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Sunny with a chance of controversy
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| Former weatherman “Sunny” Roseman of Centennial is now a conservative commentator for KLZ radio in Denver. Photo by Courtney Kuhlen | ckuhlen@ccnewspapers.com |
By Peter Jones
Rob “Sunny” Roseman is about to get a few things off his chest. He smiles broadly as he takes his position behind a microphone. A banner behind him reads “The Colorado Conservative.”
If Roseman were the ever-bothered Oliver Hardy, America’s liberals would be his foil, a Stan Laurel about to drop a piano down 300 steps — and right on top of Roseman’s vision of America.
“What a mess we’ve gotten ourselves into now,” the commentator and Centennial resident complains in a tone of annoyed, yet somehow gleeful resignation.
In a span of just over two minutes, Roseman has weighed in — and laid into — everything from tax increases in Oregon to a proposal to build toll lanes on C-470.
“Would someone tell me why the Democrats still think we, the people, are stupid?” Roseman asks.
If KOA’s Mike Rosen is the local Mike Wallace of conservative media personalities, KLZ’s Roseman is the right’s Andy Rooney, lamenting wryly on the daily foibles of Democrats — and sometimes Republicans, like Arizona’s Sen. John McCain.
“He admitted the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law wouldn’t have passed the Supreme Court anyway,” Roseman posits. “... How is it that someone in America who doesn’t support the First Amendment is almost elected president? Wake up, people!”
Roseman moves on to a suggestion by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that Groundhog Day’s Punxsutawney Phil be replaced by a robotic stand-in. He offers this sardonic advice:
“How about we replace PETA with a robot?”
A change in forecast
Roseman was raised in the 1950s and ’60s in the Jewish neighborhoods of Montgomery County in the suburbs of Philadelphia.
“It’s about the only bastion of politically conservative Jewish people on the East Coast,” he said. “This was the first generation that left the big city for the suburbs, saw something different and had a different dream. All my liberal cousins think we’re absolutely nuts.”
Although these days Roseman, 57, is more interested in political firestorms, he spent most of his broadcast career following stormy weather of a far more literal variety.
Years before launching his commentary segment on KLZ-AM last year, Roseman was a staple among local weathermen. By the time the meteorologist officially retired from television in 2008, he had worked for four of the city’s five TV news teams.
“I never felt like I had a job,” Roseman said of his glory days. “I never had to sit around with B.S. meetings and take care of behind-the-scenes paperwork nonsense. I just had to go out and tell a story every day. How much fun is that?”
At his peak, the so-named “Sunny” Roseman was paired on News9 with the much older “Stormy” Rottman, who by the 1970s had become the elder statesman of Denver weathermen.
During a period in the 1970s, Roseman’s Sunday evening broadcasts were earning as high as a 56 share in the Arbitron ratings. That meant more than half of Denver’s TV viewers at a given time were watching Roseman and his colleagues.
Roseman concedes a healthy ego is part of the job description in broadcasting. But he says he took his role as a celebrated weather harbinger in stride. When TV fans inevitably asked him about the “magic” of the chroma key wall, Roseman shrugged his shoulders.
“There’s a green or blue wall. I stand in front of it,” he said. “The camera by some magic in the control room can make that color disappear, and they can put whatever they want on it. In 35 years of TV, I never understood it anymore than that.”
Cool to warming
Part of a local television weatherman’s job is to engage in cute banter with the anchor, but by June 24, 2008, Roseman was prepared to rain on the parade.
That evening, Roseman finally chimed-in on live television with his personal skepticism about what the commentator has since dubbed the “Church of Global Warming.”
It happened as the KWGN broadcast was coming out of a piece on climate change — and the closing, arguably iconic image of a longing polar bear drifting away on a small sheet of ice.
“We were all supposed to cry,” Roseman said. “Then the camera comes to me. At that moment, it hit me that it was time to speak my mind. So on live TV, I went off on global warming. I think they were all shocked.”
Such was the beginning of Roseman’s career as an all-purpose conservative commentator — a career move that came after he was laid-off from the station for unrelated budgetary reasons.
The resulting “Inconvenient Sonny Roseman” segment— titled as parody of former Vice President Al Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary — airs several times daily on KLZ 560, a conservative talk station.
Since October of last year, Roseman has waxed conservative and irreverent on issues ranging from health care to unions. He is sometimes critical of Republicans, especially anti-abortion activists.
Roseman had particularly choice words for Pat Robertson when the outspoken evangelist recently drew connections between legends of devil worship and the recent earthquake in Haiti.
“That’s all we need,” Roseman said. “We’re trying to make an effort to have a revival of the conservative movement and this guy opens his mouth, and with one sentence takes us back 10 years.”
As the conservative movement regroups, Roseman hopes to eventually take his political message nationally — or back to the medium that gave him his break as a nonpartisan weatherman.
