John Coleman (news weathercaster)

John Coleman

John Coleman, KUSI News Weathercaster and meteorologist
Born John Coleman
(1934-10-15) October 15, 1934
Alpine, Texas
Status Retired
Occupation Journalist / Television News Anchor
Spouse(s) Linda Coleman

John Coleman (born October 15, 1934) is an American TV weatherman and founder of The Weather Channel.[1][2] He has retired from broadcasting after nearly 61 years, working the last twenty at KUSI-TV in San Diego.[2][3]

Professional career

Coleman started his career in 1953 at WCIA in Champaign, Illinois, doing the early evening weather forecast and a local bandstand show called At The Hop while he was a student at University of Illinois. After receiving his journalism degree in 1957, he became the weather anchor for WCIA's sister station WMBD-TV in Peoria, Illinois. Coleman was also a weather anchor for KETV in Omaha, WISN-TV in Milwaukee and then WBBM-TV and WLS-TV in Chicago.[1][4]

In 1972, Coleman and his craftsmen stage crew at WLS-TV created the first Chroma key weather map ever in use.

Eyewitness News team, 1972. Back, from left: anchor John Drury, anchor Joel Daly. Front, from left: weatherman John Coleman, anchor Fahey Flynn, sportscaster Bill Frink.

Coleman became the original weathercaster on what was then the brand-new ABC network morning program, Good Morning America. He stayed seven years with this top-rated program anchored by David Hartman and Joan Lunden.[1]

In 1981, he persuaded communications entrepreneur Frank Batten to help establish The Weather Channel, serving as TWC's CEO and President during the start-up and its first year of operation. After being forced out of TWC,[5] Coleman became weather anchor at WCBS-TV in New York and then at WMAQ-TV in Chicago, before moving to Southern California to join the independent television station, KUSI-TV in San Diego, in what Coleman fondly calls "his retirement job."[1] Coleman abruptly left KUSI while on vacation in April 2014, with no on-air farewell.[3]

Coleman obtained Professional membership status in the American Meteorological Society and was named AMS Broadcast Meteorologist of the Year in 1983[6]. After ten years of attending AMS National Meetings and studying the papers published in the organization's journal, Coleman claimed the AMS was driven by political, not scientific, agendas and dropped out of the AMS.[1]

Views on global warming

Coleman says he became an "outspoken skeptic" of global warming in 2007 after watching NBC's 'Green is Universal' week, where the studio lights were cut for portions of Sunday Night Football's pre-game and half-time shows.[7] He has called climate change the "greatest scam in history," and has claimed that "the polar ice is increasing, not melting away. Polar bears are increasing in number."[8][9] Critics of Coleman have pointed out that each of these claims is wrong or misleading,[10] questioned his lack of academic credentials, and note that he has not conducted any scientific research in the area of climate change.[11]

Personal life

Coleman was born in 1934 in Alpine, Texas, the fifth child of a college professor and his math teacher wife, Claude and Hazel Coleman. He is married to Linda Coleman. In May 2016 the Colemans moved to the Summerlin Community of Las Vegas. Coleman continues to maintain an essay and video links on his website, several videos on YouTube and makes Television and Radio appearances as a global warming skeptic. He also does some PowerPoint talks for organizations but mostly he and Linda are enjoying a relaxing retirement life.[1]

Awards

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "John Coleman". KUSI-TV. Archived from the original on April 4, 2014. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Weather Channel Founder: Global Warming a 'Scam'". WAGT. Archived from the original on August 10, 2007. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
  3. 1 2 Peterson, Jay Posner, Karla. "Forecast for John Coleman: Retirement". utsandiego.com.
  4. ↑ "Speaker: John Coleman, Weathercaster on KUSI TV in San Diego". APWA San Diego/Imperial Chapter. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
  5. ↑ "John Coleman". KUSI. Archived from the original on March 2, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Search Past Award Winners - American Meteorological Society". www.ametsoc.org.
  7. ↑ Homans, Charles (January 7, 2010). "Hot Air". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
  8. ↑ Taylor, Jason. "'Global warming the greatest scam in history' claims founder of Weather Channel". Express News. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  9. ↑ "Weather Channel boss calls global warming 'the greatest scam in history'". The Daily Telegraph. November 9, 2007. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Weather Channel co-founder John Coleman prefers conspiracies to climate science". The Guardian. November 2, 2014. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Why does anyone pay attention to John Coleman, Weather Channel co-founder, on climate change?". Washington Post. November 3, 2014.
  12. ↑ "AMS Awards". American Meteorological Society. Archived from the original on March 27, 2012. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
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