Radio and TV personality, Jim O'Brien was so loved in Philadelphia, even the competing newscast on WCAU-TV devoted ten minutes to his passing on September 25, 1983.
I cannot tell you how much I hurt when I heard about Jim O'Brien's death I loved him on wfil radio and as a weatherman on channel 6 I have lived in Florida since 1978.
I'm from Philly and I remember the day Jim O'Brien passed away and how horrible it was when they interrupted something to tell us about what happened to him For a couple years there I lived in the Tampa Bay area ... Florida sure was beautiful but I don't miss the alligators😂 . I'm sure you must have seen a lot of changes in Florida if you've been there since 78 ... I saw some changes just in a few years I was there .
Wow. What an amazing thing to watch, after all these years. I never watched channel 10's coverage, only channel 6. Thanks for this post. It really reminded me what a pro Jim was.
I was in elementary school when all this happened & still remember all the other students & teachers sadly talking about him. He was such an iconic character that it took me awhile to adjust seeing the weather forecasted without him & with some new 'fill-in'. No doubt he was a heck of a person & more than just some weatherguy bc I've met many over the yrs even in more recent times who still bring him up & his tragic passing. Heck of a guy indeed.
Yes it really does hurt and it's hard to believe it was about 40 years ago it just doesn't seem it happened so long ago ...does it ?😢 he will be missed for a very long time
This was a very nice report and it was so good to see Larry Kane tell some extra things about their relationship and what an inspiration Jim O'Brien was .
He was loved because he made you laugh your butt off doing the weather. Once he did the entire report with no pants. No one knew as he was shown from the waist up.
I remember when people were asked what their favorite comedy shows were in those days, some would say some of their shows that were big at that time, like "Different Strokes, Three's Company, Silver Spoons, Gimme a Break, which some called, " Leave Me Alone"' and Action News. When they were asked, "Since when us the News a Comedy Show, they would say, " With Jim O'Brien on Action News, it's like A comedy show." It is probably safe to assume that if Jimbo were still with us, that he would probably be retired by now. Many of the current Action News personnel weren't even born yet when Jim O'Brien was on.
Very sad day, indeed. On a lighter note, when they mention the "packed house" on opening day at The Vet, it might have been smarter to cut to shots where the upper deck doesn't look totally empty :)
Now it rings a bell you saying that Jim O'Brien said Casa Grande ... I can't remember what he said about his van though ... do you mean his own personal van or do you mean the news van ?
@@magpieone9390 yeah there's a vague recollection of that . There's a video of him here on the show he used to host called Primetime . It shows him going for his first Pilots' license flying instructions and then being good enough to fly solo . His face looks so extremely serious while he's learning to fly . I enjoyed the whole vid but it was called another name : Herb Hortman featured on Primetime . It's about 25 minutes long and you might enjoy it
There are some things I miss about Philly but I haven't been back in about 17 years believe it or not and everybody says the traffic and the crime is so much worse
@redoctober90 That was actually the WBBM I Love Chicago News Theme by Dick Marx. The CBS Enforcer package (which was composed by Frank Gari) was more of a follow up to the original package.
