Fritz Coleman: Weather & Comedy Blend

Cohost (with Louise Palanker), “Media Path Podcast”

This week on Ira's Everything Bagel Podcast, host Ira Sternberg sits down with Fritz Coleman, the esteemed co-host (alongside Louise Palanker) of the “Media Path Podcast.” In this weathered episode, Fritz shares his remarkable journey from being "discovered" at the Comedy Store to becoming a beloved weather reporter for Channel 4 in Los Angeles, a position he held for over 40 years. Fritz delves into his dual careers in comedy and broadcasting, his seamless transition into podcasting, and his dedication to both his professional and personal life.

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The Comedy Store Discovery: Fritz Coleman’s Big Break

Fritz Coleman’s journey to becoming a renowned weather reporter began unexpectedly at the Comedy Store. Known for his sharp wit and engaging stage presence, Fritz was “discovered” while performing stand-up comedy. This pivotal moment led to an opportunity with Channel 4 in Los Angeles, where he would become a fixture in households for decades. Fritz's ability to blend humor with his weather reports made him a standout figure in broadcasting

A Storied Career at NBC4 LA

Weather Reporting with a Twist

For 39 years, Fritz Coleman served as the weekday weathercaster at NBC4 LA. His unique approach to weather reporting, characterized by humor and relatability, endeared him to viewers. Fritz’s presence on screen was not just informative but also entertaining, setting him apart in the world of broadcast journalism.

Memorable Appearances and Collaborations

Throughout his career, Fritz made eight appearances on the “Tonight Show” with Jay Leno and Johnny Carson. These guest spots showcased his versatility and charm, further solidifying his reputation as a talented comedian and broadcaster. Additionally, Fritz opened for showbiz icons such as Ray Charles and Debby Reynolds, highlighting his ability to captivate diverse audiences.

Comedy Specials and Awards

Fritz Coleman’s contributions to comedy and broadcasting earned him several accolades. He wrote and performed four one-person shows and produced multiple comedy specials on NBC Los Angeles. His work in television earned him five local Emmy Awards, a testament to his skill and dedication. Fritz's comedy specials were not only popular but also critically acclaimed, reflecting his mastery of the craft.

Transition to Podcasting: The Media Path Podcast

Joining Forces with Louise Palanker

After retiring from NBC in 2020, Fritz Coleman teamed up with Louise Palanker to co-host the “Media Path Podcast.” This podcast offers a retrospective look at media over the past half-century, exploring how various forms of media have shaped our world. The collaboration with Palanker has allowed Fritz to continue sharing his insights and engaging with audiences in a new format.

Selecting Guests and Favorite Topics

In his discussion with Ira, Fritz Coleman explains the process of selecting guests for the “Media Path Podcast.” The podcast features a diverse range of guests, from media legends to contemporary influencers, each bringing unique perspectives to the show. Fritz shares his favorite topics, which often revolve around pivotal moments in media history and personal anecdotes from his illustrious career.

Balancing Podcasting and Family Life

With more time on his hands post-retirement, Fritz Coleman enjoys balancing his podcasting endeavors with family life. He expresses gratitude for the opportunity to devote more time to his loved ones while continuing to pursue his passion for media and comedy. This balance has allowed Fritz to remain active and engaged in his professional pursuits without compromising his personal well-being.

Engaging with Fritz Coleman

For those interested in following Fritz Coleman’s journey and his work on the “Media Path Podcast,” there are several platforms to stay connected. Follow Fritz Coleman on Twitter and Instagram for updates and behind-the-scenes content. Additionally, you can visit the Media Path Podcast website and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Personal Background and Achievements

Life Beyond the Screen

Fritz Coleman’s life extends beyond his professional achievements. He is a devoted family man who cherishes the time spent with his wife and children. Fritz’s ability to balance a demanding career with family responsibilities speaks to his dedication and resilience. His personal experiences often find their way into his work, adding depth and authenticity to his storytelling.

Impact and Legacy in Broadcasting and Comedy

Fritz Coleman’s impact on broadcasting and comedy is profound. As a pioneer who seamlessly blended humor with weather reporting, he paved the way for future generations of broadcasters. His legacy is marked by a commitment to excellence, a passion for storytelling, and a genuine connection with his audience. Fritz’s influence continues to inspire aspiring comedians and broadcasters alike.

