Tom Churchill was a native of Dubuque, Iowa

Dubuque, Iowa

Dubuque is a city in and the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. In 2010 its population was 57,637, making it the ninth-largest city in the state and the county's population was 93,653....

, where he started in radio as on-air weatherman at WDBQ-AM Radio at the age of 13 in August 1974.

Churchill gained notoriety for reportedly being more accurate than the National Weather Service

National Weather Service

The National Weather Service , once known as the Weather Bureau, is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States government...

. As a 14-year old, he appeared on the Tomorrow Show

Tomorrow (TV series)

Tomorrow was an American late-night television talk show hosted by Tom Snyder...

with Tom Snyder

Tom Snyder

Thomas James "Tom" Snyder was an American television personality, news anchor and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows The Tomorrow Show, on the NBC television network in the 1970s and 1980s, and The Late Late Show, on the CBS Television Network in the 1990s...

. An appearance on the television game show The $128,000 Question

The $128,000 Question

The $128,000 Question was an American game show which aired from 1976-1978 in weekly syndication. This revival of The $64,000 Question was produced by Cinelar and distributed by Viacom Enterprises....

earned Churchill $16,000 in 1976.

Digital Weatherman

In 1979, Churchill formed his first weather forecasting company providing live weather forecasts to radio stations across the United States. In the late 1980s he invented the Digital Weatherman system, an automated system that provides audio weather forecasts. It was first marketed to radio stations in 1986 and is now used by hundreds of radio stations and cable systems across the United States.

This method of providing weather information to listeners allows many broadcasters to provide 24 hour coverage of severe weather events and current conditions without employing full time staff. Based on a personal computer, the system contains 30,000 small audio cuts of every possible weather condition or bulletin information that can be spoken. The PC reads text forecast information and uses this to merge audio cuts, known as domain specific synthesis, into a complete weather forecast based on the radio station's preferences.

The system's audio library contains different voices and languages. This allows users to instantaneously create forecasts and bulletins in Spanish, for example, directly from English-language text. The first automated Spanish language weather bulletins using this method aired in 1997 on KANS-FM

KANS

KANS is a radio station broadcasting a Adult Contemporary format. Licensed to Emporia, Kansas, USA. The station is currently owned by Kansas Radio, Inc. and features programing from Jones Radio Network.-History:...

 in Emporia

Emporia

Emporia can be several things:Places in the United States* Emporia, Florida* Emporia, Indiana* Emporia, Kansas* Emporia, VirginiaOther uses* Emporia , an ancient term for Phoenician city-states in north Africa...

, Kansas.