Frank Batten: The Untold Story of the Founder of the Weather Channel Review

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Frank Batten: The Untold Story of the Founder of the Weather Channel ReviewThis is the crisply written story the late titan of Virginia journalism, Frank Batten. Batten also had a notable career in cable TV and, after his stunning business successes, in philanthropy, especially educational philanthropy. The title highlights the Weather Channel, but the book is not primarily about the Weather Channel. It is an extended biographical and business history essay, based on lengthy interviews with Batten himself and with many of his associates. The author also draws from contemporary newspaper coverage of events, but apparently not from any corporate archives. The story of this remarkable man makes a remarkably interesting book. Because of Batten's wide influence and varied interests, the narrative also provides as an unexpected byproduct a fast-moving account of the Hampton Roads area (Norfolk, Virginia, and the surrounding cities) through the Batten decades -- all in fewer than 200 pages.Frank Batten: The Untold Story of the Founder of the Weather Channel OverviewFrank Batten Sr. (1927--2009) created the Weather Channel in1982, despite mocking by colleagues in the media that around-the-clock weatherbroadcasts would be as exciting as watching paint dry. The network, and later itscompanion website, Weather.com, became the largest private weather company in theworld and an American cultural icon. Yet few have heard of Batten,a media pioneer whose Virginia newspaper was the only major daily to back schoolintegration. At a time when American corporate greed was making headlines, withoutfanfare and limelight Batten built a media empire centered on honesty, integrity,and ethics.Starting out in his uncle's newspaper business inNorfolk, Virginia, as a reporter and advertising salesman, he assumed leadership ofthe Virginian-Pilot andLedger-Star at the age of twenty-seven and grewLandmark Communications into a media powerhouse. He championed racial equality, aposition not often taken in Virginia during the 1950s. His flagship newspaper, thePilot, was the only daily paper in Virginia toback court-ordered school desegregation. He created two billion-dollar businessesand gave away more than $400 million to charity, nearly all of it toeducation. As chairman of the Associated Press from 1982 to 1987, he helped guidethe news agency back on a sound financial footing. Batten alsofaced a tremendous personal challenge that would have sidelined many: he lost hisvocal chords to cancer two years before starting the WeatherChannel. This is the untold story of a man whose name fewrecognize, yet who helped change the face of the media in the twentiethcentury.

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