Fritz Coleman Podcast Episode Conclusion

This episode of Ira's Everything Bagel Podcast offers an intimate look at the life and career of Fritz Coleman, from his early days at the Comedy Store to his tenure at NBC4 LA and his current role as co-host of the “Media Path Podcast.” Fritz’s journey is marked by perseverance, talent, and a love for media and comedy. Tune in to hear Fritz Coleman share his experiences, the evolution of his career, and his insights into the world of media.

For more engaging and insightful conversations, don’t forget to subscribe to Ira's Everything Bagel Podcast. Stay connected with Fritz Coleman and explore his work through the links provided.

🔗 Useful Links:

Visit the Fritz Coleman Comedy website for more information on his comedy specials and upcoming shows.
Check out the Media Path Podcast website for episodes and guest details.
Follow Fritz Coleman on Twitter for the latest updates.
Stay connected with Fritz on Instagram for behind-the-scenes content.
Like the Media Path Podcast Facebook page for episode releases and news.
Subscribe to the Media Path Podcast on YouTube for video content.
Listen to the Media Path Podcast on Apple Podcasts.
Stream the podcast on Spotify.

FAQs About Fritz Coleman

Was Colleen Williams married to Fritz Coleman?

No, Colleen Williams and Fritz Coleman were never married. They are both well-known figures in the Los Angeles television news scene, but there is no record of them being married to each other.

How old is Fritz Coleman?

Fritz Coleman was born on May 27, 1948. As of 2024, he is 76 years old.

Is Fritz Coleman married?

Yes, Fritz Coleman is married. He has kept much of his personal life private, but he has been known to mention his wife in interviews and public appearances.

How tall is Fritz Coleman?

Fritz Coleman is approximately 6 feet 3 inches tall (191 cm).

Where does Fritz Coleman live?

Fritz Coleman resides in Southern California. He has lived in the Los Angeles area for many years due to his long career with NBC4, although specific details of his current residence are not publicly disclosed.

