PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER ) -- Joe Cupo is one of Maine's best-known meteorologists and after 37 years of reporting the weather in his friendly and familiar style, he is retiring.
Joe has been a part of the NEWS CENTER team since 1979.
Mainers have been inviting Joe into their homes and depending on his forecasts for almost four decades and he has taken that responsibility seriously. Joe has always gone above and beyond to deliver accurate forecasts in his easy, friendly way.
Joe's longevity at NEWS CENTER is rare not just for Maine, but in TV markets around the country.
"I feel like I’m losing a brother," said anchor Pat Callaghan.
"I’ve been sitting next to Joe on the anchor desk for 27 years, and that’s an eternity in television terms. But then you realize that Joe has been holding down that spot since 1979, and has been THE weather guy for Maine all of that time. Everybody knows Cupo. It’s an incredible legacy," said Callaghan.
Joe did not choose his field of study specifically to pursue a career in television. He received a Bachelor of Science in Geology, and a Master of Science in Atmospheric Science from University of New York in Albany.
"In graduate school I met a TV weather caster and he suggested that I try my hand at TV weather. So I did!" said Joe.
For years Kevin Mannix worked the opposite schedule of Joe. Mannix remembers getting to know Joe through notes they left for each other. "We did see a lot of each other during the “THE ICE STORM” and really got to know each other. I always considered him to be a top notch forecaster. Learned much from him, consider him a friend and will miss him a lot."
“We are family here”, says NEWS CENTER’S Cindy Williams. “You cannot sit beside someone every weeknight for 27 years and not become a fixture in their lives, and they in yours. It’s bizarre to think about doing newscasts without Joe Cupo. He’s a fixture, not just in our lives, but in the viewers as well.”
Cindy Williams, Pat Callaghan, Joe Cupo and Bruce Glasier, with sports, had been one of the longest lasting anchor teams in the country up until Glasier’s retirement in 2012.
During our 5:30 newscast on Tuesday, Cindy Williams asked Joe Cupo how things were going during his last week here before retiring. “Are you staying focused?” she asked.
It’s a hectic time, Joe acknowledged, with plenty of distractions, but he was doing his best. “I mean, I want to do a good job with the forecasts,” he said, and it was clear just how much that meant to him.
No one in Maine has ever worked as a TV meteorologist at one station for anywhere near as long as Joe. And yet, every afternoon this week, despite the growing hoopla over his departure, he has stuck to his work routine, poring over weather data, graphics, maps and more.
If ever there were a guy who has earned the right to coast toward the finish line, it’s Joe. That’s not his style, though, so when you tune in to see him in his last day or two on the air, you’ll get what he has always wanted to deliver: a good job with the forecasts.ve but happy for his next adventure in life.
Joe's last day is Friday, April 22.