Global Calgary forecasters helped create Balzac Billy for Groundhog Day

For centuries people have turned to groundhogs to indicate whether they can expect an early Spring or whether winter is going to last.

The legend goes back centuries in European folklore, claiming that if a groundhog emerges from his hole on Feb. 2 and sees his shadow, he is predicting six more weeks of winter weather.

READ MORE: Groundhog Day: Why we carry on with the tradition

Across the world there are a number of very famous groundhogs, including Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania, who has reportedly been making an appearance since the 1880s.

In Canada, the go-to groundhog for years was Wiarton Willy in Ontario, who has been actively celebrated since the 1950s.

Since the late 1970s, Albertans have joined in on the fun with a character called Balzac Billy.

A little-known history lesson was offered in the Global Calgary newsroom Wednesday regarding the origin of this particular groundhog.

Global News reporter Tony Tighe  started the conversation, suggesting that former Global Calgary weather forecaster Jimmy Hughes played a role in the birth of Billy.

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Global Calgary director Joe Kunkel’s father Jim was a program director at CFAC for many years and, at one point, was the boss of Paul Dunphy and Jimmy Hughes.

As Joe told me Wednesday, “What I was told is that my dad was in a boardroom with your dad (Jimmy Hughes) and Paul Dunphy and they came up with this idea.”

Dunphy confirmed that this whole thing first came up in the late 1970s.

“Jim Kunkel thought Calgary was missing out because we didn’t have our own groundhog. So Feb. 1, Kunkel said to me and Jimmy: ‘Here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll pretend to send Hughes out in a field by Balzac looking for a gopher.’”

Dunphy, who was also a commercial producer at the time, said the next day he laid down some sound effects of birds and wind and cars on a highway, and they pretended to send Hughes out.

This went on for years, according to Hughes.

“We made this thing up to make sport of Groundhog Day and people started to buy into it, so we carried it on every year.”

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The two said it was easy to pull off because radio and television were so different then.

“There was no social media then, so we were able to produce this bit and have a lot of fun with it,”  Hughes said.

According to the Balzac Billy website, the groundhog is known today as the “Prairie Prognosticator.”