New York’s most popular TV weatherman, Irv Gikofsky, also known as “Mr. G”, returned to New York television as weekday weatherman for The WB11 News at Ten in September 1993.
Irv Gikofsky was born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens where he attended P.S. 201 and J.H.S. 218. He graduated from Francis Lewis High School and went on to Hofstra University in Long Island where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History in 1967. He received a Master of Arts degree in Secondary Education from Hofstra and pursued doctoral studies at Yeshiva University.
Gikofsky was a public school teacher for a decade before becoming a TV weatherman at New York’s WCBS-TV, Channel 2 in 1977.
As a teacher at the Albert Einstein Intermediate School in The Bronx, Gikofsky was responsible for the New York City school system’s first computerized weather program.
Gikofsky’s TV career has been outstanding. He won the 1990 Emmy for Outstanding Spot News Coverage and the 1991 Iris Award from the National Association of Television Program Executives for Best Children’s Program. He was a hit with the TV audience from the start: In the early 1980s shortly after joining WCBS-TV he published Mr. G’s Channel 2 Weather Almanac. In the first three days it was available viewers requested more than 65,000 copies. The station couldn’t keep up and had to ration its availability. Ultimately 200,000 copies were distributed.
In addition to his WB11 duties Gikofsky is heard on the radio. Since 1981 he has been the weatherman on WCBS-FM (101.1) in its highly-rated early morning drive-time program with host Dan Taylor. He also continues his series of lectures as “Professional In Residence” at alma mater Hofstra University where he speaks on radio and television broadcasting.
