FORT SMITH (KFSM) - It was just a few months after Channel 22 signed on the air for the first time that a dapper 35-year-old Milt Earnhart was asked by the station owners to 'throw together a weather report', as he says.
"How am I going to fill up the time? I had queues on the floor and I no sooner got started (when) it was over."
The only weather graphics during his time were an old chalkboard and a pointer. In the beginning, Milt would get most of his information from watching other TV stations.
"I turned on what Tulsa station we could get when it was on the air. I wanted to see what the weatherman did, and so I started that way. I was always able to talk, and that came in handy."
Once Milt got the hang of it, he was able to come up with tricks of the trade himself.
"I had some notes on the floor and things on the floor. I'd get the AP weather synopsis. If I knew where the highs and lows were, I could say its going to rain."
Milt was the local area's weatherman for 23 years. Not only the first weatherman, Milt would also anchor the news when asked to fill in.
Wilt turned 100-years-old on April first 2018.