John Coleman (news weathercaster)

For other uses, see John Coleman (disambiguation).

John Coleman
John Coleman, KUSI News Weathercaster
Born	John Coleman (1934-10-15) October 15, 1934 Alpine, Texas
Status	Married
Occupation	Weatherman
Spouse(s)	Linda Coleman

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

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.

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.

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, 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." Coleman abruptly left KUSI while on vacation in April 2014, with no on-air farewell.

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.

He has called climate change the "greatest scam in history". He claimed "The polar ice is increasing, not melting away. Polar Bears are increasing in number."

Critics of Coleman have questioned his lack of academic credentials, and note that he has not conducted actual research in the area of climate change.

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, and lives in a retirement community in the San Diego neighborhood of Rancho Bernardo.

Awards

• 1983 - Broadcast Meteorologist of the Year, American Meteorological Society.

External links

• John Coleman at the Internet Movie Database
• Coleman's Corner at KUSI at the Wayback Machine (archived February 9, 2014)

• http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2010/01/a_new_nasa_temperature_analysi.html
• http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/apr/10/john-coleman-weatherman-retires/