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Fritz Coleman Podcast Epsiode Full Transcript
Ira Sternberg: Welcome to Ira's Everything Bagel, where I talk with intriguing people about everything: their passions, pursuits, and points of view. Whether I’m right or whether I’m wrong, my next guest’s background has always been the weather. For nearly four decades, Los Angeles came to know Fritz Coleman through his work as the weather reporter on KNBC. When he retired from his weather gig two or three years ago, Fritz knew he wasn’t done working. And I quote him as he put it, "That 11 o’clock news kept me from a lot of things. Now I can do all those things that massage my soul, be curious, and discover more." All of Fritz’s passion now is in the Media Path Podcast, which he co-hosts with Louise Palanker, a veteran radio producer and documentarian. With 150 episodes released so far, Media Path Podcast is a look back at what has defined our media for the past half-century. It’s a journey down a new path of remembering and reevaluating our shared memories and histories. To watch or listen, go to mediapathpodcast.com, as well as YouTube, Apple, and Spotify. Fritz, welcome to the show.
Fritz Coleman: Ira, I’m happy to be here, but I’m really here for the donuts and the bagels.
Ira: I have to ask you the most important question, which is, how did you go from comedy to weather? Because that’s your background as well, which I didn’t mention. But how did you get from comedy to weather?
Fritz: Real meteorologists hate this explanation, but it’s at least a thousand percent true. I came out to California in 1980 to pursue a career as a stand-up comic. While I was working at The Comedy Store, I was a regular performer there. My friend who worked at NBC brought his boss and his boss’s wife—this was the news director and the news director’s wife—to see me perform one night. When I was on stage, I told some stories about doing the weather in the Navy. I worked for Armed Forces Radio and Television in the Navy, and they forced me to do the weather against my will. I didn’t know anything about weather, and I had a couple of anecdotes about that. When my show was over, my friend brought his boss to meet me, and the man said, "I loved your stories about doing the weather against your will. Do you have any desire to come to Channel 4 in Los Angeles and do some vacation relief weather casting for me? I have a main weatherman that hasn’t had a vacation in a year, and I need some help on weekends. Would you be interested in coming and being a utility player?" I almost passed out. I was making $25 a night at The Comedy Store, and I said, "Oh my God, when do you want me to start, and may I please carry your wife to the car for you?" So, I had to audition, I got the job, and I did the utility position for two years. Then, when the main weatherman—the predecessor to the main weather job—left to go to CBS, I was bumped up to the main job and retired just a couple of weeks shy of my 40th anniversary at NBC.
Ira: Amazing.
Fritz: I always say it’s the greatest stroke of show business luck since Lana Turner was discovered at Schwab’s Pharmacy.
Ira: Except you were discovered at The Comedy Store, not Schwab’s.
Fritz: Yes, but real meteorologists hate that story.
Ira: But they’re both on Sunset Boulevard.
Fritz: Yes, they are.
Ira: There’s a parallel universe for you. So, why do real weathermen, as you call them, hate that story?
Fritz: Well, because, listen, I don’t have a degree in meteorology or atmospheric sciences. I could not get the job as a weatherman now. With climate change, the more competitive nature of television news, and so many stations doing news simultaneously, I couldn’t get the job now without a degree in meteorology or atmospheric sciences and having that little AMS seal that you see in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. I couldn’t get hired. The people that have the job now know infinitely more than I do. I was hired as a personality creature. I always said that my job on a newscast was to be the palate cleanser between the tragedy at the top of the show and the sports.
Ira: Because sports can be depressing too if you’re a Rams fan.
Fritz: (Laughs) Right, exactly.
Ira: Well, it’s an amazing career, and now you’ve got this whole other thing going on. When did you get together with Louise to figure out this podcast and what it’s about?
Fritz: Louise has been my friend for 30 or 35 years. She produced two of my one-person shows, and we’ve always been a couple of people that saw eye to eye on most forms of entertainment—books, politics, movies, television shows. We always kind of had similar opinions. So then, when I retired and my contract at NBC, which was very restrictive—I couldn’t do outside media with them—when that lapsed, she said, "Why don’t you just come and do a podcast? We’ll make a show that is just a continuation of our regular conversations, and we’ll invite people in to join." I thought that was a fantastic idea. She had experience in the podcasting world. She was one of the founders of Premier Radio Networks, which was ultimately sold to Clear Channel, which was ultimately sold to iHeartRadio. She’s had quite a career, and she’s retired from that now. She then became a documentary filmmaker and did five podcasts. Since their inception, she was tweaking and figuring out how to do it. So when she invited me on, I just had to surf this wave that she had already created, and I’m having a blast. It’s so much fun.
Ira: In other words, you fell into it again—third time around.
Fritz: Yes, exactly.
Ira: That’s excellent. You mentioned earlier, and I want to get back to the podcast, but you mentioned earlier about your one-man shows. Tell us a little bit about that. What did those entail?
