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The morning weather forecaster, Anthony Peoples, can be seen walking through areas around Lake Decatur with his eyes focused on his latest read.
DECATUR — Anthony Peoples has been on the radar screens of Central Illinoisans since he arrived in Decatur a year ago. But his notoriety goes beyond his job as meteorologist for a local television station.
The morning weather forecaster also can be seen walking in areas around Lake Decatur with his eyes focused on his latest read.
“I have more people ask ‘Are you the guy that walks on 36?,’ ‘Are you the guy that walks on Lost Bridge?’,” he said. “That’s me.”
Anthony Peoples gets some exercise and reads a book about Abraham Lincoln titled “My Thoughts Be Bloody” by Nora Titone, while walking around Lake Decatur, on May 13, 2020.
Peoples, 56, said he made the jump from walking on a treadmill to the great outdoors about four years ago.
“I find it easier to walk outside and read, because sometimes I forget to lift up my feet on the treadmill,” he said. “You almost fall that way.”
The outdoors is more enjoyable for the WAND-TV morning weatherman. Since reading is another enjoyment, he combines the two pastimes.
“I’m still aware of what’s going on around me,” Peoples said.
He often stops to talk to the people along the nearly 16-mile journey around Lake Decatur. “In the social distancing era, you still get to socialize,” Peoples said.
Anthony Peoples, seen here walking along Lost Bridge Road, can be seen daily taking a walk around Lake Decatur while enjoying his latest read. Peoples said his mind is too active and that a book keeps him focused and make the walk less boring.
While some choose to alter their plans based on the forecast he provides, Peoples said he rarely lets the weather get in the way of his walk.
“There were a couple of days I had to make different routes to walk, because I couldn’t get across the (U.S.) 36 bridge,” he said. “The sidewalk was snow covered.”
Anthony Peoples, seen here walking along Lost Bridge Road, can be seen daily taking a walk around Lake Decatur while enjoying his latest read. Peoples said his mind is too active and that a book keeps him focused and make the walk less boring.
Peoples said winter in Central Illinois is mild when compared to Duluth, Minnesota, where he was previously employed. Duluth, he said, often experiences 80 to 100 inches of snow in a season.
“You just tromp through it and walk faster,” he said.
As a meteorologist and a reporter, Peoples has been employed at stations throughout the Midwest, including Indiana, Wisconsin and Ohio, as well as other areas of the country, such as Texas, Maryland and Florida.
If the weather isn’t ideal for reading, Peoples will carry a plastic bag to protect his reading material. Leaving the books at home, he said, isn’t an option.
“It gets boring,” he said about the trek.
“I’m pretty aware of where I’m going,” Anthony Peoples said, noting he has yet to fall while navigating his way around Lake Decatur while always reading a book.
Reading a book during his walk, he said, is a welcome distraction.
“I think too much,” he said. “My mind is like a television. There’s so many channels. I think about so many things. This keeps me focused.”
While some question whether they could effectively read a book and walk at the same time, Peoples said he isn’t concerned about his safety. His peripheral vision allows him to see the obstacles and the environment around him. “I know when there’s steps that I need to step down,” he said.
The morning weather forecaster, Anthony Peoples, can be seen walking through areas around Lake Decatur with his eyes focused on his latest read.
Peoples said he has never fallen during his many walks. “Since I walk the same routine, I know where the bricks in the sidewalk are and where to step up,” he said. “I’m pretty aware of where I’m going.”
Autobiographies or real-life events are favorite books during his journeys. The size of the book doesn’t matter.
“His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life” by Jonathan Alter or “The Great Believers” by Rebecca Makkai are a couple of his favorites.
“A 600-page book, unless it’s a very technical book, I can get through it in about three days,” he said. “If it’s a larger book, I’m less prone to drop it.”
Gallery: A look back at Decatur-area broadcast personalities
GALLERY: A look back at Decatur-area broadcast personalities
WAND executives
1953: Top administrative and operations personnel for WTVP for a meeting include: left to right, James C. Wulliman, chief engineer; Paul Taff, program director; Harold G. Cowgill, vice president of Prairie Television Company and general manager and W. L. Shellabarger, Prairie Television, owner.
WSOY
Herald & Review, May 1998
Herald & Review, February 1990
Dick Westbrook
1972: Dick Westbrook, WAND-TV news director hosts “Eyewitness A.M.”
Del Rosso
Adam Del Rosso
Herald & Review, May 1998
WSOY basketball broadcast
1938: Merrill Lindsay, center, WSOY general manager, announces basketball games. At right is Ben Elliot assisting with the sportscasts. Milburn Stuckwish, left, WSOY station supervisor, assisted with the sportscasts.
1965
1965: During a talk show, Frank Bowman, right, relays a question to Leonard Dobson during the telephone question-answer segment at Midday. Dobson was coordinator of special education for Decatur Public Schools.
WAND projection machine
1953: Films and slides to be telecast are handled by William Burley, projectionist. The film is projected onto a mirror and reflected into the camera, the machine at his right. Slides are projected from the machine at right which throws the image directly into the camera.
Anita Norfleet
1971: Anita Norfleet, WSOY copywriter, listens to an old radio with earphones.
WTVP Edwin Pianka, assistant chief engineer
1953: Edwin Pianka, assistant chief engineer, is checking a huge, complicated affair of a camera. Under normal circumstances the cameraman wears earphones to receive the latest word from the director who is housed in a background room.
WTVP sales staff
1953: The WTPV sales staff checks over an account of a local advertiser. The staff, left to right, are John Crocker and Stephen French, account executives and Downey Hewey, commercial manager.
WAND weatherman
1993: Bob Murray, WAND-TV’s weather forecaster, talks about the new Doppler weather radar system to a studio audience. The new system will provide instant measurement of current weather conditions for the WAND viewing area.
WSOY announcer
1955: Hank Haynes, WSOY announcer, at work.
Ashonti Ford WAND
Ashonti Ford
Fultz, J.C. (James)
Fultz
WSOY engineer
1955: WSOY engineer Jules Robinett dials a number on the control board and some 75 miles away WSEI, Effingham, goes on the air with no one but Robinett having anything to do with it.
WSOY record library
1955: 7,000 records and transcriptions are available for WSOY programs, a far cry from the in-person orchestras that provided the music on predecessor WJBL in 1925. James Kelly, foreground, continuity chief and announcer auditions a record for use while program director Gene Dorsey selects a transcription for a record show.
Contact Donnette Beckett at (217) 421-6983. Follow her on Twitter: @donnettebHR
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