Twenty years ago, who'd have believed that millions of viewers would follow the twists and turns of storms developing across the globe with the rapt attention once reserved for thriller movies? And that a single television channel could simultaneously inform and entertain us, enrich our lives and, at times, help save them? This is the remarkable story of The Weather Channel, a cable network that succeeded when almost all the experts predicted it would fail. Told by one of the key figures in the network's success, former Chairman and CEO Frank Batten, this is at once a deeply personal account of high-stakes entrepreneurship and a fascinating case study of a media business both experiencing and driving major change.

There are colorful personalities from the on-camera meteorologists to the whiz kids recruited to help build the company's core technology. There are adventures and dramas-from the glitch filled national launch that was saved by luck and a mysterious stranger to The Weather Channel's near-death experience as its owner, Landmark Communications, was poised to lose its entire $31 million investment in the network.