“I’ll never run out of things to say,” he said. “That’s impossible. All you have to do is have an IQ over 10 and keep your eyes open. Turn on the TV, radio or Internet on any given day. Some person or organization will have done something worth criticizing.”
If Roseman were the ever-bothered Oliver Hardy, America’s liberals would be his foil, a Stan Laurel about to drop a piano down 300 steps — and right on top of Roseman’s vision of America.
“What a mess we’ve gotten ourselves into now,” the commentator and Centennial resident complains in a tone of annoyed, yet somehow gleeful resignation.
In a span of just over two minutes, Roseman has weighed in — and laid into — everything from tax increases in Oregon to a proposal to build toll lanes on C-470.
“Would someone tell me why the Democrats still think we, the people, are stupid?” Roseman asks.
If KOA’s Mike Rosen is the local Mike Wallace of conservative media personalities, KLZ’s Roseman is the right’s Andy Rooney, lamenting wryly on the daily foibles of Democrats — and sometimes Republicans, like Arizona’s Sen. John McCain.
“He admitted the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law wouldn’t have passed the Supreme Court anyway,” Roseman posits. “... How is it that someone in America who doesn’t support the First Amendment is almost elected president? Wake up, people!”
Roseman moves on to a suggestion by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that Groundhog Day’s Punxsutawney Phil be replaced by a robotic stand-in. He offers this sardonic advice:
“How about we replace PETA with a robot?”
A change in forecast
Roseman was raised in the 1950s and ’60s in the Jewish neighborhoods of Montgomery County in the suburbs of Philadelphia.
“It’s about the only bastion of politically conservative Jewish people on the East Coast,” he said. “This was the first generation that left the big city for the suburbs, saw something different and had a different dream. All my liberal cousins think we’re absolutely nuts.”
Although these days Roseman, 57, is more interested in political firestorms, he spent most of his broadcast career following stormy weather of a far more literal variety.
Years before launching his commentary segment on KLZ-AM last year, Roseman was a staple among local weathermen. By the time the meteorologist officially retired from television in 2008, he had worked for four of the city’s five TV news teams.
“I never felt like I had a job,” Roseman said of his glory days. “I never had to sit around with B.S. meetings and take care of behind-the-scenes paperwork nonsense. I just had to go out and tell a story every day. How much fun is that?”
At his peak, the so-named “Sunny” Roseman was paired on News9 with the much older “Stormy” Rottman, who by the 1970s had become the elder statesman of Denver weathermen.
During a period in the 1970s, Roseman’s Sunday evening broadcasts were earning as high as a 56 share in the Arbitron ratings. That meant more than half of Denver’s TV viewers at a given time were watching Roseman and his colleagues.
Roseman concedes a healthy ego is part of the job description in broadcasting. But he says he took his role as a celebrated weather harbinger in stride. When TV fans inevitably asked him about the “magic” of the chroma key wall, Roseman shrugged his shoulders.
“There’s a green or blue wall. I stand in front of it,” he said. “The camera by some magic in the control room can make that color disappear, and they can put whatever they want on it. In 35 years of TV, I never understood it anymore than that.”
Cool to warming
Part of a local television weatherman’s job is to engage in cute banter with the anchor, but by June 24, 2008, Roseman was prepared to rain on the parade.
That evening, Roseman finally chimed-in on live television with his personal skepticism about what the commentator has since dubbed the “Church of Global Warming.”
It happened as the KWGN broadcast was coming out of a piece on climate change — and the closing, arguably iconic image of a longing polar bear drifting away on a small sheet of ice.
“We were all supposed to cry,” Roseman said. “Then the camera comes to me. At that moment, it hit me that it was time to speak my mind. So on live TV, I went off on global warming. I think they were all shocked.”
Such was the beginning of Roseman’s career as an all-purpose conservative commentator — a career move that came after he was laid-off from the station for unrelated budgetary reasons.
The resulting “Inconvenient Sonny Roseman” segment— titled as parody of former Vice President Al Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary — airs several times daily on KLZ 560, a conservative talk station.
Since October of last year, Roseman has waxed conservative and irreverent on issues ranging from health care to unions. He is sometimes critical of Republicans, especially anti-abortion activists.
Roseman had particularly choice words for Pat Robertson when the outspoken evangelist recently drew connections between legends of devil worship and the recent earthquake in Haiti.
“That’s all we need,” Roseman said. “We’re trying to make an effort to have a revival of the conservative movement and this guy opens his mouth, and with one sentence takes us back 10 years.”
As the conservative movement regroups, Roseman hopes to eventually take his political message nationally — or back to the medium that gave him his break as a nonpartisan weatherman.
“I’ll never run out of things to say,” he said. “That’s impossible. All you have to do is have an IQ over 10 and keep your eyes open. Turn on the TV, radio or Internet on any given day. Some person or organization will have done something worth criticizing.”
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