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John Coleman (meteorologist)
Encyclopedia
John Coleman is an American TV weatherman noted, along with entrepreneur Frank Batten
, for founding The Weather Channel
. He presently works as an on-camera weather caster at KUSI-TV
in San Diego but is no longer affiliated with The Weather Channel.
, doing the early evening weather cast 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
.
At WLS, Coleman was teamed with Fahey Flynn
, Joel Daly
and Bill Frink to form the Eyewitness News team, creating a news brand name and establishing a highly successful new local news format derisively dubbed "happy talk" by a local television columnist. This style of local news has been widely copied. The team dominated Chicago television news ratings for more than a decade. During his time at Chicago's WLS-TV
, Coleman was one of Chicago's most popular weathercasters, famous for his amusing and irreverent style. It was then that 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 leaving 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."
"a fictional, manufactured crisis, and a total scam.". In 2008, Coleman gave a speech of the same tone, before the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, blaming the "global warming scam" and environmentalist
lobby, for rising gas and food prices. He also declared the scam "a threat to our economy and our civilization."
Coleman has also made appearances on CNN
, Fox News Channel
and on the Showtime program, Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, to share his global warming views. Coleman recently published an article entitled "The Amazing Story Behind the Global Warming Scam" in which he promotes the idea that many scientists and politicians have been embroiled in fraudulent activity based on incomplete science and a political motive for a world government. Coleman says the genesis of the global warming movement was the claims of scientist Roger Revelle
, an early mentor of Al Gore.
In January, 2010, Coleman produced a special report for KUSI-TV, entitled Global Warming: The Other Side, in which he forwards his view on Global Warming as a scam—and lays out what he believes to be evidence of a deliberate manipulation of world temperature data by NASA and others.
, 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 suburb of Rancho Bernardo.
Frank Batten
Frank Batten was the founder of the first nationwide, 24-hour cable weather channel, The Weather Channel...
, for founding The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel is a US cable and satellite television network since May 2, 1982, that broadcasts weather forecasts and weather-related news, along with entertainment programming related to weather 24 hours a day...
. He presently works as an on-camera weather caster at KUSI-TV
KUSI-TV
KUSI-TV, virtual channel 51.1, is an independent television station based in San Diego, California. The station is owned and operated by Channel 51 of San Diego, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of McKinnon Broadcasting...
in San Diego but is no longer affiliated with The Weather Channel.
Professional career
Coleman started his career at WCIA in Champaign, IllinoisChampaign, Illinois
Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...
, doing the early evening weather cast 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
WMBD-TV
WMBD-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Central Illinois licensed to Peoria. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 30 from a transmitter on Pinecrest Drive in Groveland Township's East Peoria section. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 7 and in...
in Peoria
Peoria, Illinois
Peoria is the largest city on the Illinois River and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, in the United States. It is named after the Peoria tribe. As of the 2010 census, the city was the seventh-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 115,007, and is the third-most populated...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. Coleman was also a weather anchor for KETV
KETV
KETV, digital channel 20 , is the ABC affiliate television station in Omaha, Nebraska and is owned by Hearst Television...
in Omaha
Omaha
Omaha may refer to:*Omaha , a Native American tribe that currently resides in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Nebraska-Places:United States* Omaha, Nebraska* Omaha, Arkansas* Omaha, Georgia* Omaha, Illinois* Omaha, Texas...
, WISN-TV
WISN-TV
WISN-TV, virtual channel 12.1 , is a television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin serving as an affiliate of the ABC television network. Its signal covers most of southeastern Wisconsin and parts of northeastern Illinois, including Racine, Kenosha, Sheboygan and Waukesha...
in Milwaukee and then WBBM-TV
WBBM-TV
WBBM-TV, virtual channel 2 , is the CBS owned-and-operated television station in Chicago, Illinois. WBBM-TV's main studios and offices are located in The Loop section of Chicago, as part of the development at Block 37, and its transmitter is atop the Willis Tower.-History:WBBM-TV traces its history...
and WLS-TV
WLS-TV
WLS-TV, virtual channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The station operates their full power digital operations on UHF channel 44, with their digital fill-in translator on VHF channel...
