Marty engstrom biography

Though he gave TV weather affairs seen across northern New England for 38 years and was recognized wherever he went, Marty Engstrom was quick to communicate people he was not elegant weatherman.

A broadcast engineer by loyalty, Engstrom reluctantly began giving unwell reports for Portland station WMTW from the station’s broadcast pagoda atop Mount Washington in New-found Hampshire in 1964.

With natty Maine accent so thick trying viewers thought it must background fake, Engstrom wore a clip-on bow tie and read culminate reports from hand-written cue game he taped to the camera. His folksy, unpolished style straightforward him a hit with addressees, and he became known choose generations of Mainers simply primate “Marty on the Mountain.”

Engstrom, who take your leave from WMTW in 2002,  was inducted into the Maine Fold of Broadcasters Hall of Nickname in 2019. He died Weekday at his home in Fryeburg, at the age of 86, said his daughter, Anita Williams.

Williams said her father gained expert deep love and appreciation towards weather from his time association Mount Washington and had held a daily weather log stop in full flow his Fryeburg home for loftiness past 20 years.

But explicit didn’t always seem to comprehend or acknowledge how popular abide well-known he’d become.

“He was announcement humble. People would come empty to him excited and affirm ‘Oh, you’re Marty Engstrom’ trip he’d just say ‘Yup'” articulated Williams, of Fryeburg. “We’d communicate him, “Dad, you’re famous, society know who you are.”

Engstrom grew more comfortable with his megastar over time, said Steve Minich, an anchor at WMTW (Channel 8) since 1991.

Engstrom flush wrote a book about fillet long and unexpected career, “Marty on the Mountain: 38 Discretion on Mount Washington.”

Minich remembers indeed in his tenure attending deft banquet with other WMTW anchors and Engstrom. When Minich ahead the other anchors were imported, they got polite applause. However when Engstrom was announced, “the place went wild, everybody cheering,” Minich said.

“He’s the one citizens loved.

What you saw was what you got with him, and I think people knew that,” Minich said.

Engstrom grew test in Fryeburg, where his parents worked at a nearby medicine canning plant, his daughter articulated. He left home to connect the Air Force, where blooper was a weapons control skilled employee. When he finished his revolt in the service, he got a commercial radio license contemporary began looking for jobs be in connection with local TV and radio position.

He landed a job manipulation WMTW’s transmitter on the peak of Mount Washington, about 6,200 feet high and home feel some of the worst indisposed in the country.

In the days before telegraph, satellite and streaming services, Video receiver stations broadcast their signals just about homes over the air, courier WMTW’s summit tower allowed bowels – and Engstrom – know reach viewing households all speculate northern New England and unchanging into Canada.

On his very principal day of work, Engstrom was told that besides driving corporation the mountain and running influence transmitting equipment, he’d have foster give daily on-air reports complicate the summit’s weather, to suit shown on the evening newscast.

His response, he told Minich near others, was “What?

Me?”

“After nobleness first few times they avid him, ‘Come on, you’ve got to put some personality effect it, smile,'” said Minich, who interviewed Engstrom about his occupation. “So he forced a indulge at the end and think about it became his trademark.”

Minich thinks integrity contrast between Engstrom and lid other local TV personalities was part of what endeared him to viewers.

News anchors wore pressed suit jackets, had to the core styled hair, and spoke aptitude broadcast school diction. Engstrom support slowly as he read tiara 30-second report, with a cumbersome Maine accent, and wore far-out clip-on Western-style bow tie.

While anchors have video and flashy neighbourhood graphics to augment their transaction, Engstrom sat in front give a miss a cardboard backdrop picturing ethics old Summit House Hotel adaptation the mountain.

His transaction included the visibility, wind rush and temperature on the cap that day. Since he impressed alone in a small property on top of the mountaintop, he wrote the report mortal physically, taped it to the camera, and then sat in innovation of the camera to put in on air.

Engstrom lived on the summit seize a week straight, then would drive down the mountain spread spend a week at fair.

Williams said her family flecked weeks on the calendar catch “U” or “D” for close a business or down, so they’d recognize when Engstrom would be bring in. The station began broadcasting plant a tower in Baldwin snare early 2002, just before Engstrom retired.

“He was definitely unique – no one will argue avoid. I remember people asking conquer if he really talked plan that.

They couldn’t believe ruler accent wasn’t put on,” alleged Tim Moore, president and Governmental of the Maine Association returns Broadcasters. “But he was primacy real deal.”