The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Geoff Fox returning to WTNH News 8
TV meteorologist will be broadcast from California
Geoff Fox, the popular TV meteorologist for many years, is coming back to WTNH News 8 in New Haven.
NEW HAVEN » Geoff Fox, the popular TV meteorologist in Connecticut for many years, is coming back to WTNH News 8 in New Haven.
Fox made the announcement Wednesday night on his Facebook page. He provided more details in an interview with the New Haven Register.
Fox now lives in California but he said he can deliver the weather news from a studio he built in his home. He has been doing this for a TV station in Nebraska.
Fox was doubly excited when he spoke with the Register because last week he completed chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer.
“All my treatment is over!” he said. “No one is saying ‘cured’ or ‘in remission.’ But every outward indication says this amazing surgery did the job.” (It’s called a Whipple procedure.)
Fox has been chronicling his battle with cancer on his blog (http://www.geofffox.com). He calls the blog “my permanent record.”
He said his followers, friends and family have helped get him through the medical struggle. A photo on his Facebook page notes his “last day of chemo” was June. 22.
“The response I’ve gotten on social media has been humbling,” he said. “Not everybody gets that chance.”
He added, “I’m very lucky, unbelievably lucky.”
Fox said he will return to Channel 8 on Monday at 5 p.m. and again at 6 p.m. For a while he expects to also be on the air at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m.
According to Fox, he will be with the station initially just for the summer.
“We’ll feel it out, to see how much strength I have. I’m OK with that,” he said.
He thanked the New Haven Register for reporting on his “youthful optimism” last December, which sparked renewed interest about him among his Connecticut followers. In the interview last year, Fox said he tells other people with cancer, “I don’t think they should be scared. Some of it has been painful, some of it has been demoralizing. But you can do it!”
And this week he praised Rich Graziano, WTNH’s general manager, for calling him up and offering him a job there again.
Fox said the odds of receiving such a call “is like having a meteorite hit my house!”
WTNH News Director Keith Connors said Wednesday in a statement Fox was a fixture at WTNH for almost three decades. Connors said when WTNH reporter Ann Nyberg reported on Fox’s cancer fight, the station received an, “overwhelmingly positive feedback from our viewers.”
“We’re delighted he’s beaten cancer and will be coming back to News 8 for the summer,” Connors said in the statement.“Teaming Geoff up with our senior meteorologist Fred Campagna gives us a formidable one-two punch in early evening weather. It will allow us to do live weather reports from across Connecticut all summer long and showcase the extraordinary expertise of our weather team.”
He spent 27 years with Channel 8. But in 2011, to his shock and dismay, his contract wasn’t renewed. He later worked for WTIC (FOX CT) for 19 months but lost that job because of inappropriate use of social media, which then became public.
In announcing his comeback on Facebook Live Wednesday evening, Fox said “I really love you guys” in Connecticut and he thanked the public for their support.
Asked if he might move back to Connecticut, Fox said, “I don’t think so. I think this is where I’ll stay. I have so many interconnected doctors out here.”