Councilman was comic, writer for Stern, Imus
By: Dick Brinster
EAST WINDSOR Alan Rosenberg tried hard not to take himself too seriously, and it worked to perfection for nearly a quarter of a century.
Now, the two-term member of the Township Council can look back on a career filled with laughs many authored on his own keyboard and feel as if he accomplished plenty in the field of show business.
But it wouldn’t have happened if a boss in an investment banking firm in New Jersey had not recognized his quick wit in the late 1970s. It wasn’t long before Mr. Rosenberg was writing for radio giant Don Imus.
"I was the office clown, a familiar story, and my boss at the time encouraged me to call Imus with material so I created a character who was kind of a inventor/scam artist," Mr. Rosenberg explained.
Landing a gig with one of the most well known celebrities to grace the dial in the waning days of the 20th century was impressive. But Mr. Rosenberg, all but retired since 2002, managed to pull off a deal that almost certainly won’t be matched.
He wound up writing for both Imus and his arch foe, Howard Stern.
It was 1979, and Imus had just returned to WNBC in New York after a stint in Cleveland. Mr. Rosenberg peddled his lines and Imus liked what he heard.
"I was always trying to sell some new concept or investment to listeners like a coin-operated pacemaker or a fund to ‘save the nauga,’" he recalled, referring to a supposedly endangered yet phony animal from which Naugahyde is culled.
Imus wasn’t alone in seeing what Mr. Rosenberg could do.
"Eventually, NBC began paying me for my material, I joined AFTRA and I started to get quite a following in New York City," he recalled. "So, I got an agent, and that’s easy to do when you’re already working."
Soon, the agent got him an audition at The Improv in New York City, and Mr. Rosenberg wound up making multiple appearances there.
Eventually, he left investment banking and went to work for WNBC, and practically "lived at the radio station" for a two-year period beginning in 1985.
In 1987, NBC sold its radio stations to Emmes Broadcasting, and he went to work for WFAN until 1989. Then he spent two years as an on-air personality during morning drive at WNEW-AM in New York, and freelanced into the early ’90s.
Then Mr. Rosenberg became a writer and performer for Mr. Stern’s New Year’s Eve pay-per-view, a puppet on a Fox TV show called Breakfast Time for three years and did all the writing and the audience warm-ups on The Ainsley Harriott Show for Disney and warm-ups for Regis Philbin and partners Kathy Lee Gifford and Kelly Ripa.
This year, he produced a special for Howard Stern on Sirius Broadcasting.
At WNBC, Mr. Rosenberg managed to pen laughs from both Imus and Stern in the ’80s.
"I worked for Imus in the mornings, Howard Stern in the afternoons and, for a while did the overnights as a straight disc jockey," Mr. Rosenberg explained.
Some might consider surviving the Imus-Stern connection an accomplishment in itself, but Mr. Rosenberg never encountered hostility as the man in the middle.
"My history of working for both guys is more a tribute to them, Howard in particular, than to me," said Mr. Rosenberg, whose even-keeled demeanor belies his comic nature. "I wouldn’t have been able to do it if they both hadn’t been agreeable."
His sense of humor didn’t hurt. Soupy Sales was doing the midday show in those days, and he absorbed his share of good-natured interference.
"We all kind of ganged up on Soupy," Mr. Rosenberg said. "We cut the strings on his piano, had wheelchairs meet him at the airport whenever he flew somewhere and phony-phone called him mercilessly."
Among the most vivid memories of the formative days of his career in entertainment had nothing to do with radio, however. It came during a one-night gig several years ago at the Meadowlands arena.
The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus was in town and in need of a clown. As they say in the industry, "The show must go on," regardless of the circumstances or who might have fallen by the wayside.
On this night, Mr. Rosenberg very nearly became that person.
"It was one of the closest calls I’ve ever had," he recalled. "I was dressed as a clown and, after doing some schtick with the other clowns, I was supposed to stand in the center of the arena, welcome the crowd and blow a whistle to start the circus."
But they neglected to tell him that the lights would go out.
"So, there I was, standing in pitch black as the elephants rushed into the stadium," he recalled. "The ground was shaking and I had no idea where to run to get out of the way."
He barely escaped being trampled, thanks the alertness of the ringmaster.
"He knocked me out of the way as the elephants came tromping over where I had been standing a second earlier, said Mr. Rosenberg, now 61.
After that, being near the acrimony between Imus and Stern had to be no big deal.

