Given how often we turn to The Weather Channel to find out what to wear, when to wash our cars or whether we should be evacuating in the face of a hurricane, it's hard to believe there was a time when the idea seemed like a joke. But media mogul Frank Batten believed a 24-hour weather network could both save lives and make money. Host Frank Stasio talks with author Connie Sage about Batten's life and his achievements in a new book, "Frank Batten: The Untold Story of the Founder of the Weather Channel" (University of Virginia Press/2011).
Amber Nimocks came to The State of Things in January 2009. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a survivor of 15 years in the newspaper business. As a reporter and editor, her posts have included such exotic locales as her hometown of Fayetteville, Robeson County, Wilmington, Raleigh and Fort Worth, Texas.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.