In the 70s, he was the key factor in Chicago's WLS being the leader in the "happy talk" genre of local news where he combined slapstick with the forecast, and when ABC put him on "Good Morning America" daily, the "Today" show, where weather was what Frank Blair read at the end of the newscasts, was forced to bring up from Washington original Ronald McDonald Willard Scott and his birthday wishes to centenarians--Mr. Coleman later founded the Weather Channel, but was forced out rather early in the game by owner Landmark Communications--he spent his last years doing weather for San Diego indie and appearing on Fox News and other right-wing outlets calling global warming a "hoax":
http://www.robertfeder.com/2018/01/21/meteorologist-john-coleman-1934-2018/?utm_source=new%20post%20alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=main%20content&utm_campaign=%2F2018%2F01%2F21%2Fmeteorologist-john-coleman-1934-2018%2F Mr. Coleman was very much a product of his time, where people associated TV weather reporters with the large-breasted weather girls mispronouncing town names and weather terms and the fact that the same guy doing weather at night was also dressed as a clown introducing cartoons in the afternoon. It was also a time when more people trusted TV news than they do today. If Mr. Coleman tried to do his act today, where the only reason many people watch local news is for the weather report, he would not be welcome. All the proof you need in the city where he became famous is that Chicago's top weatherman is WGN's Tom Skilling, the geekiest of weather geeks. (It also helps that the computer models have made forecasting a lot more dependable, so that the instance of "two feet of sunshine" is a rare event.) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
