I am a weather nut. I always have been. When the storms rolled through our area tonight, my weather radio was on & my TV set to Dave Brown. Then in the aftermath, I watched intently as reporters scurried through eastern Arkansas & northwestern Tennessee to assess the damage.

It brings back so many memories of my ol' news days in Mississippi. Our group of stations took pride in being first when weather struck. While the competition was on its usual automated programming, we were live & on-the-air. Sometimes I was in-studio, others I was running with the storm spotters from the local EOC. I even had a radio with my on call-sign so they could keep up with me.

We spotted tornadoes, covered ice storms & reported live from scenes of damage from straight-line winds. It's what local radio is supposed to be about.

God bless those affected by the storms tonight. WMC-TV's Joe Birch just reported eight people were killed in Newbern, Tenn., in Dyer County.