US Advertising reference...
As a service to the UK readership, and to explain the attempted joke, the news anchor was refering to a US advertisment for chickens, which goes "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken", which he was trying to say as "It takes a tough man to give a tough weather forecast" or similar. Hence the follow-on, "keep plucking those chickens" makes a bit more sense if you know the US advertisement.
At least I HOPE that's what he was trying to say...