Fritz: Well, it was my stand-up background. I did eight appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Gary Shandling, and Joan Rivers. I opened for Ray Charles in concert, I opened for Debbie Reynolds in concert. My background was stand-up, but what I created for myself about 20 years ago is what I’ll call single-topic monologues. My first one was a show called It’s Me, Dad, which was about 90 minutes describing the fun and the frustration and the mystery of being a father. That was the first show that Louise produced. My second show was about divorce, called The Reception, and she produced that one as well. My third show was about the news, called Tonight at 11. My fourth show was my first show about aging, called Defying Gravity. And this new one is sort of a more enhanced and updated version of the aging process called Unassisted Living, and right now, it’s streaming on Tubi, which is a free streaming service. It’s an hour, and it’s a lot of fun. Somebody reviewed it as a hysterical baby boomer support group. That’s my background in comedy. I’ve always done that. Even when I was doing the weather, I was doing shows two or three nights a week at The Improv or The Comedy Store.
Ira: So you just keep rolling along. I get this sense—and we don’t know each other—but I get the sense that you’re very comfortable with yourself regardless of where you are in the age category.
Fritz: I’ll tell you something, and this sounds dramatic—I’ve never been happier in my life than I am right now. I don’t have a job to obsess over—I was a workaholic, no question about it. I get to see my grandchildren. What you mentioned in that comment about the 11 o’clock news—I’ve often said that the 11 o’clock news, and I did it for 40 years, is the greatest speed bump to a social life ever invented. I have three children, two sons at the time, and I sometimes couldn’t put them to bed at night. Sometimes I couldn’t do their homework with them because I had to go back to work, particularly if it was a serious weather day, a storm, or fires, or something like that. So I’m retired now—I get to pay attention to my grandchildren, I get to help my children with their parenting, and I’m sort of making up for lost time, and it’s fantastic. I’ve never been happier.
Ira: Most people would think that 11 o’clock would allow you to have most of the day to be with kids and grandkids and get things done.
Fritz: Well, I actually did the 5, 6, and 11 o’clock news.
Ira: Ah, that’s the difference.
Fritz: And so, that’s a split shift, right? I would start—and because when one forecaster was on duty, they were responsible for all their content—I didn’t have a meteorologist build my maps and everything; I had to do all that myself. So, I’d go to work at about noon, figure out the weather story—like all news reporters, I had to figure out what my story was that day. Then, I’d go online, find the information I needed to present that story—National Weather Service and other services that we had—prepare my presentation, build the maps, do the 5 and 6 o’clock news, and over the last several years, do several internet presentations during the year—social media mini-forecasts. Then I would get off work at 6:30, go home and have dinner, and have to be back at 8:30 or 9 o’clock. Although I only lived about a mile from the station, so it was great, it’s a long day. It’s not roofing, you know, it’s not construction work, but emotionally, it was a long day. That’s what leads me to explain to you that I missed all those times with my kids—some sports games I missed—and so I’m trying to make up for it while I’m still healthy.
Ira: Do you regret the commitment you made 40 years ago at The Comedy Store when they said, "Hey, come on and be the utility guy," and then the next thing you know, you’re there forever? Do you regret that decision?
Fritz: I had pangs of having sold out. Jay Leno said to me, "You’re either a comedian or a weatherman—you can’t be both," which is not true. I ended up being both. But I had a decision to make back when I got to California in 1980. The early 80s—that was the peak of the comedy boom. Every community had as many comedy clubs as they had Starbucks. But if you weren’t somebody with a national reputation, a lot of TV exposure, you couldn’t dictate your terms. I was what was called a feature act. When you would go to a club in a little town, you would have usually three acts—you would have the opening act, which was the MC, usually a local guy that was getting his chops. Then you would have a feature act, which was the middle act—that’s where I was. That was 20 minutes, and you would do 20 minutes a couple of shows a night, sometimes six nights a week, and you’d get paid $500 or $600 and many times have to pay for your own transportation. I had two kids, so the decision was easy for me to take this opportunity because even though I was taking a regular job as a weatherman, I was still performing, as I said, two to three nights a week at the local clubs. So, I didn’t give anything up. As a matter of fact, it enhanced my public exposure and made it easy to get more jobs around town or call attention to myself.
Ira: So somehow you had to figure out how to perform in between the weather gigs—you had to be on stage, or was it on a weekend situation where you didn’t have to do the news?
Fritz: It was perfect. You know, between April and October, the forecast in Southern California is "morning clouds and fog, hazy afternoon sun, high in the low 70s." So, if everything is mellow—if there aren’t fires, if there aren’t El Niño floods—I could go, and my kids got older and had their own things going on, I could go out and do a 20-minute set at The Improv and be back at eight o’clock, because they had three shows a night or two shows a night. So, no, it didn’t—one job enhanced the other. My ability to work in a club and react to people in the audience, hecklers or whatever, gave me a good crust, so there was no problem that could occur on live television that would throw me, because that was nothing. It was never as bad as a drunk yelling profanities at you from the back. So, my performance on TV gave me exposure. My working in the clubs helped me to react to improvise in any situation, so it was a great twofer.
Ira: Now you’re in phase three, which is this podcast, and you and Louise get together—she gets it going, you are right there, you fall into it as you mentioned earlier because she has the background to set it all up. Who decides on the guests? Is it a combination of you and Louise?
