The Big News: Shawn Cable

Shawn Cable once said in an interview, “We’re lucky enough to not have six murders to report overnight. Weather is usually the big story in the morning; it’s the one thing that’s changed, it’s the one thing people want to know.” [Dave Holly, "Singin' in the Rain," Sioux Empire City Weekly.com, cached by Google, 2007.07.01.]

Evidently South Dakota weathermen are almost as high as the weather itself on South Dakotans' "want to know" list. Readers seeking thoughtful commentary on important social issues backed with solid statistics and research (which the Madville Times remains happy to provide) appear to be vastly outnumbered this week by folks eager to find out what shenanigans led to Shawn Cable's unceremonious departure from KELO-TV.

To quantify that interest, StatCounter says that 64% of search engine referrals to the Madville Times have come from Google searches for Shawn Cable and whatever happened at KELO-TV. (Yahoo contributed one search referral, but naturally Google catalogs its own Blogger posts much more quickly.)

Now I'll admit, I'm apparently as intrigued about the fate of my fellow SDSU alumnus and the inner machinations of our flagship TV station as my readers. I'm enjoying tracking down some Shawn Cable background, like the Holly column, which notes that Cable had no meteorology experience before his interview with Mark Millage and Jay Trobec in 1997. Cable also said in that interview that he had no big network aspirations, since working for an outfit like the Weather Channel "wouldn’t allow him to get as actively involved in local severe weather coverage, something he has a passion for."

If Cable remains dedicated to local weather, maybe we should make an effort to keep him around (assuming he didn't punch Perry Groten or commit some other heinous crime). Yesterday I e-mailed director of television Bob Bosse at SDPB yesterday and suggested they hire Shawn Cable to create a regular prime-time weathercast to draw viewers and keep Shawn in the state. They could call it "Weather Hustler" (an homage to Star Gazer Jack Horkheimer), run it every hour between shows. Anyone for a letter-writing campaign?

It is summer, so we're all entitled to a little light reading and blogging. But in a few days, when we get done speculating and agitating over Shawn Cable's fate, we'll still have an underground physics lab to build, a death penalty to overturn, schools suing and consolidating, insurance agents sweating the deliberations of the Zaniya Project, bloggers threatening to run for the Legislature, and a whole host of other issues with a bit more impact on the condition of our social contract.