It started in 2006, 19 years ago. Birmingham-based weather personality James Spann had the idea to start a weekly podcast of meteorologists talking about - what else? - the weather.
Fast forward to 2025. The podcast, "WeatherBrains" is still going strong. In fact, stronger. On March 17, Spann and his weather guests produced their 1,000th podcast.
"WeatherBrains" goes out locally, nationally and internationally each Monday night on YouTube.
David R. Black was there in the beginning.
He gave the following explanation of how Spann’s "WeatherBrains" started, progressed and prospered:
I figured out a long time ago that, if you hang around people who are smarter than you, it’s amazing what you learn. That’s one of the reasons I accepted an offer from a man I shared a small office with after I moved to Alabama in 1982 to work in broadcasting in Birmingham.
Years later, my officemate had a vision. Meteorologist James Spann asked me to help produce and host a new podcast he wanted to start. And so, in 2006, I helped with launching WeatherBrains.
Podcasts were not very common then. In fact, the word ‘podcast’ was new to a lot of folks. Every week, James and other meteorologists gathered Monday evenings on line to talk about all things weather. We recorded the shows and placed them in front of the world.
Guest interviews became the norm. The people we interviewed ranged from folks you’ve never heard of to some of the biggest names in meteorology. We had a blast doing the show while the audience started growing. People start checking in, not just from the US, but from all over the world. Who could guess in 2006 that--nineteen years later, this past Monday night--WeatherBrains would produce show number 1,000! To celebrate, Baron Weather of Huntsville graciously hosted the WeatherBrains crew for a live broadcast of Episode 1000. Ben Luna with fellow members of the group Tennessee Valley Weather played a huge role by helping produce the live feed. For me, it’s a real honor to be asked to join the crew as they look back at scores of amazing stories and events the show brings to listeners.
There’s no other show like WeatherBrains. The show manages to achieve a mix of being insightful, humorous and generally unpredictable, since nobody knows who’s going to say what.
You can check out an episode by searching for WeatherBrains on YouTube. Colleen and I had a wonderful time seeing the old crew Monday night and catching up, as well as getting to meet the current members who joined after my years on the show.
I am so grateful to have been given the chance by James to help the show get its start. There's more work involved in producing than you might think, but it's extremely rewarding and fun. How many podcasts do you hear about these days that produce one thousand episodes? That’s a badge James and the rest of the WeatherBrains crew get to wear proudly.
Like so many Alabama folks in their later years, David R. Black has moved to Fairhope. He sells real estate with eXp Realty. But every Monday night, he tunes in to YouTube to see James Spann and the other "WeatherBrains."
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler writes about Alabama’s people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at [email protected].
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