Fritz: Yes, well, we have a producer, Dina Friedman. And you know how it is—it’s a slow build in podcasts. There are 150,000 podcasts in America right now, and so what you have to do is, you can’t look at it like the news, where if you have a couple of days with a bad rating, oh my God, you’re in trouble. It’s a slow build. It takes a long time to attract attention to yourself. So, what we do is we go out and see—fortunately, we’re in Southern California, so we have this whole pool of A, B, and C-list stars that are here screaming for attention, so we can call them and ask them to be on our show. We’ve gotten to the point now where publicists trust us with some of their top-line clients. We have authors and singers and people that have newly released television shows or films or LPs to come on. So, we will get pitched clients now, and so the booking is not as hard as it used to be—it’s getting better all the time.
Ira: I mentioned earlier it’s about 150 episodes so far you have in the can. Who are some of the interviewees that you really enjoyed—maybe the three best interviews you’ve had so far?
Fritz: Well, I think Louise would agree with me on this—our favorite guest has been Henry Winkler, who was a friend of both of ours before we even did the podcast. Louise and I co-produced a television pilot with Henry that was purchased by Comedy Central, but in classic show business, the person, the vice president of development for Comedy Central, before our show aired, was fired. So, all of her projects got swept under the rug and we never made it, but it was fun. We were friends, but he is—I love people, and I don’t know if you agree with this—I love people who are talented but who are comfortable in their own skin. They don’t have to be condescending; they can talk to you on your level. They’re interested in you—they don’t want to completely talk about themselves all the time. Henry is the most comfortable, empathetic human being you’ll ever talk to. We’ve had him on two or three times. Anyway, he would be our best.
Ira: Yeah, he comes across that way. I’ve seen him on interviews, and he just seems to be a very nice guy.
Fritz: He really is. He appreciates his success. The great fun with Henry, when we were pitching this show before Comedy Central bought it, was to walk into pitch meetings with him and go to ICM or William Morris and watch people react to him as he walked in the door. The seas parted, and he would take time with every single enthusiast, every single fan. He’d sign autographs, he’d take a selfie—he was never too hurried to not respond to everybody. I just—I really have a lot of respect for him and learned a lot about how to treat your fans from him.
Ira: And it wasn’t even the general public that was in awe of him—it was the people who worked for the agencies.
Fritz: Yeah, exactly.
Ira: That’s quite something. Okay, so we mentioned Henry—how about one or two others that you really enjoyed?
Fritz: I’ve had great guests in various buckets. For politicians, we interviewed Adam Schiff, who is running for Senate in the state of California because he was the congressman from my district. But he is truly—I don’t care what your politics are, I don’t care what side of the political spectrum you’re on—he’s one of the smartest human beings I’ve ever talked to, and it was fascinating. He has such a grip on all the issues—the economics of politics in America, where we are in our political divide, where we are in the state of California and our water issues and everything. Just a great interview, so I would say he was our greatest political interview. For musical guests, I love music, and so we’ve had two guests recently that have blown me away. The band Blood, Sweat & Tears was famous for being one of the first bands, along with Chicago, to use horns in their rhythm section. They had many hits during the 70s and 80s, and there’s a new documentary about a trip that very few people knew about. Richard Nixon commissioned them to be the first American rock and roll band to tour behind the Iron Curtain as kind of a goodwill tour. Bobby Colomby, who was the drummer for Blood, Sweat & Tears, and the producers came, and we had an amazing hour-long conversation about where America was when they had hits, who they got their songs from, touring in Romania and Hungary, and where they were rejected because they were capitalists. It was really fascinating. Again, music is my thing.
Ira: Because we tend to think of Nixon with Elvis, not with Blood, Sweat & Tears.
Fritz: Yeah, well, he took whoever was popular, who he thought would represent the youth of America as kind of a Hands Across The Sea kind of a thing. I’m sure it wasn’t him—I’m sure it was the State Department, some young woman in the State Department who loved the band or something.
Ira: How many buckets do you have, Fritz? You mentioned a political bucket and a music bucket.
Fritz: I’m interested in a lot of things, but I like people who are interesting in a number of buckets. The other bucket that we sort of pick from a lot in Southern California is the bucket of child stars and where are they now because we have so many who have transitioned out of being a child star or a young adult star into adulthood. That’s not always a pleasant experience. As you know, many suffer from addictions and overuse of money and everything. But I’ll give you a great example of a great discovery—Christopher Knight, who was one of the children on The Brady Bunch, came on as a guest, and he turned out to be such an amazing talk because after he got out of show business, and he still does fan stuff with the Bradys all over the United States—I mean, that’s an iconic television show—he is also a computer genius. He’s invented some forms of computer technology, he had his own computer company, he’s called in as a consultant to set up these huge networks for entertainment companies—he’s a brilliant guy. It’s fun to learn something additional about somebody you’re a fan of for a completely different reason. So that was fun.
Ira: You mentioned earlier—and we talked about you being comfortable and particularly happy at the age you’re at now—do you find that a lot of your guests, either after a certain age or before a certain age, are more interesting, or is age not even a factor? Because I find as I interview people over the years, the people who have lived a life are, in a way, much more interesting for a number of reasons than those who are much younger.
