WISH-TV meteorologist leaving for gig in Cincinnati

After nearly two years watching the skies in Indianapolis for WISH-TV Channel 8, meteorologist Brad Maushart plans to head southeast to his old stomping grounds in Cincinnati to take a new job.

Brad Maushart

Maushart’s last broadcast for WISH will be Nov. 25, and he will begin working full-time at WKRC-TV Channel 12 in Cincinnati during the first week in December.

Maushart has deep roots in the area. He was born in Indianapolis but grew up in Guilford, near the Ohio border. He earned a bachelor’s degree in meteorology and climatology from Ball State University in 2012 and interned at WKRC.

“Cincinnati is home for me—that’s the primary reason [for leaving],” Maushart told IBJ on Friday morning. “My entire family lives in and around town, and it is a market I’ve been trying to get into and back to since getting in the business.”

“I wasn’t in a hurry to leave WISH, but the opportunity presented itself so I took it,” he said. “I loved living and working in the Circle City with a great team of professionals, but it will be even better getting to return home.”

Maushart joined WISH's weather team in January 2017 and most recently worked mornings on Wednesday through Friday and evenings on Saturday and Sunday. For WKRC, Maushart will work as a weekend meteorologist in addition to reporting and weather duties throughout the week.

His passion is chasing severe weather. Through college, he owned a company that provided footage of storms, tornados and hurricanes to several Midwest television stations. From 2013 to 2016, he worked as the morning meteorologist and primary storm chaser for WJTV-TV Channel 12, a CBS affiliate in Jackson, Mississippi.

His first full-time gig out of Ball State was as chief meteorologist for a broadcasting company in Anchorage, Alaska, “forecasting anything and everything from volcanic ash plumes to Jökulhlaups [glacial flooding] to the Aurora Borealis,” according to his WISH staff bio.

While at Ball State, he played the role of sports mascot Charlie Cardinal.

A representative for WISH, the Indianapolis CW affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group Inc., did not immediately respond on Friday morning to a question from IBJ about filling the open position.

The station recently reiterated its commitment to local news and programming, saying it would extend its weekend news coverage on Saturdays and Sundays.

The station, which now offers 70 hours of local news and programming per week, said it would continue to differentiate itself from other stations in the market by offering newscasts in “underserved time periods for local news.”