Former WFAN fixture/reprobate Sid Rosenberg has a new autobiography hitting bookstores later this month, ‘You’re Wrong & You’re Ugly’, and the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson helpfully leaks some of the deeper thoughts from the current WQAM morning host ;
¢ 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.”
¢ 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.”
¢ 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.”
What’s with the John Lurie photo?