![]() I do remember him starting to use the Chromakey he had a lot of fun with it, as I recall, but the memories are vague. If it was after September of 1973, I would have missed it my family left Chicagoland for Maryland then. I’m using the news sounder from those broadcasts as my ringtone… I always got the network news from the “American Contemporary Radio” team on WLS, guys like Don Gardner, Dick Chapman, Alex Dreier in Chicago etc. Do you remember when Frank Reynolds was a local newsman in Chicago on channel 7? It was before the Eyewitness News days. I think, if we watched, it was Walter Cronkite. Amazing how calmly they could tell you “okay, time to get in the southeast corner of your basement, or in an interior room away from windows.” Now I think they get a little too excited about their technology and how well they can show you how many lightning strikes have taken place. Weather people were always sort of the goofy member of the news team (with a possible exception being Harry Volkman), but you didn’t want them messing around when the weather was bad, and they never did. Remember when channel 7 moved their antenna from the top of Marina City to the top of the Hancock (maybe the Sears Tower), and he was in the commercials dancing on the roof (supposedly I’m sure it was a Chromakey thing where he was in the studio dancing around in front of a green screen) singing “You can see clearly now, the shadow’s gone…” From what I gather, he was the first weatherman to use the Chromakey. He and his wife moved to Sun City shortly thereafter, and he passed away this past Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada. He then worked at WCBS-TV in New York and WMAQ-TV in Chicago until 1994, when he went to work at KUSI-TV in San Diego until 2014. In 1982, he started The Weather Channel and acted as the station’s CEO until he was forced out a year later. (eBay item photo front photo back), via Wikimedia CommonsĬoleman went national in 1975 as the weatherman on ABC’s Good Morning America, a job he held until 1982. L-R: John Coleman, John Drury, Fahey Flynn, Joel Daly, Bill Frink. A year later both Fahey Flynn and John Coleman were part of The Eyewitness News Team over at WLS-TV, with Flynn as co-anchor and Coleman the on-air weatherman. retired in 1968 and the station bypassed Coleman for another John, John Coughlin. ![]() One of P.J.’s assistants in those days was a guy named John Coleman. ![]() ![]() Ad for the WBBM 10:00 PM News, with Fahey Flynn (left) and P.J. When I was a kid growing up in Chicago, as I’ve mentioned countless times before, I got interested in the weather and the whole business of weather forecasting (or, of you will, prediction) from a weather forecaster named PJ Hoff. ![]()
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