Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

Jamey Singleton edits his self-produced weather report.

His side: Jamey Singleton speaks

TimesCast

• See Singleton the the Dec. 5 TimesCast

On former WSLS (Channel 10) weatherman Marc Lamarre:

• "I spent the night crying, wondering if he'd come back," Singleton said of how he waited to find out if Lamarre would come out of the coma he suffered in 2005.
• They were colleagues and workout partners, and Lamarre would coach Singleton through a set at the gym by yelling, "Up, up, up." When Lamarre was in the coma, Singleton said, "I would pray and cry and yell, 'Up, up, up.'"
• Singleton said he hasn't spoken to Lamarre in months and he isn't sure what Lamarre is doing these days. In the weeks after Lamarre returned to health, Singleton said he decided to cool the friendship. "For Marc's own good I think it's best that we're apart." Singleton and Lamarre have an unspoken agreement not to speak to each other.

On the now-infamous photo:

• Initially Singleton told a Roanoke Times reporter the photo was taken as he was startled and exiting the shower. However, the photo is of smiling Singleton wearing a T-shirt with shaving cream covering the lower part of his body.
• As for the hole in his story, Singleton said, "That's all I knew at the time." Singleton claims friends told him about the existence of the photo but he didn't see it until later. "I didn't set up the picture. My privacy was violated by someone coming in the room."
• He said he heard about the photo on Nov. 14 and thought it might have been a doctored picture. While he refused to look at the photo after he found out it had been posted on MySpace, he contacted the site to have it removed from his friend's page, he says.
• "I do remember this friend taking this picture," Singleton said. As for the events captured in the photo, he said, "It was part of my routine." He was getting ready for work.

On the song "Save Singleton" and the petition to get his job back

• "I like it because someone took the time to write the song," Singleton says. "I listened to it carefully. The guy seemed to have his facts down. I really liked it. I don't have my microphone anymore or my viewing audience. My MySpace page is the only way I can talk to my fans." He played it for his mom, and she's a fan, he says.
• As for the petition, "I don't think it would do anything, but it's a nice gesture. I was kind of amazed."

On his final months at WSLS:

• He says he feels bad for causing the station's management so much stress in the past year.
• Singleton said he's consulting with a lawyer to make sure his dismissal was handled in a correct manner. He said, "Everybody has come up to me and said, 'You'd be stupid not to take legal action.' Whether I take legal action I don't know."
• He said he noticed a difference between the way the station handled his situation and Lamarre's.

Jamey Singleton, the former WSLS (Channel 10) weatherman, walked along Gus W. Nicks Boulevard in Vinton, wearing a dark suit and red and black tie. Cars zipped by him. There was a chance of rain, he said. The night air was chilly.

Singleton wasn't doing a weather spot. He was going to be in a Christmas parade.

Since he was fired from WSLS for violating the morals clause of his contract, Singleton has not been shy. Despite the fact that hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of people know about the photograph (Singleton is shown wearing only a T-shirt and covered in shaving cream below the waist) that led to his job's demise, Singleton has decided not to hide.

Instead, he's using the living room of his Old Southwest apartment to shoot low-budget weather forecasts that he posts for friends and supporters on his MySpace page and his new Web site, jamey-singleton.com.

"This is my hometown, and I'm not going to let some corporation tell me I can't go out in my hometown," the 28-year-old Franklin County native said about his cool relations with WSLS, which is owned by Richmond-based Media General.

Station officials had advised him to keep a low profile. His contract, which gives WSLS the right to his image, name and likeness for a year, includes a noncompete clause, meaning Singleton shouldn't appear on other area stations or cable channels in WSLS's market area.

That still hasn't stopped Singleton, who continues to talk about "his viewers" and "his fans." In a phone interview, WSLS news director Shane Moreland refused to comment on Singleton, and the station's new general manager Warren Fiihr wasn't available for comment.

Meanwhile, Singleton's area appearances have continued this week. He had a cameo on Tuesday's TimesCast on roanoke.com. And tonight he is scheduled to appear in the Dickens of a Christmas Parade in Roanoke, riding the Dalmatian Rescue of Southwest Virginia's float.

"I've been invited to more parades this year than when I had the job," Singleton said, walking up a muddy path to the Vinton parade lineup. "Any way I can be a part of the community I will do. It's in my best interest not to abandon my viewers, my friends."

He eagerly accepted a last-minute offer to appear in the Vinton parade, walking with the William Byrd High School choir. He met the student singers before the parade began and they flocked around him like groupies to a rock star. There were flashes from camera phones. "Hey, Mr. Jamey," one of them called out in the darkness.