Fritz: You just answered your own question—that’s exactly right. If they’ve had some life experience, they’ve had some pain and some success, they’ve had a chance to make some transitions in their life like Christopher Knight, they’re much more interesting. And if they’re comfortable in their own skin, they’re a good storyteller. Here’s the key too, and I think you’ll probably agree with this—if you have an author on or somebody that’s an expert in some area or has a new product, meaning a new book or a new record, they want to talk about—if you do your homework and read that book and study their work and come to the table with some information and you’re not going to ask them the same stupid red carpet questions that every other interviewer asks them, as soon as they realize you’re not going to do that, they trust you, and they open up. Then it’s an intimate, wonderful, far-reaching conversation.
Ira: Totally correct, totally correct. The other thing that I do as a technique is I try to find out something that’s not generally known about the person, either through talking with a friend of theirs, an associate, or just where I find a piece of information that’s not generally known. I’m not obvious with it, but I’ll slip it into the conversation while we’re talking, and that is a signal to them that I know a little bit more.
Fritz: Yes, and in the broad term, you just care about your guest. It’s not a factory; it’s a human connection. I could tell immediately that you’re very good at your job because you did a little deep dive on some facts there, and I respect that.
Ira: And I didn’t even bring up the time you were in jail, you know? (Laughs) That was totally...
Fritz: (Laughs) Well, I appreciate that, although I’ve been expecting that for most of those years.
Ira: Do you ever get into disagreements with Louise in terms of a particular guest? Does it ever get to that point where she wants someone and you say, "You know, I don’t know"?
Fritz: I don’t even call it a disagreement. Our first judgment is what’s good for the show. And as I said before, the reason we’re friends in the first place is we see eye to eye on a lot of what we find interesting. There are guests that she likes that she may be more interested in, but I’ll give you an example. She’s obsessed with reality shows like The Bachelor and some of these competition shows because she gets into it like a chess game—she manipulates all the moves and everything. So, once in a while, she’ll have one of her lady friends on, or one of her co-obsessives. I don’t want to talk about that, and I’ll just ask a stupid question about what they’re wearing or something. But I can be interested in it, but I don’t bring as much information or passion to the table that she does. That’s the only time that’s ever happened. She loves music—she’s a musician herself. She plays drums and guitar. She did that great documentary about the Cowsills, so she and I have very common interests. We very seldom stonewall a guest on one another—it just doesn’t happen.
Ira: Occasionally too, it’s good to step out of your comfort zone. I find that if I can interview someone who’s lived a life, but I’ve also talked to people who are teenagers and in their early 20s, but because of their intelligence and their talent and what they’ve done at an early age, I find it’s also interesting to talk to those kinds of people as well.
Fritz: You’re a thousand percent correct, and that’s another talent that Louise has. Louise doesn’t have any children of her own, but she has mentored thousands of kids. She had stand-up comedy writing and performance classes. She mentored children. One of her first podcasts was about having a panel of five or eight young people—teenagers—online, and they would take questions from the audience, and she just sort of oversaw that. She has great insight into positive parenting and positive child-rearing. So, I agree with you, and they often have—because the world hasn’t crushed them like it has adults—they’re freer with their opinions, and a lot of things are more hopeful. So, it’s interesting to talk to them.
Ira: Do you anticipate, in addition to this podcast and some of your stand-up work, doing other things in the near to late future? Meaning, writing a book, writing a play, etc.? I know you want to spend more time with the family as well as you’re doing now, but is there something else you see creatively you’d like to do?
Fritz: I would just like to continue doing the stand-up, you know, unencumbered by my job, and I want to write as long as people will listen to me. I love the creative process—fifty percent of the joy of doing the stand-up for me is the writing process. It’s the discipline of every day forcing myself to sit in front of a blank page and give it a shot. I love doing it, and as long as people will come to see me, I’ll continue to do it. I’m on the board of three non-profit organizations. Throughout my whole entertainment career, community outreach has always been very important to me. I love to give back because I’ve been so very fortunate in my career, and it’s always been a family thing—my mom and dad were very active in the community. So, I would like to stay healthy and continue what I’m doing.
Ira: Well, that’s a great way to leave it. My guest has been Fritz Coleman. He co-hosts the Media Path Podcast with Louise Palanker, veteran radio producer and documentarian. With 150 episodes released so far, Media Path Podcast is a look back at what has defined our media for the past half-century. To watch or listen, go to mediapathpodcast.com, and you can also catch it on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify. Fritz, thanks for being on the show.
Fritz: It’s great to talk with you, Ira. You’re really good at your job—keep up the good work.
Ira: Thank you, appreciate it. And join us every Thursday for a new schmear on Ira’s Everything Bagel.

Noshing With Fritz Coleman – July 13, 2023

The Comedy Store Discovery: Fritz Coleman’s Big Break