TV Meteorologist Lends Voice to RU Museum

Robin Reed, longtime chief meteorologist for WDBJ-7 television, dropped by Radford University April 16 to lend his vocal talents for a special project being developed by the university's Museum of the Earth Sciences.

After visiting the museum, Reed stepped into a studio and behind the mic in Porterfield Hall to read a script for a video that will accompany a future display at the museum.

However, there's no need to camp outside the museum's etched glass doors waiting for the exhibit. The 8-feet-wide by 9-feet-tall display, stowed away for now in an uber-secret campus location, is simply too large for the museum's current space, said Steve Lenhart, associate professor of geology and director of the museum.

The supersize exhibit will be displayed prominently when the museum relocates to the new 115,000-square-foot Center for the Sciences, scheduled to open in fall 2014.

The Museum of the Earth Sciences, a component of the Department of Geology in the College of Science and Technology, is an educational resource for earth science themes for the university, K-12 communities and the general public.

Reed, who has been the Roanoke TV station's chief meteorologist since 1982, said he and his staff visit schools and talk with students and educators across the area each week through the academic year.

"We really enjoy supporting all the local schools and universities because, as budget cutbacks keep occurring, they have to draw more and more resources from out in the community," Reed said.

Following his tour of the Museum of the Earth Sciences and posing for photos with passers-by, Reed praised the museum, saying it was "really cool" and "a great space for showing kids things they may never get to see otherwise."