Legendary Alabama weatherman James Spann has inspired generations of new and upcoming meteorologists for over 30 years. In fact, one of the top meteorologists in the country is a former student of Spann’s, who started her career with an internship right here in Birmingham at ABC 33/40.
Before Ginger Zee was the chief meteorologist for ABC News and “Good Morning America,” she was just another college student looking for a summer internship. As a freshman at Valparaiso University in Indiana, Zee originally planned to just study the science of meteorology and didn’t have any interest in television. One of her professors encouraged her to give television a shot, so she sent out almost 100 resumes for internships across the country. Out of all the internships she applied for, only one responded: ABC 33/40 in Birmingham. Zee packed up and spent the summer in Birmingham learning from the best.
“James Spann is the man, and they say that for a reason,” Zee told AdWeek last year. “In the weather community he is so well respected. He’s a great human, but he’s also a great meteorologist and he’s awesome on TV. He made me fall in love with television.”
As a young girl, Zee fell in love with weather while watching thunderstorms and looking for water spouts across Lake Michigan. She was determined to turn her childhood obsession into a career, and her internship with Spann helped ignite her passion. Although she had never been on camera before, Spann took a chance and gave Zee her first opportunity.
“I knew right away that she had great potential, because I knew her academic background. But what we didn’t know is how she communicates with people. So we put her on the green wall the first night, and our jaws dropped. She was that good. It was a joy to watch her progress,” said Spann.
After leaving Birmingham, Zee started working in Michigan before she landed a job in Chicago, the country’s third-largest market. Zee also had a passion for storm chasing, so she guest starred on the Discovery Channel’s “Tornado Chasers.” After working in Chicago for five years, she moved to New York to join the team of Good Morning America.
Zee still considers James Spann to be one of her mentors, role models, and heroes, and the two still keep in touch. Last year Spann spoke with Zee during the live stream of Good Morning America’s 40th anniversary, and he even recorded an interview for a pre-performance package for the current season of “Dancing with the Stars,” where Zee is one of the three finalists.
To this day, Zee praises Spann for taking a chance on her and allowing her to start her career with an internship in Birmingham.
“I know it changed my entire outlook on what I was going to do,” she says. “It changed my entire future.”
