Michigan TV weatherman out after refusing to get vaccine

Associated Press

Marquette, Mich. — A man who spent more than 30 years reporting the weather on TV in northern Michigan said he's out of a job after refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Karl Bohnak

Karl Bohnak began working at WLUC-TV in 1988. He said the Upper Peninsula was one of the most challenging places in the U.S. for weather forecasting.

“Many of you have taken one of these injections, and that is absolutely your right,” Bohnak said Wednesday on Facebook. “It is also my right to choose the medical options I feel are right for me. I have authority over my body.”

Bohnak's post had 2,600 comments by Thursday afternoon. He said he was fired by the station's owner, Gray Television, for not following a company vaccine mandate.

WLUC declined to comment Thursday.

Bohnak is an iconic figure in the Upper Peninsula, inspiring a song on UP weather, and known for viral video moments in which he slipped into a string of obscenities during technical troubles with Facebook Live and for more light-hearted bloopers like this.

Bohnak got much support on Facebook, but some people were disappointed with his stance.

"I stand behind Gray Television for having the courage to protect the whole community," Lawrence Gary Oates wrote.

Bohnak is the author or co-author of books about Upper Peninsula weather, including “So Cold A Sky.”