Mark Fischenich: Ask Us: Longtime KEYC WeatherLine on hold, but might return

Mark Fischenich, The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.
·3 min read

Apr. 9—Q: Just wondering why KEYC TV does not do their weather phone anymore? The 625-1012 WeatherLine does not work.

Thanks

A: The venerable WeatherLine has long been a way for people to get the current temperature and a recorded forecast for the Mankato area.

KEYC staff aren't sure exactly when it started, but Ask Us Guy knows it goes back to the early years of the millennium because the Ask Us kids used to dial up the WeatherLine over and over and over again when they were preschoolers and thought it was fun to use the telephone.

So the WeatherLine predates Shawn Cable and Tom Clements and Mark Tarello and Andy Lopahs and even the legendary Bob Conzemius. In fact, the WeatherLine might go all the way back to the granddaddy of them all — Too Tall Tom Szymanski.

Szymanski, by the way, made a surprise April Fools' Day appearance on KEYC a year ago, arranged via Zoom by Cable. The nostalgic moment caught anchor Stacy Steinhagen by surprise.

"Oh my gosh, I wanna cry!" Steinhagen exclaimed as Szymanski finished his weather report.

Ask Us Guy had a somewhat of similar reaction to news that the WeatherLine no longer exists, although he figured he knew why: KEYC's meteorologists don't bother with it anymore because everybody just uses the weather app on their smartphone anyway.

But he was wrong.

KEYC hasn't killed the service. The reason there's just a busy signal now is because the phone company gave away the phone numbers involved.

"We've been working with our phone provider to resecure the multiple phone lines that make up the WeatherLine after they were inadvertently reassigned to other customers," said Mitch Keegan, news director at KEYC-TV/KMNF-LD. "That process is taking longer than we had hoped, but we are working with them to get the lines returned to get the WeatherLine back up and running."

Q: Very nice article on the tribute to Florence Cobb on Dec. 3. Who is the current coach?

A: This question relates to Minnesota State University's dance program, which was founded by Florence Cobb, MSU's first Black female faculty member in 1968. During her 22 years at the university, she was a tireless promoter of dance, created the dance minor in 1976 and laid the foundation for the dance major that was added in 1998.

Although Cobb died at the age of 95 in 2016, her name was in the news again in December when the Florence Cobb Dance Studio was dedicated in MSU's Highland North building.

As for the question regarding "the current coach," Ask Us Guy couldn't find any indication that Cobb ever coached a competitive dance team at MSU. Julie Kerr-Berry, a professor of dance, is the chair of the Department of Theatre & Dance.

The MSU dance team, on the other hand, appears to be under the jurisdiction of the athletics department.

Athletics Director Kevin Buisman announced in June that Bridgette Altmann had been appointed head cheer team coach and Katie Mahowald as head dance team coach.

They replaced outgoing coaches Ashley Urevig in cheer and Jen James for dance.

Mahowald, who previously served as assistant coach, was a member of the Maverick Dance Team from 2013-2017 and earned a degree in child development and family studies.

Contact Ask Us at The Free Press, 418 S. Second St., Mankato, MN 56001. Call Mark Fischenich at 344-6321 or email your question to mfischenich@mankatofreepress.com; put Ask Us in the subject line.