Rob of Rob Brooks Realty talks with Spinks Megginson, Director & Meteorologist of RedZone Group, LLC, about RedZone Weather and its impact on the Emerald Coast.

Video Transcript:   

Rob: Hey! I am Rob at Rob Brooks Realty and this is Spinks Megginson. Did I pronounce your name right?

Spinks: Yes, yes Megginson, Megginson.

Rob: So, some of you might recognize him from Red Zone weather.

Spinks: Red Zone weather, that's right.

Rob: And I'm just so glad, Rob Brooks Realty has partnered with Red Zone weather. We are one of the honored sponsors of Red Zone weather because I've seen where Spinks, you do a lot of things right.

Spinks: Thank you I appreciate that.

Rob: So, if you don't mind just telling my audience how did you come to develop Red Zone weather? How did that story begin?

Spinks: Yeah, so when I was a kid and when I say kid, I'm talking you know 25 years ago at this point, some of you may remember Hurricane Opal, that shows how old I am, that happened in 1995. And I went through that storm as a kid, I was about five years old at that point, and it really has been a lifelong passion after that storm to be able to learn everything I can about weather. I went to the University of Alabama, worked in television for a bit at WVUA 23 in the Birmingham Market, took a break from television because I do think there's more to life than your dreams. And I worked in youth ministry that was awesome, and I..

Rob: So appreciate how you say that more to life than your dreams, and went into youth ministry. That implies that there is God's desire and maybe God's desire is more important than our dreams sometimes.

Spinks: Absolutely.

Rob: Sometimes they coincide and in fact, in the end, there should be a lot of correlation there and running side by side but great. I just wanted to stop and just it was struck how you said that. Okay, continue with your story, I'm sorry…

Spinks: That's quite all right, so worked in television for a bit, did youth ministry, started Red Zone weather as a hobby just to keep my feet wet in the world of meteorology, and from that, while I was doing youth ministry, I kind of segue to Red Zone being a part-time job and then subsequently, a full-time job in 2017. And so, Red Zone has allowed me to do things a little bit differently from television. Instead of the 5, 6, and 10 o'clock news, I can be out in our communities doing school presentations.

Rob: That's right. You were doing one over here an hour ago…

Spinks: That's right. I was at SS Dixon in Pace and so yeah, we're in Pace and Pensacola and Milton and Fort Walton all the time, and Red Zone has really taken off. You know, this area Pensacola, Pace, Fort Walton, the coast of Northwest Florida has really become our best area in terms of viewers watching our live severe weather coverage and you know, it's interesting, we get a lot of severe weather where we live. We're one of the unique areas in the world, think about it, we have hurricanes, we have tornadoes, thunderstorms, we even have wildfires for goodness sakes, sometimes here in Santa Rosa County. So it really is a hotbed for severe weather and it truly is the passion and the honor of my life to be able to cover it on a daily basis.

Rob: Well you do it really well and the passion is something that I picked up on right away. Here's the story how I became affiliated with Red Zone weather, how I became to know about it. My wife is from Missouri. They have tornadoes all the time and she was extremely frustrated with local media coverage of basically Red Zone events where there is some sort of event going on that's bad, people need to keep a watch out. The typical way that the media would cover it would be “okay, so, yes, there's a tornado that has touched down in the area of this town so be on the look for that everybody. Go for cover and now to our next broadcast” and would leave, would totally go back to the programming. And Melody being from Tornado Alley, would say “this is completely unacceptable. We need to know where that tornado is every moment” and that's what you do.

Spinks: Yeah, well or even worse, you'll see “Oh we have a code red weather day”. Well, what the heck does that mean? Who knows what that means and so you see hype, you see Hyperbole, and we don't want to do that it's important to be real. And so, it really is the opportunity of a lifetime to be able not only to do this in a helpful way, but to be on the ground in these communities. You know, this is my home. These are my people, so I really love what I do and I'm thankful for the opportunity to do it here and not, you know far off in Fargo, North Dakota or somewhere.

Rob: And for those of you from Fargo, North Dakota, no problem with you…

Spinks: We still love you. You can still be our friend, but we love our climate here to be honest.

Rob: So, what Spinks does for you, who have never seen, he stays live every time there is a red zone that is put out by The Weather Service. A tornado warning, a flood…

Spinks: Right, well, anytime there's a tornado warning, the Red Zone, which is where the name came from, we are live and we stay live until that threat is over. So that's our claim to fame if you will.

Rob: Correct, yes, okay and Spinks, while he is live on this, it will be things like “okay so the tornado just touched down just north of Baghdad and it's heading Northeast, and so if you're on such and such street, if you're on this..” and he starts naming the specific localities to get in shelter now. And that you are a home-town reporter when it comes to that, when you start naming specific streets

Spinks: You know it's challenging during the severe weather events to really hone in and be hyper local. That's the word, the buzzword: Hyper local. And you're right, I mean you know I am a home-town boy. I'm from Brewton, Alabama, not too far up the road from Milton and Pace. So, that's where I live now and I have the honor of you know, doing Red Zone from there but we cover this area: Northwest Florida, Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton counties. And you know we want to see it become something that is kind of vital to your life but especially on these days like you're talking about, when we have urgent weather situations. We're going to keep doing what we do. I'm sure the traditional media and the folks on Facebook the, you know, hype and hyperbole folks, they're going to keep doing what they do. You know, I think the market always has a way to kind of sort everything out. It's going well so it's an honor to be a partner.  Thank you for being a sponsor, and I certainly look forward to seeing what we can do.

Rob: Let me ask this. What has been the longest time that you have been live? How many hours and what was the situation?

Spinks: So two things come to mind with Red Zone weather specifically. We had Hurricane Sally and of course, that was in September of 2020 when the world was shut down because of COVID. We had the most active hurricane season on record that year, and in that, we had Hurricane Sally. Sally was a really challenging storm because it was, you know, just a few miles offshore and it basically sat there. Just caused havoc in terms of 30 inches of rain down in Orange Beach. We had heavy rain, we had wind, we had tornadoes. You know, that event was by far the most challenging because for five days straight, we're essentially covering that storm non-stop. In terms of on-air hours, we covered a tornado outbreak. I covered a tornado outbreak in Central Alabama from 2PM, this was on April 28 2014, to the next day 4 AM, 14 hours. So, it really does get challenging at times. Fortunately, those are few and far between

Rob: Spinks, I sure appreciate what you bring to our community and there's a certain level of, not just we'll call it entertainment because the weather is always entertaining especially in these event times, but also safety that you bring to our community. Thank you so much for doing that.

Spinks: Well, thank you for what you do and thanks for being a sponsor.

Rob: You're welcome and speaking of, if you haven't checked out Red Zone weather, I highly recommend that you do that. Check it out on Facebook or on the app that you have. Of course, this is Rob of Rob Brooks Realty and this is where I live.