Forecaster Who Rained on Limbaugh Event Fired : Radio: Central Valley station says he was an ‘ongoing problem.’ He claims his refusal to alter accurate prediction of showers kept crowds away from picnic and enraged his bosses.

The dittoheads are not a force to be taken lightly in this conservative farm belt. Just ask TV and radio weatherman Sean Boyd.

A few days ago, he discovered the wrath of Rush Limbaugh’s devotees after predicting rain for the second annual Dittohead Barbecue and Politically Incorrect Picnic at the fairgrounds here.

His boss at KMJ, the San Joaquin Valley news/talk radio station that put on the April 15 event, asked him to fudge his forecast. Instead of a chance of rain, which would discourage people from attending, why not say the greater possibility of sunshine?

Boyd, who has been predicting such things for 18 years, refused. This week, the radio station fired him in what he says was a pay-back for his honest report.

“The program director wanted me to put a politically correct spin on the forecast,” Boyd said Thursday. “And I wouldn’t do it.”

KMJ executives admit to questioning Boyd about his forecast and fretting that it might keep people away from the event, which drew 10,000 Dittoheads last year. Yes, they acknowledged, the station had some bucks on the line. And everything down to the Al Gore Tree-Hugging Contest and the Miss Dittohead swimsuit pageant was meticulously planned.

But they say Boyd’s firing was the buildup of many things. “We’ve had an ongoing problem with Sean about being concise and relevant,” said Al Smith, KMJ’s general manager. “His reports have become a lot of babble.”

Limbaugh is no trifling matter here. The Fresno-Madera-Visalia region is among the top three markets in the country for the conservative commentator. More than 20% of the radio audience tunes in to his syndicated morning show on KMJ-AM 580.

At last year’s Dittohead picnic, the local radio host who comes on after Limbaugh, Ray Appleton, created a ripple by holding up a bumper sticker that read, “Lee Harvey Oswald: Where are you now that we really need you?!!”

“We got a lot of heat from KMJ executives for running that picture of Appleton,” said Madera Tribune photographer John Tipton. “They went through the roof and wanted me fired.”

The picnic was the brainchild of KMJ program director John Broeske, who doesn’t apologize for 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. hammering of President Clinton and liberals on the station. “It’s just what works,” he said.

He conceived the picnic as a way to honor Limbaugh and bring together families looking for good, clean fun. Last year, the station made a $20,000 profit, not counting the on-air ads tied to the event. This year, Broeske hoped for more and anxiously watched the sky for rain.

Four days before the event, weatherman Boyd called for a chance of rain for the weekend event--a forecast that conflicted with an earlier National Weather Service report. Broeske called and complained.

A day later, the NWS changed its forecast to a likelihood of rain, agreeing with Boyd. Broeske called again.

“He wanted me to change the language of my report,” Boyd recalled. “He said, ‘Why can’t you say there’s an even greater chance of no showers? You say partly cloudy. Why can’t you say partly sunny?’ ”

“I know what I do isn’t an exact science,” Boyd said. “But he was asking me to change the way I’ve been doing business for years. For this one event.”

Broeske won’t discuss the particulars, saying it is a personnel matter. Boyd said Broeske pulled the same stunt in March during a KMJ-sponsored golf tournament.

“I forecast partly cloudy and windy at tee-off time. He wanted me to say mostly sunny with highs the 70s. I hit that one right on the schnoz.”

As it turns out, this month’s Dittohead picnic broke cloudy, just as Boyd predicted. The crowd was down from last year. In between the Al Gore Tree Hugging Contest and the Miss Dittohead pageant, the wind picked up and it began to drizzle.

Just as the young ladies in their white one-piece swimsuits were rushed onstage, the skies opened up and it poured.