"Are you guys gonna yell at me if it rains?" Singleton asked the choir members, who were dressed in tie-dyed shirts. There was a collective answer: "Yes."

"We thought Jamey is a big inspiration," said Staci Brining, the 17-year-old senior who invited Singleton to participate in the Vinton parade. "People make mistakes but you don't judge them. We're all human beings. We all make mistakes."

Two years of chaos

Singleton, who spends his days at home job hunting, has been eating up his publicity, which he says he's not actively seeking.

"I thought about hiding away at first," he said. "Every time I would do an interview I would get a spike in support. I'm not embarrassed by what happened. I'm still going to live my life. When you're in the spotlight, you constantly want to know what people are thinking."

In the past 1¹₂ years, Singleton's life has played out like a soap opera. On Christmas Eve 2005, Singleton got out of rehab after battling heroin, which also troubled his old friend, former WSLS weatherman Marc Lamarre.

Last month, their supplier, Gilbert Dennis Hadden, was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty in August to conspiracy and distribution of heroin. While Lamarre returned home to Maine, Singleton was given a one-year deal with the station.

Then came the photograph. On Nov. 14, Singleton discovered a partially nude photo of him had been circulated on the Internet. It was first posted on a friend's MySpace page and eventually ended his dream job at Channel 10. The resulting news coverage reportedly led to a joke about Singleton on "The Tonight Show."

"It hasn't been easy to hear about your son's life, personal life, being broadcast over the media," said Dee Singleton, 50, Jamey's mother. "It has been a very trying time to learn some things about your son that you didn't know were going on with him. Of course, there was shock. My main concern is Jamey. He lost his job over something that wasn't his choice. I have no doubt Jamey will be back on TV somewhere and at some point. His optimism has kept me going."

Until he finds a new job, Singleton has filed for unemployment and taken on a roommate. He had loans readjusted and he hopes a small TV station will pick him up. "My hope is there are always risk takers in TV," he said before noting he would consider a public relations job or creating weather-related graphics.

Sending out an S.O.S.

Brining, the Vinton student, said she is boycotting WSLS for firing Singleton. "I was very upset," she said. "We were like, 'He's the only reason we watched the news.' "

She isn't alone in supporting Singleton, as evident in the pages of responses on WSLS's message board.

As for the parade tonight, Dana Nuccio of the Dalmatian Rescue said he's looking forward to sharing the spotlight with Singleton. The rescue had asked Singleton to be on the float before he was let go.

"After the WSLS incident we decided we definitely wanted him on the float," said Nuccio, a 39-year-old area businessman who volunteers with the rescue. "He's one of our favorite personalities. We wanted everyone to know he's still supported, and everyone likes him."

A petition to get Singleton his job back has been floating around MySpace. The Save Our Singleton (S.O.S.) campaign now has more than 500 names, and its 26-year-old creator, Roanoker T.J. Jessee, would like to have 1,000 signatures by Sunday. To continue the support, Jessee asked a friend, singer-songwriter Chris Shepard, to pen a new song about Singleton. It's called "Save Singleton" and can be found on Shepard's MySpace page.

Shepard hasn't met Singleton but wrote the song in a night, based on newspaper clippings. "He seems like a nice enough guy," Shepard, 37, said. "And the way everything went down is ridiculous. His story is not his fault. I think it's silly, really. I don't think he's milking anything. I don't think he'd turn his back on the people who support him."

Jessee said Singleton got a raw deal. "I've been a fan of Jamey Singleton and the weather," said Jessee, who stars in "TJTV," a show on Cox Cable Channel 78. "I don't know him. I thought he was an entertaining weatherman. When Marc Lamarre got fired, he kind of brought it on himself. When Jamey got fired, I thought he got the short end of the stick. From what I saw in the media, Jamey sought help and tried to turn his life around."

Recently, Jessee said he received an e-mail from someone claiming to work at WSLS, warning him to drop his campaign to get Singleton's job back. He posted the note on his MySpace page.

Being himself

Looking back at Singleton's career, it's clear he's comfortable in the spotlight. On Valentine's Day 2005, for example, he showered his female co-workers and friends with candy, roses and Victoria's Secret gift certificates -- and got news coverage for it.

At the time, he told a Roanoke Times reporter: "I'm just a hopeless flirt, I really am, ever since I was a little boy."

Walking the streets of Vinton at last week's parade, the same jubilant Singleton surfaced.

He hammed it up for the crowd and his student admirers. He sang "Ice, Ice Baby" with the choir and danced.

He shook hands and wished the crowd a merry Christmas. He did everything short of kissing babies.

"In this parade, I just got to be me," Singleton said. "I think this will get me through this. I hope so, anyway."