Sid Rosenberg reflects on turbulent life in book

[clevfan]

Sid Rosenberg reflects on turbulent life in book

By BARRY JACKSON
MiamiHerald.com
March 12, 2010

Few radio hosts in the market are more polarizing than WQAM-AM (560)'s Sid Rosenberg.

But whether you like his on-air style or not, the man has a compelling story to tell, especially how he overcame horrible errors in judgment and three serious addictions to put his life and career back on the right track.

Rosenberg, 42, details his travails and interjects views on sports, his childhood and other announcers in You're Wrong and You're Ugly, a new book coauthored by New York Post sportswriter Paul Schwartz. It will be in bookstores next month and is available now on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

It's a lively read, but his reflections about his drug, alcohol and gambling addictions will be of more wide-spread interest than his musings on New York sports. Among his revelations:

• He began using cocaine at 16, as a high school junior in New York.

``I've always been a recreational drug user -- a binge guy and weekend warrior,'' he wrote. ``Contrary to what some people think, I never once showed up for work . . . drunk or on drugs. The real problem was some of those binges that started on a Friday night wouldn't stop until Monday morning. My stay at the University of Miami only lasted three months because all I did every single day was do coke and eat Cap'n Crunch. I never went to class.''

He had two stints in rehabilitation clinics, in 1995 and 2005, and had another relapse later in 2005, when we went to Atlantic City to work an FHM magazine event, bought drugs afterward and failed to show up for New York's WFAN-AM (660) Giants pregame show the next day. WFAN -- which previously suspended him twice for offensive on-air comments -- then fired him, prompting his return to South Florida, first for a job at WAXY-AM (790), and now 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays at WQAM.

• Rosenberg calls himself ``a self-admitted alcoholic'' who drank vodka and scotch as a teenager and hid bottles inside his bed. ``My parents were in complete denial.'' Drinking, he wrote, ``was the pregame so I could get the confidence to do everything else,'' including cocaine.

• Rosenberg started betting at age 11: ``In Brooklyn in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was not tough to find a bookie on any corner.'' He bet ``on thousands and thousands of games'' and ``lost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. . . . It's a horrible, horrible addiction.''

He said people called his house, looking for money on bets he lost, and ``I've been uncomfortable. But I never really borrowed enough or lost enough to risk bodily harm.'' The most he bet on a game was $10,000, which he won by picking Pittsburgh over Seattle in the 2006 Super Bowl. He regularly attends Gamblers Anonymous meetings: ``Three times now, I've left and come back to the program.''

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• Rosenberg wrote he has been diagnosed as bipolar and is ``incredibly insecure'' about everything other than his broadcast talent.

``Can I be happy? No, I can't. I've gone to enough shrinks and therapists to figure this out. . . . I've sabotaged myself. If I didn't have the off-field issues, I know I would be the biggest radio star to work in New York. If not now, then when Mike Francesa leaves.''

• On storming off the air after a Dolphins-related argument with former 790 co-host O.J McDuffie: ``It got nasty. O.J. was saying that he'd kick my [butt]. . . . O.J. called and apologized . . . We're still very good friends.''

• He attributed his departure from 790 last March to philosophical differences, noting the station's preference to make his show more local-oriented.

• Rosenberg suggested he's well-accepted among Broward and Palm Beach listeners but ``when you start getting to Kendall and Homestead and parts of Miami, those are the people [who] don't appreciate the New Yorkers. . . . It's a geographical bias that I have to deal with every single day. My listeners hear my accent, and right away I become the enemy. The fans down in Miami are not nearly as passionate -- or, for that matter, as intelligent -- as New York fans. I don't want to call my fan base stupid, but it's not the same.''

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• Rosenberg, who is married with two children, said last week he hasn't used drugs or been drunk since 2005 and it has ``been a while'' since he gambled. WQAM is strongly considering Rosenberg to fill the late-afternoon slot which was previously held by Jim Mandich, who is battling cancer.