TBC:

ROKER: Well, I went to college at the State University of New York in Oswego. Actually, I didn't want to be on TV, I wanted to work in television production or movies. And I couldn't afford to go to NYU film school or USC. I could afford a state college. At the time I went to school, from 72-76, the only SUNY college that was offering, or even came close to what I was interested in was SUNY at Oswego, which had a Radio and TV program. Of course, today, it's called Communications. So, I figured, well, they showed movies on TV—that's close enough. So, I applied, and with their stringent standards – ha, ha, ha – they accepted me.

TBC: So, did you have childhood dreams to be a weatherman?

ROKER: No, I had no plans ever to be on television. My department chairman told me that I had the perfect face for radio – ha, ha, ha. He was the guy that put me up for a weekend weather job at the end of my sophomore year. I got the job. I had taken a class in meteorology just for science requirements, so I really didn't have a broad knowledge of meteorology, but I did an audition tape in school. He took it to the station for me (he also worked there) and I got the job. I started at the beginning of my junior year working, driving 50 miles from Oswego to Syracuse every Saturday and Sunday to do the weather.

TBC: That was a pretty good job. What was it that really clinched that job for you? Was it the professor?

ROKER: No, I think it was that fact that I was a college student, and they were only paying $15 a newscast – ha, ha, ha – I'm serious. They knew they couldn't afford to get anybody fulltime, and you've got to remember this is 1974 when I got this job. They weren't going to get anybody to move to Syracuse for $60 a week, but they could afford to pay a college student that.

TBC: Obviously, you succeeded at this job. To what do you attribute your success on that first job?"

ROKER: I don't know. Luck, I guess, to a certain extent. I obviously had no idea what I was doing, but they were patient with me and they just let me grow.

TBC: At that time, did you have any mentors or role models who really kept you interested in that meteorology?

ROKER: Well, I had a young African-American cameraman—a guy by the name of John Bowman who also did the sign-off on the news for the station on the weekends. He had this huge Afro and would wear his bowtie. During the day he shot news film but he always wanted to be on-camera. I believe he's still in Denver. He moved to Denver, and I think he was on-air as a personality. He was just this great character who did this thing. And growing up in New York City, guys like Bob Teague, who was at WNBC, and Bill McCreary, who was at Channel 5, which was a Fox station, were early role models. Ms. Melba Tolliver was one of the first African-American women on television doing the news at NBC and WABC. So, there were people along the way who you saw growing up, which is why it is so important for people and kids of all races to see themselves on television.

TBC: What advice do you have for college students who want to develop relationships with their role models and mentors?

ROKER: I think they have to understand, we try to help. I don't even know the number of letters and calls and emails I get from people asking for advice. You know? I try to answer them all, but you can't go in depth with everyone or else that would be your fulltime job. I think if you get a couple of lines from somebody – I think you ought to take that and then run with it. I think the days when people were able to have you in, and allow you to follow them around are over. I mean, look, there are internships that give you that kind of experience. I say, hey, if there's someone you really admire, I think you should write them. I wouldn't email them, because we get so much email. If someone takes time to write a letter, that stands out more than somebody who just bangs away something on a computer and hits send.

TBC: Tell me, you were a communications major. What kept you into weather?

ROKER: A job! Ha, ha, ha… If someone offered me a job doing sports, or a job doing news, or whatever, I would've taken that... I wasn't wedded to it. I wanted to be a director, but I ended up on-air. I thought I'd do this until something else comes along, but nothing else ever came along.

TBC: What is meteorology, and how did you become a meteorologist?

ROKER: Well, meteorology is the study of the weather. I don't call myself a meteorologist because I don't have a degree in meteorology. So, I know what I'm talking about, and I have the American Meteorologist Society “seal of approval,” and it's one of those things where I fell into it, and I enjoy it. It's something different every day, and it's something people want to know about. It's something that I really enjoy.

TBC: What advice would you have for students who would be interested in weather casting or meteorology?

ROKER: Well, learn as much as you can about your craft, but also, don't just focus on that. There's so many kids, whether they're interested in sports or school, that have no interest in anything else. I ended up doing more than just the weather on the Today Show. Part of that is because I know a little about everything. I read the business section, the sports section, Science Times, Arts and Entertainment; I read it all, whether it's in the newspaper or whatever. I travel a lot. I find a lot of interesting information in airline magazines. I'm a voracious reader, and I think you should have a real insatiable curiosity about everything and everybody.

TBC: In 1983 you got the job at WNBC in New York. How did you get that job?

ROKER: I was working at the NBC station in Cleveland, [and] I'm from New York. I knew they were looking for a weekend weatherperson because the job had been open for six months. I asked my current news director [in] Cleveland what I should do. She said, ‘Let the news director there know [of your interest], and that I've given my blessings, and you talk to them.' My agent called. They in fact wanted and needed somebody, and I got the job.

TBC: And then in 1987 you went to NBC News Sunday Today.

ROKER: I was already there. I was already in New York, and they didn't have to pay anybody to move – I was already there. And I could wear Willard's pants, ha, ha, ha…. He was another mentor. When I worked in Washington D.C., he was at WRC in Washington. He took me under his wings, and he was the one who gave me the best professional advice—two bits of advice: One, never give up your day job. Which means, you can do all these different things but don't forget the base. And the base for me was the Today Show. And, two: to always be yourself.

