Behind the Mike: Partly funny and dry: NBC meteorologist Shortino's humor drives ratings

Mike Lucas  —  8/22/2008 10:21 pm

Charlie Shortino's humor is more subtle than slapstick, more deadpan than dramatic and more offbeat than offensive. But the WMTV/Ch. 15 meteorologist has been known to push the boundaries of live television. "I tiptoe on that line," he said.

Every once in a while, by his own admission, he will cross over to the other side -- the dark side of program directors. "I've got a file of written reprimands," he said. "But as long as you don't get them every day, you can keep going."

They haven't thrown him off the air yet, he added. And with good reason: the 43-year-old Shortino moves the needle, drives the ratings. Why do people like watching him so much? "Because they have low standards," he joked.

The funny thing about Shortino, a 12-year fixture on Ch. 15's "Morning Show," is that he isn't trying to be funny -- at least not funny like a clown (read: Joe Pesci from the movie "Goodfellas").

What do you mean funny?

Funny how?

Does he amuse you?

Does he make you laugh?

"I like to make people laugh," Shortino conceded. "But I don't really consider myself a comedian. And I don't really consider my job as stand-up comedy. First of all, I'm a meteorologist."

A very good one, at that.

Shortino, an Eau Claire native, got his formal training at the University of Wisconsin. He explored the fields of chemical engineering and physics before applying himself to a major in meteorology.

You might say, too, that he had his head in the clouds -- literally -- after graduation.

In 1988, Shortino joined the Air Force. He wanted to be a pilot and fly jets, and he got that opportunity at a flight training base in Columbus, Miss., 175 miles northeast of Jackson. Shortino flew T-37s -- a small twin-engine jet and standard trainer.

"It was a lot more physically grueling than I thought it would be," confided the 5-foot-9, 160-pound Shortino. "You can pull G's very quickly, and after a one-hour training flight, you felt like somebody had just beat you up."

Besides heat and humidity, Columbus didn't have much to offer. Not to the extent that Shortino wanted to spend seven years stationed there.

Since he didn't owe the Air Force a commitment, and they were shutting down bases and cutting back on pilots anyway, Shortino got out after about 14 months and came back to Madison to work as a meteorologist at WKOW/Ch. 27 and Weather Central.

That led to a weekend gig at WMTV, and Shortino eventually moved into the morning slot, where he has been ever since, for better or worse. "The hours are the thing that I like the most," he said. "And the thing that I hate the most."

His day begins at 3:20 a.m., when his alarm goes off. And it can be challenging to be funny at 5 in the morning. "It gets a little easier for us at 6," he said, including the show's co-news anchors, Christine Bellport and Sarah Carlson. "We use humor to keep each other awake."

Not that Shortino can't be serious when the situation warrants a more conventional approach to delivering the weather. That was the case recently, when heavy rains and flooding affected so many lives throughout the state.

"You have to be more careful when those types of situations arise, because it's seriously affecting a lot of people," he said. "That's the line you walk. You have to know when to reel it in, and when you can get away with saying something. But there is a line when there is a disaster and you stay away from certain things."

On the whole, though, Shortino doesn't take himself as seriously as others in the profession. "I would say I'm about as far from being a journalist as you can be," he said. "I try to make it fun, if I can."

And he usually succeeds without compromising his credibility as a meteorologist. "That's my job," he said. "I've got to get the weather information across. If I don't do that, people aren't going to watch because, first of all, it's the reason they tune in."

The numbers reflect that.

They're tuning in. According to Arbitron, the "Morning Show" crew is No. 1 in its time slot.

"That's obviously a good thing," he said. "But that has more to do with the team than any individual on the team. We're doing something right, and part of what I do is part of that. And I can't imagine doing it any other way."

Shortino acknowledged some people might be disappointed when they meet him for the first time. "For some reason, they think I should be the life of the party," he said. "But when I don't know people, I'm more reserved, and I keep to myself a little more."

Who's the other guy? Who's the cut-up meteorologist with the dry sense of humor? "It's not like that isn't me on the air," he said. "It's not an act. It's just the people I work with are close friends, and it's easy to be that way around them."

In the company of Bellport and Carlson, it's easy, then, for Shortino to embrace the words of Mel Brooks ("Humor is just another defense against the universe") and T.S. Eliot ("Humor is also a way of saying something serious"). Welcome to Charlie's world.

Mike Lucas  —  8/22/2008 10:21 pm