Jonesboro, AR – Jonesboro Right Now – For a quarter-century, when severe weather threatened Northeast Arkansas, people across Region 8 knew exactly who they wanted to hear from: Ryan Vaughan.

After 25 years at KAIT, Vaughan has announced that he is stepping away from television at the end of this year.

 

Vaughan made the announcement Wednesday, sharing a personal statement about his decision and his next chapter. His departure will mark the end of one of the longest and most recognizable careers in the history of local television in Northeast Arkansas.

Vaughan first joined KAIT in 2001. After spending three years at another Gray Media station in Montgomery, AL, he returned to Region 8 in 2005 and has been a fixture on KAIT’s weather team ever since. KAIT celebrated his 25th anniversary with the station earlier this year.

His career has included countless severe weather events, tornado warnings, ice storms, flooding events and winter weather systems. But for many viewers, Vaughan became much more than the person delivering the forecast.

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He became a familiar and reassuring voice when the weather turned dangerous.

Vaughan holds the National Weather Association Seal of Approval and was named the National Weather Association’s Broadcaster of the Year in 2016. He has also served on the National Weather Association board and has been active in his community, including service as a volunteer firefighter with the Western Greene County Fire Department.

A special relationship with Jonesboro Media Group

Vaughan’s professional relationship with Jonesboro Media Group goes back many years.

Former KAIT weather anchor Trey Stafford and the Jonesboro Media Group team have worked alongside Vaughan through some of the most challenging weather events Northeast Arkansas has experienced.

For Stafford, however, the relationship with Vaughan goes far beyond television and radio.

“I have come to love and respect Ryan not just as a talented broadcast meteorologist but as a close friend, husband, father and spiritual leader,” Stafford said.

“Ryan has comforted and counseled me through a variety of personal journeys over the years. There’s nothing quite like sharing a Heard’s or Lorado cheeseburger with Ryan Vaughan.”

That friendship has developed through years of working together when weather demanded that radio and television put everything else aside and focus on keeping people informed and safe.

Severe weather coverage is one of the few times competing media organizations routinely become one team. Vaughan and the Jonesboro Media Group staff have shared countless long nights, early mornings, weather briefings and conversations during storms threatening Northeast Arkansas.

For Stafford, some of the most important memories aren’t necessarily the ones involving tornado warnings or radar screens.

They’re the conversations before and after the storms.

A familiar face to a generation of viewers

Vaughan’s tenure at KAIT spans a remarkable period of change in the broadcast industry.

When he arrived in 2001, local television weather coverage was still largely built around television newscasts, weather maps and radar presentations. Today, viewers can receive alerts on their phones, follow storms on social media and watch live radar virtually anywhere.

Through all of that change, Vaughan remained a constant presence on KAIT.

KAIT’s biography describes him as a husband and father of four, as well as a father-in-law to two. Outside television, Vaughan has been active in sports, cycling, walking his dogs and his church.

And perhaps most importantly, he became someone many people in Region 8 felt they knew personally.

That’s a difficult thing to quantify in television.

But it is easy to recognize when someone has earned it.

As Vaughan prepares to leave television at the end of the year, Northeast Arkansas is preparing to say goodbye to a familiar face who has been there through decades of weather, change, growth, tragedy and celebration.

The forecast will continue.

The warnings will continue.

But for many people across Region 8, it simply won’t feel quite the same without Ryan Vaughan standing in front of the weather wall.

Jonesboro Right Now will have more on Vaughan’s announcement and his plans for the next chapter as that information becomes available.

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