impression.
He said he will remain active gardening — a favorite avocation — and participating in charities such as the MDA, Cystic Fibrosis and the American Heart Association.
In an interview in 2009, Cook said the Web changed his role over the years beyond merely providing forecasts: “It’s important for me as a meteorologist to understand this stuff and interpret it. We’ve become expert interpreters. Anybody can go on the Internet and see all the forecasts.”
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