Kevin O'Connell (born October 3, 1948) is an American broadcast personality.

Early life

O'Connell was born in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

, and attended

Buffalo State College The State University of New York Buffalo State University (colloquially referred to as Buffalo State University, SUNY Buffalo State, Buffalo State, or simply Buff State) is a public college, public university in Buffalo, New York. It is part of ...

. His father is George O'Connell, the City Comptroller who led to effort to save the

Shea's Performing Arts Center Shea's Performing Arts Center (originally Shea's Buffalo) is a theater for touring Broadway musicals and special events in Buffalo, New York. Originally called Shea's Buffalo, it was opened in 1926 to show silent movies. It took one year to bu ...

after it had fallen prey to taxes. His sister is Mary Kate O'Connell, a stage actress and

WBBZ-TV WBBZ-TV (channel 67) is a television station licensed to Springville, New York, United States, serving the Buffalo, New York, Buffalo area. It has a primary affiliation with MeTV, but is otherwise programmed as an independent station. WBBZ-TV i ...

host. His son Kevin Jr. is a chef who has operated restaurants and food trucks in Buffalo and Los Angeles.

Career

O'Connell was chief weather anchor for

WGRZ-TV WGRZ (channel 2) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo, and its transmitter is located on Warner Hill Roa ...

, the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

affiliate in

, from the mid-1990s until 2018. O'Connell also sub-hosted on ''

The David Letterman Show ''The David Letterman Show'' is an American morning talk show that was hosted by David Letterman on NBC. It originally aired from June 23 to October 24, 1980. Originally, the series lasted 90 minutes, then 60 minutes from August 4 onward. Bac ...

'' on NBC, hosted the game show '' Go'' on

from October 1983 to January 1984, and presented the syndicated

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

series ''

Disco Step-by-Step ''Disco Step-by-Step'' was a local television show in Buffalo, New York which featured disco music, dance instruction, and Hustle (dance), hustle dancing. The show was created, written, produced and first hosted by Marty Angelo.{{cite news , title ...

'' from 1977 to 1980. He was often a substitute weathercaster for ''

Weekend Today Weekend editions of '' Today'', an American morning news and talk program that airs daily on NBC, began with the launch of the Sunday edition of the program on September 20, 1987. After NBC expanded ''Today'' to seven days a week in the 1990s ...

'' during the 1990s. He also hosted the 1986 and 1987 game show pilots ''Keynotes'' and ''Money in the Blank''. O'Connell was previously a news and weather anchor for Buffalo's

WIVB WIVB-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CW owned-and-operated station WNLO (channel 23). WIVB-TV and WNLO share studios on Elmwood Aven ...

, as well as

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

TV stations

KNBC KNBC (channel 4) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast of the United States, West Coast flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network ...

(1982–1985),

KCBS-TV KCBS-TV (channel 2), branded CBS Los Angeles, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast of the United States, West Coast flagship station of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the n ...

(1985–1988) and

KABC-TV KABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship station of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station mai ...

(1989–1990) before returning to Buffalo in 1990. He was also a

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

early in his career, before moving into work in weather; as late as 2012, O'Connell was voice-tracking a shift at

WECK WECK (1230 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Cheektowaga, New York and serving the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Area. The station airs a locally produced and locally hosted oldies music format. The studios, offices a ...

in addition to his television duties. O'Connell's "Weather with a Beat" on WIVB borrowed heavily from his disc jockey experiences, targeting a younger audience than his competitors, the manic Barry Lillis at WGRZ and the relatively straight

Tom Jolls Tom Jolls (August 6, 1933 – June 7, 2023) was an American television personality best known for his 34-year tenure at WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York. At WKBW, Jolls hosted "The Weather Outside" segments during ''Eyewitness News'', performed many ...

at WKBW.Schlaerth, Don (August 20, 1977). "Three Styles of Local TV Weather." ''Buffalo Evening News TV Topics''. p.2. Since joining WGRZ in 1993, O'Connell's primary focus has been weather forecasting, and he obtained an

American Meteorological Society The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is a scientific and professional organization in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrologic sciences. Its mission is to advance the atmosph ...

seal of approval as a result of his work there. O'Connell does not go by the title of

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists ...

since he does not hold a bachelor's degree in the science of meteorology (he received his AMS seal before a degree became a requirement for it); he has some meteorology education from

, from which he graduated in 1972. O'Connell was expected to retire near the end of 2016; his ''heir apparent'', meteorologist Patrick Hammer, was hired in June 2015 and was originally to work his way into the position as O'Connell winds down his duties with WGRZ; this was complicated when Hammer was pulled off the air in November 2015 after a repeat

driving under the influence Driving under the influence (DUI) is the crime of driving, operating, or being in control of a vehicle while one is impaired from doing so safely by the effect of either alcohol (drug), alcohol (see drunk driving) or some other drug, whether re ...

arrest. Hammer was retained for mornings (where he worked in a previous market) while Heather Waldman, a former

Accuweather AccuWeather, Inc. is a private-sector American media company that provides commercial weather forecasting services. AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers. The company adopted the name 'AccuWeather' in 1971. AccuWeather is headquar ...

on-air personality, took over most of O'Connell's shifts.

Political career

O'Connell, a registered Democrat, was briefly courted as a potential candidate for Erie County clerk in 2017 but declined the offer. As of that time, his contract with WGRZ ran through the end of 2018. O'Connell was fired from WGRZ in July 2018 in a dispute over his legal work (weather anchors and meteorologists routinely provide testimony in court, which is forbidden under

Tegna, Inc. Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publi ...

's policy without express permission) and his endorsement of a local attorney. O'Connell was afforded an on-air sendoff.

Post-meteorology

In September 2018, Kevin O'Connell was named Chief of Community Connections at Catholic Health. In this role, O'Connell is focused on creating new ties between the health system, community service organizations, and residents, helping to ensure that the organization is able to meet the healthcare needs of Western New Yorkers.

References

WGRZ profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnell, Kevin American game show hosts Buffalo State College alumni Radio personalities from Buffalo, New York Living people American television weather presenters 1948 births New York (state) Democrats Scientists from New York (state)