Tom Jolls, the affable weatherman on the legendary WKBW-TV (Channel 7) anchor team alongside news anchor Irv Weinstein and sports director Rick Azar that dominated local news for decades, died Wednesday in Buffalo Hospice in Cheektowaga. He was 89.
Jolls was the last of the legendary trio to retire and the only one who stayed in Western New York after exiting television, even after he briefly lived in Florida.
Weinstein died in 2017 and Azar in 2021.
The Jolls family released a statement Wednesday.
“As a family, we could not be any prouder than we are of his illustrious television career. Better yet, he was an even better family man. His brief illness was a blessing, as he did not suffer much and passed away with all his family by his bedside,” the statement read.
“He was a very shy and private man off the air and, as such, we will celebrate his life with a private, family-only service. He will always be our commander. To all his family, friends and fans, he would hope you all make your lives salubrious,” the statement continued.
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Jolls was almost as well-known for playing Commander Tom on a kids program that premiered in 1965 and ran until 1991. It carried cartoons and featured puppets, including the popular dog named Dustmop and the alligator puppet Matty the Mod.
Jolls showed his grandchildren videos of the program that many Western New Yorkers grew up watching.
“The real young ones can’t quite comprehend that Grandpa was on TV on a regular basis,” said Jolls in a 2014 interview.
Tom Jolls was the creator and star of “The Commander Tom Show,” which ran from 1965 into the late ’80s. Here he is with his two of his main puppet sidekicks, Dustmop and Matty the Mod.
Someday they undoubtedly will learn that their grandfather was a TV treasure who commanded a huge local following while using the word “salubrious” to describe a pleasant or delightful day.
“Tom Jolls was exactly the man you saw on camera, gentle, considerate and his delivery was as smooth as silk,” said Bob Koshinski, a former Channel 7 sports director. “Tom’s childhood ambition was to be on the radio, but he didn’t stop there. Tom’s ability to reach out to a television audience was unique. Whether it was children watching Commander Tom or the adults tuned in to the nightly weather, Tom Jolls was the master communicator.”
“Tom Jolls was one of the truly nicest persons I worked with in broadcasting,” said Nancy Sanders, a former Channel 7 news executive. “I think people loved him because of his impish smile and for his long run as Commander Tom. Many were thinking of his homemade puppets Dustmop, Matty the Mod even while he changed roles doing the Weather Outside.
“And, of course, there was always something you could laugh at with the Weather Outside with the visiting community groups on the weather set or when the weather was severe. People loved the Weather Stick that would point up or down (I forget which) when severe weather was coming in.”
The down-to-earth Jolls came to Channel 7 from Channel 4 in 1965, where he was an anchor who briefly competed with Weinstein.
Prior to that, he worked at WUSJ Radio in Lockport, in 1953 and at WBES-TV, a short-lived UHF station with studios in Buffalo. After a tour in the Army, Jolls returned to WUSJ and joined WBEN AM-FM-TV in 1963.
Jolls was never a meteorologist but he was a student of weather who jotted down some things from weather sensors on his property during retirement to make forecasts.
He had a smile that the late Channel 4 General Manager Lou Verruto once called “one of the best on all of television.”
In the 2014 interview, Jolls was as modest as ever regarding his contribution to Channel 7’s glory days.
“I was very lucky to be part of that team,” said Jolls, “because I know if it wasn’t for Irv and for Rick, we wouldn’t have been anywhere near the top and dominant for so many years. I always felt I was along for the ride. And it was a great ride.”
The popular Channel 7 team: Irv Weinstein, Rick Azar and Tom Jolls.
It wasn’t a ride he had planned to take. Jolls said that he didn’t know how he ever got into the TV business because he was bashful and a loner and tried to avoid the limelight.
He also mostly avoided the legendary Blizzard of ‘77. He left the station at 11:30 p.m. on the first day of the storm after doing Channel 7’s distinctive Weather Outside.
“It was becoming increasingly difficult between 6 o’clock and 11 o’clock to even see the side of the building where the camera was from inside,” recalled Jolls. “And I’m thinking to myself, ‘This is getting to be way beyond what originally had been thought.’ Probably the biggest part of the problem was the wind whipping up the snow off the frozen lake.”
“I remember an ambulance going up Main Street,” added Jolls, “and saying to the audience, ‘Pity the person who needs an ambulance on a night like tonight. But thank goodness we have the brave ambulance drivers out there doing their job.’ ”
He was marooned at home the rest of the weekend, unavailable to be part of the continuing coverage.
“I was happy to be home to make sure my family was all right,” said Jolls. “First of all, it was so cold. It was so windy that it was difficult to keep warm in the house because of the way the wind was blowing and our house was situated. So we huddled in the family room with the fireplace going and that’s where we stayed all weekend. We had neighbors who could not get their house warm at all and they spent a good portion of the time with us, huddled and watching ‘Roots.’ That was the big attraction on TV that weekend.”
In his retirement speech on July 2, 1999, he thanked his family, friends, bosses and high school teachers.
From left, Rick Azar, Irv Weinstein and Tom Jolls, former television journalists for WKBW-TV in Buffalo, chat backstage before appearing in the “Giants of Buffalo” program at the Buffalo History Museum in 2014.
After a couple of winters in Fort Myers, Fla., Jolls and his wife of more than 60 years, Janice, returned to the ranch home in Orchard Park that they have lived in for decades.
He figured there really wasn’t much difference in his average day if he had escaped to Florida.
“In Florida, you are inside most of the time because it is so warm,” said Jolls. “Here, you’re inside because it is so cold.”
“We said ‘We miss our kids, we miss our grandkids,’ ” recalled Jolls. “So we hunker down by the fireplaces and watch the snow come down. People say, ‘Why aren’t you in Florida?’ We just got tired of it.”
Jolls felt fortunate because five of his six children lived nearby and the sixth visited often.
“It just doesn’t happen anymore to young modern families,” said Jolls. “Why should we leave our family for the sake of a few months of warm weather when the family means so much to us? … It is that period of life now that you enjoy the family and that’s practically your whole life.”
In retirement, he felt that forecasts were sometimes unnecessarily scary.
“These weather alerts, and these weather bulletins – and leading the newscasts … My idea was never to scare people. I’d say this is what it looks like is going to happen. It may not, but I want you to be prepared but I don’t want to scare you. I used to emphasize that over and over again.”
He felt that the Blizzard of ‘77 led to the emphasis on weather because it came out of nowhere and caught people unprepared.
“I think that’s why TV stations go out of their way to emphasize this weather for fear of not having warned people sufficiently or adequately,” said Jolls.
After the infamous Wall of Snow storm in 2014, many residents were stunned by its severity. But Jolls put it in perspective.
“This is winter, it is Buffalo,” said Jolls. “We haven’t experienced this in years and years. But still we can handle it.”
And for 34 years on television, Jolls made it much easier to handle.
Jolls is survived by his wife of 68 years, the former Janice Cronkhite; three daughters, Suzanne Bilson, Kathleen Burkholder and Lisa Murray; three sons, Dale, Timmy and Terry; 16 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
News Staff Reporter Harold McNeil contributed to this report.
