Longtime Philly Weathercaster Herb Clarke Dies

By Andrew Gauthier 

Longtime WCAU weathercaster Herb Clarke passed away on Sunday.  He was 84.

Clarke spent 40 years at Philadelphia’s WCAU, retiring at the end of 1997.

He died early Sunday evening from complications from Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia, of which he was a member.

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During his time at WCAU, which was a CBS station for most of his tenure before switching to NBC in 1994, Clarke served a number of different roles, including anchor and health reporter, and provided stability as the TV news industry underwent sweeping changes.

“When I started doing the weather,” Clarke once recalled, “it was with chalk on a blackboard. I thought magic marker and plexiglass were miraculous. Then we went to magnets–then came satellite pictures and computer graphics.”

Here’s a video from WCAU, honoring Clarke’s four decades with the station…

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