A 8-year-old Kemptville boy is arguably the coolest weatherman around, though he could soon gain an even higher honour as Faces Magazine’s Podcaster of the Year. Local boy Finn is the star of Finn’s Friday Forecast, a popular weekly weather podcast that he has been hosting since September of 2019. The podcast plays on Friday mornings at blasttheradio.com.
“It started out by Finn hearing John Mielke do a weather report on his online station and Finn saying he wanted to do a weather report and send it to John,” Finn’s mother, Tara, told the Times. “John thought it was adorable and aired it. It was short and sweet and just had that Friday’s forecast. The Following week he ended up doing it again, and the listeners loved it, so we created Finn’s Friday Forecast which quickly became an entire weekend forecast.” Over the first year, we started adding banter between Finn and John and Finn developed his own reporting style and signature send off, including a regional acknowledgment saying ‘From the unceded territory of the Algonquin Nation in Kemptville Ontario, THIS IS YOUR BTR weatherman Finn, ONLY on Blasttheradio.com… back to you John … See Yaaaaaaaa’.”
John now jokes that Finn has more fans than him. Finn has done special weather reports, including those ahead of storms which include important safety tips. Tara explained that her husband, Bram has his own weekly radio show that airs in the Netherlands. This helps with Finn’s show, since they have the equipment available for recording and editing. The segment targets the Ottawa area forecast which is where blasttheradio.com is located.
According to the Faces Magazine website, “The Annual Faces Awards is Ottawa’s largest awards event, spanning over 150 categories to recognize professionals and businesses that make Ottawa such a world-class city.” Finn’s name has been put forward for awards in the past, but this year he is one of 15 nominees for the Podcaster of the Year award.
“Just making it to the list of nominees is an honour and Finn was really excited about the news,” Tara explained. “We told him that we are just proud of him for all his hard work and dedication doing a weekly forecast for almost 3.5 years and sticking to it. It’s always been Finn’s choice to do the forecast and stop at any time. He sometimes will do a 1-3 week break if we are super busy or away, and sometimes he makes a special weather report from Europe when we are regularly in the Netherlands or destinations we happen to be at on the Friday. He has even called in to John’s studio to record it over the phone from the middle of nowhere.”
Despite his gifts, Finn doesn’t necessarily want to be a weatherman when he grows up. His current aspirations are to be a police office, firefighter, pilot, or inventor. “His interests include soccer, swimming, music, airplanes and creating things out of Lego or recycled items which he calls ‘re ventions’ because they are inventions made from recycled things,” said Tara. “He is kind and energetic and has a big heart and genuinely cares that people know what weather is on the way and how to prepare for it.”
Finn is proud of the work that he does. “It’s cool and fun,” he said. “I like to give the weather forecast to people so they don’t get into accidents. I feel proud to be a weatherman.”
Voting for the Podcaster of the Year award begins on January 15. Don’t forget to cast your vote!