TBC: Our readers right now are dreaming about their futures and mulling over the strategies they need to execute to be successful in landing a job. What traits or qualities do you think attributed to your success?

ROKER: My father worked hard. He was a bus driver, and he worked his way to management through the New York City Transit Authority. I think I work harder than anyone else.

TBC: Do you attribute your success to your father?

ROKER: I would think that both parents – my mother laid a base at home and my father was a hard worker. When he was a bus driver, sometimes he would drive three and four shifts, he worked double shifts. He did whatever he had to do to take care of his family. I worked with lots of people in the past, and when I speak at schools I tell kids, especially in the inner city, life's not fair and odds are you're going have to work twice as hard to be twice as good as the white kid next to you. And, you may not like that and it may not be fair, but that's the deal.

TBC: Were there any major events that contributed to your promotions at NBC?

ROKER: At WNBC, Frank Field, the legendary local weatherman, left to be on CBS. Six months after I got there to be the weekend weatherman, I got the Monday-through-Friday job. After that I'm not sure – I started filling in on the weekend Today Show, so it was easier to hire me. If I sought it, they wouldn't have given me the job no matter how easy it was to hire me. I did my job and that was great. I started filling in for Willard. They used to bring in people from out of town from different network affiliates to fill in. And, it was easier to have me there, so I got that job. And then eventually Willard thought it was time to step back, and I got that job. I was just in the right place at the right time.

TBC: Are there any lessons from your career that you can share with our African-American college students that will help them overcome the hurdles that they may face as they move through their career?

ROKER: Well, they're gonna have to know that there are hurdles. Anybody can succeed when it's easy. It's when you run up against something, you just keep plugging away, you just keep pushing. Just because you work hard it doesn't guarantee that you're gonna be successful, but I think it improves your chances rather than if you only do what's expected and then you go home. Whatever you do, do it because you love it, and you would do it even if you weren't getting paid. But of course you want to get paid and get paid as much as possible, but you want to have a passion for what you do. If you can't look into the mirror and say you did the best you could at the end of the day, then you shouldn't be doing what you're doing. In my eyes, my Dad was the best bus driver in New York City; he was the best labor relations guy in the country. He was really good at whatever he did.

TBC: What's his name?

ROKER: Al (Albert) Roker, Senior.

TBC: Have you faced any major racial barriers that you would like to talk about?

ROKER: Yeah, I've worked for racist idiots. (I'm not saying that I do now—I would say I don't now.) I think everybody [has] worked with somebody who, for one reason or another, has had it in for them… hasn't been willing to give them a fair shake. Black, White, Hispanic, Asian. You know? Look, I'm Black and overweight, that's a double whammy. [laughs] To be perfectly frank, I'm shocked to have gotten the job I've got.

TBC: Let's talk about meteorology and weathercasting for a moment. Are they good career choices for African Americans, and if so, why do you think they are?

ROKER: I don't know if there's a racial reason [for meteorology] to be better than any other career. I don't think we're any less or more suited to be of fair meteorologists than on-air meteorologists or anything else. It is what it is. It's a job if you're interested in science. You don't necessarily have to be an on-air meteorologist. There're a lot of branches to meteorology. Obviously, an on-air meteorologist is just going to be a lot harder because there are fewer jobs. But, the biggest employer of meteorologists in this country, obviously, is the National Weather Service. But, there's climate study, there's oceanography, there's environment science. There are lots of different areas to deal with.

TBC: Speaking on weather for a moment, can you tell us anything that you've gotten in your day-to-day work that says anything about what we can expect for the next hurricane season.

ROKER: Well, I think every hurricane season is going to be a little worse. But, I think we're in a period now with much more active weather and that goes year-around. I think we're going to be looking at much more extreme weather.

TBC: We're afraid six months from now we won't have our levees back up.

ROKER: Yeah, you guys are in New Orleans. And the sad part about that is that everybody knew about those levees, that you guys were living on borrowed time, and nobody did anything about it.

TBC: That's right, our last major hurricane was Hurricane Betsy in 1965, and everybody kept saying that the next big one is coming and was going to hit us very hard. But no one wanted to believe that.

ROKER: Well, there's all this building in low-lying coastal areas and it's going to continue to be bad.

TBC: What's in the future for Al Roker?

ROKER: That's the one prediction I can't help you with. I mean, if you told me 20 years ago that I'd be on the Today Show doing the weather, hosting a Food Network show, having a production company, married to a beautiful network correspondent with three children … Let me have whatever you're smoking! Pass it to me, keep an eye on the door! [laughs] I have no idea.

TBC: In closing, what advice would you give to a young person starting their career, graduating in the Class of 2006?

ROKER: I would say work hard, be as curious as you can be about this world, and if you don't exercise those rights, including voting, shut up. And don't whine and don't complain, just do. And whatever you do, don't come after my job because I'll drop you like a bag of dirt! Ha, ha, ha…

TBC: Thank you, Al Roker.