A short while ago, Todd Gross the Chief Meteorologist at Channel 7 in Boston, was fired from his job of over 22 years. Todd is an excellent weatherman and seems to really love his work. For years he has had a website where he posts items about the weather and his other passion; astronomy. After his dismissal from Channel 7, Todd revamped his weather website by turning it into a weather blog where he posts in-depth weather forecasts, astronomy information and podcasts of his weather forecasts. The website looks quite professional and Todd plans to turn the site into a first class weather site.
In his own words…
“I am dying to make this the best weather spot on Earth, and will be investing time and money into the site to make it grow!”
On the sidebar of his website he has a graphic asking people to contribute to help with the expenses of running the site. If you click on the graphic you are taken to a page that allows you to make a donation via PayPal. Contributing is totally voluntary and even if you don’t contribute, you have full access to the complete site. This is very reasonable and unlike a lot of sites that ask for donations, Todd is actually providing a service that is worth something. You would think this wouldn’t be a problem for anyone, but apparently it is.
Brian Maloney, The Radio Equalizer reports on his site that on Friday, January 13, Boston Herald reporters, Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa published a column titled, “Hey Rain Man, a penny for your forecast?”
Here are some excerpts from the column:
“Are things so bad for ex-Channel 7 weatherman Todd Gross that he has to forecast for spare change?”
“And Todd-ophiles who choose to duke the arrow-loving weatherdude can click on the Tip Jar link where they are informed: “You have chosen to tip the author of ‘Todd Gross New England Weather.’ The minimum tip is $2.” “
“Well! That would barely cover Todd’s hairspray bill back in the day. But the ex-TV weather titan says it will prevent him from charging for access to his site.”
“Of course, we could point out that one could click on Gross’ successor, Pete Bouchard, and get the weather absolutely, positively free on 7News. Ditto for weather.com. But we’d hate to rain on Todd’s parade. “
“In the meantime, Todd fans, give early and give often . . .”
Fee and Raposa are free to say anything they want and I fully support their right to do such, but you would think that they could find something better to write about. It seems cruel and petty to be kicking Gross when he’s down and you would think that they would have a little more class then they apparently do. The man is out of a job and attempting to provide a service through his website. Contributions are voluntary and he puts no pressure on anyone to contribute. He’s never going to get rich through the donations, but they will help to defray some of the costs of putting together his weather forecasts and maintaining the website. I see nothing wrong with what he is doing and I don’t know why it’s an issue for the Herald chicks.
But you can decide for yourself. If your interested in reading the original article just click here which will bring you to the Boston Herald website. When you arrive, enter the text “Gross” into the search utility and search the archive. You will arrive at the following page where, if you click on the “Buy Full Text” button, the Herald will kindly sell you the whole crappy Fee and Raposa article for the small sum of $3.95.
I don’t know about you, but I think I’d rather send the money to Todd instead.