Sonny Eliot, the legendary Detroit weatherman whose career in television and radio spanned over 60 years has died. He was 91.
Eliot was best known for his weather forecasts which were more performance than informational. Famous for combining words to describe the weather like “snog” for snow and fog, he will also be remembered for his one-liners like, “Its colder than a former wife’s hello.”
During World War II, Eliot was a B-24 bomber pilot who was shot down over Germany and spent 18 months in a prisoner of war camp. Two years after the war ended, the Michigan Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame weatherman began his broadcasting career after performing a bit part in a local variety show produced by WWJ (now NBC affiliate WDIV).
In 1950, he got a job as a weathercaster for Detroit radio station WWJ, a job he kept until his retirement in 2010.
After the jump you can see the many video tributes to Eliot from the local TV stations. Click here for a string of twitter postings from friends and colleagues of Eliot.
>Here are the Eliot tributes from WWJ the CBS O&O:
>Click here to see the tributes from WJBK the local FOX O&O
>WDIV, The Detroit NBC affiliate has a few tributes as well, click here for raw video of Sony Eliot at Olympia Stadium. Click here for Sonny’s last day at WWJ. Click here for WDIV’s announcement of his death.
>ABC Affiliate WXYZ has a video tribute as well,
[Crain’s Detroit Business][myfoxdetroit]