What I Know: Chuck Lofton

AGE: 55  GIG: Morning meteorologist on WTHR Channel 13  SNOW BUSINESS: Lofton wakes up at 1:40 a.m. to arrive at the office for Eyewitness News Sunrise an hour later.

The only way to have longevity is to be real.

People can tell if you want to be here or if you’re just using this as a stepping stone to go someplace else.

When the job at Channel 13 came up in 1985, I had three of my most trusted friends in the business tell me not to take it. They said, “Go to Channel 6.” I tried; they didn’t hire me.

If they had said, “You’re going to go on at 4:30,” I would not have taken the job. When Sunrise first started, we were on at 6:30.

Nothing in my career has ever taken off like Flat Chuck.  

The thing’s been to the Taj Mahal. It’s been in Tiananmen Square. It’s been fishing with people. On kids’ fall breaks and spring breaks. It’s awesome.

I don’t know if global warming is real. Is there climate change? Sure.

Every week or two, a woman will come up to me and say, “I watched you when I was a little girl. And now my daughter, or my son, watches you when they’re getting ready for school.” People at the station say, “Doesn’t that make you feel old?” Not at all. How nice that that’s a legacy.

I hope to work ’til I’m 70. With Angela [Buchman] there and people like Nicole Misencik, that bodes well for the future.

My father was a World War II vet. Purple Heart, Silver Star, Bronze Star, wounded at Anzio, liberated Dachau. He led a difficult life. He wanted me to do what I enjoyed.

I’m a Purpose-Driven Life person; I love that Rick Warren book. I really feel this is my purpose.

—as told to Marc D. Allan

FLAT CHUCK’S BIG YEAR

Paper Boy: The Flat Chuck phenomenon was inspired by the storybook Flat Stanley.

I went to the Olympics!
Thanks to Anne Marie Tiernon, I tried on David Boudia’s medal, and Kerri Walsh Jennings kissed me on TV.

I’m always on vacation!
WTHR viewers have taken me to 40 countries, including India, Egypt, and China.

I’m homework!
Mrs. Pachut’s sixth-grade science class at Holy Spirit School studies my nervous system.

Photo by Tony Valainis; Flat Chuck photos courtesy WTHR.

This article appeared in the January 2013 issue.