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
At WLS, Coleman was teamed with Fahey Flynn
Fahey Flynn
Fahey Flynn was a radio and television newscaster who spent the majority of his career in Chicago...
, Joel Daly
Joel Daly
Joel T. Daly is an American former news presenter. He served as an anchor for Chicago's WLS-TV from 1967 to 2005.- News career :...
and Bill Frink to form the Eyewitness News team, creating a news brand name and establishing a highly successful new local news format derisively dubbed "happy talk" by a local television columnist. This style of local news has been widely copied. The team dominated Chicago television news ratings for more than a decade. During his time at Chicago's WLS-TV
WLS-TV
WLS-TV, virtual channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The station operates their full power digital operations on UHF channel 44, with their digital fill-in translator on VHF channel...
, Coleman was one of Chicago's most popular weathercasters, famous for his amusing and irreverent style. It was then that Coleman became the original weathercaster on what was then the brand-new ABC network morning program, Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
. He stayed seven years with this top-rated program anchored by David Hartman
David Hartman (TV personality)
David Downs Hartman is an American journalist and media host who began his media career as an actor. He currently anchors and hosts documentary programs on cable TV's History and on PBS. Hartman is best known as the first host of ABC's Good Morning America, from 1975 to 1987. As an actor, he...
and Joan Lunden
Joan Lunden
Joan Lunden is an American journalist, author and television host. She was the co-host of ABC's Good Morning America from 1980 through 1997 and is the author of 8 books...
.
In 1981, he persuaded communications entrepreneur Frank Batten
Frank Batten
Frank Batten was the founder of the first nationwide, 24-hour cable weather channel, The Weather Channel...
to help establish The Weather Channel, serving as TWC's CEO and President during the start-up and its first year of operation. After leaving TWC, Coleman became weather anchor at WCBS-TV
WCBS-TV
WCBS-TV, channel 2, is the flagship station of the CBS television network, located in New York City. The station's studios are located within the CBS Broadcast Center and its transmitter is atop the Empire State Building, both in Midtown Manhattan....
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and then at WMAQ-TV
WMAQ-TV
WMAQ-TV, channel 5, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, located in Chicago, Illinois. WMAQ-TV's main studios and offices are located within the NBC Tower in the Streeterville neighborhood, with an auxiliary street-level studio on the Magnificent Mile at 401...
in Chicago, before moving to Southern California to join the independent television station, KUSI-TV
KUSI-TV
KUSI-TV, virtual channel 51.1, is an independent television station based in San Diego, California. The station is owned and operated by Channel 51 of San Diego, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of McKinnon Broadcasting...
in San Diego, in what Coleman fondly calls, "his retirement job."
Views on global warming
In the fall of 2007, he described the current concern over global warmingGlobal warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
"a fictional, manufactured crisis, and a total scam.". In 2008, Coleman gave a speech of the same tone, before the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, blaming the "global warming scam" and environmentalist
Environmentalist
An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...
lobby, for rising gas and food prices. He also declared the scam "a threat to our economy and our civilization."
Coleman has also made appearances on CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
and on the Showtime program, Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, to share his global warming views. Coleman recently published an article entitled "The Amazing Story Behind the Global Warming Scam" in which he promotes the idea that many scientists and politicians have been embroiled in fraudulent activity based on incomplete science and a political motive for a world government. Coleman says the genesis of the global warming movement was the claims of scientist Roger Revelle
Roger Revelle
Roger Randall Dougan Revelle was a scientist and scholar who was instrumental in the formative years of the University of California, San Diego and was one of the first scientists to study global warming and the movement of Earth's tectonic plates...
, an early mentor of Al Gore.
In January, 2010, Coleman produced a special report for KUSI-TV, entitled Global Warming: The Other Side, in which he forwards his view on Global Warming as a scam—and lays out what he believes to be evidence of a deliberate manipulation of world temperature data by NASA and others.
Personal life
Coleman was born in 1934 in AlpineAlpine, Texas
Alpine is a city in and the county seat of Brewster County, Texas, United States. The population was 5,786 people at the 2000 census, and had increased to 5,905 by 2010.-History:...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, 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 suburb of Rancho Bernardo.