Nichols, the television station's chief meteorologist, said Friday, Jan. 2, that he's calling it quits next Friday, except when the station needs him to fill in now and then.
"I'm turning 66 (in April) and I just thought it was time to pass the baton on," Nichols said.
WDTN-TV News Director Steve Diorio called Nichols' retirement "bittersweet."
"Carl has done so much for this community on and off air," Diorio said. "He'll be missed by many, but (he) deserves this opportunity to spend more time with his family."
A 40-year veteran in the TV weather business, Nichols said the highlights of his career include the Blizzard of '78, the Xenia tornado in 2000 and other major weather events. The low point, he said, was getting fired in the mid-70s at a television station in Louiville, where he was replaced by a blonde bombshell more pleasing to management's eyes.
"If that happened now, I'd probably own the corporation," said Nichols, who's also worked for stations in Youngstown, Chicago and Tampa, Fla., his hometown.
Nichols said he's loved the weather since his youth in Florida, where thundershowers and hurricanes were common. He later trained in weather while serving in the Navy from 1963 to 1967, then worked for the government for a while before joining a Tampa TV station in 1969.
Nichols is also the face behind Carl's Coats for Kids, a program that's given more than 400,000 coats to needy children in the Miami Valley over the last 20 years or so. He said Friday he would continue in that role.
"It just kinda creeps up on ya," Nichols said. "You work all the years and you look forward to a time when you can back off a little bit, not do the Monday through Friday. Then all a sudden one day it's here and you wonder where all the years went."
Nichols and his wife, Bernie, have one daughter and three grandchildren.
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