Fritz Coleman said that the irony about retirement is that he is now busier than when he was working as the weatherman for NBC4.
He has two grandchildren who he sees a lot, the San Fernando Valley resident said, and he is on the boards of three nonprofits. And then there is his weekly podcast.
“It’s called Media Path, and I do it with my friend Louise Palanker – Weezy – who I have known for 40 years,” Coleman said.
The hour-long podcast is free on Thursday on YouTube, Apple podcasts and Deezer, as well as at the MediaPath.com website. Each show starts off with Coleman and Palanker giving recommendations.
“I don’t review them. I just say this is what is cool to watch and then Louise says something, and we talk about it and it’s a lot of fun,” Coleman said.
That segment is then followed by an interview with a guest. It could be anyone from Congressman Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) to actor Henry Winkler to political writer Ira Shapiro.
“The guest can have something to do with what we are talking about or not,” Coleman said. “We have the benefit of being in L.A. and the whole series of people everyone will know from old TV shows to new ones, to actors, authors.”
While the podcast has been on for more than 100 episodes, one thing that it hasn’t done yet is make any money for its hosts.
When the show reaches a certain number of listeners, then it gets put into a consortium where advertisers will hawk their wares or services on all the podcasts in that group, Coleman explained.
“It is a product of numbers,” he added. “We have been on the air for more than 100 episodes, and we are getting more listeners every week and hopefully we will get to a point where we can monetize it.”
But with something like 150,000 podcasts available in the United States alone, he and Palanker cannot become obsessed over whether Media Path will make money.
“You just have to do it for the joy (of it) and make it better and hopefully one day you’ll rise to the level of sponsorship,” Coleman said.
If there is a target demographic that he and Palanker, who is a writer, producer, director, comedian and filmmaker, among other things, are going after it is baby boomers. That would explain why they had as guests Gary Puckett of the 1960s group The Union Gap, and Bill Medley, one half of the Righteous Brothers.
“One of the funniest episodes we had was when we had Herman (Peter Noone) of Herman’s Hermits come on and talk about their series of wonderful years in show business,” Coleman said.
Palanker is a co-founder of Premiere Radio Networks, now part of I HeartMedia Inc.Coleman retired in June 2020 after nearly 40 years as a broadcaster in Los Angeles, where he is best known as the weather reporter for NBC4. Coleman has long maintained a visible presence in the Valley and regularly emceed events for the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, for example.