Born and raised in Chicago, Coughlin served two years of combat during World War II.
[1] In 1969, Coughlin was pressed into service as a weatherman after one of the station's meteorologists, Roy Allred, took ill just before a broadcast.
Later, after Allred quit, Coughlin was asked to become the station's interim meteorologist, even though by his own admission, he knew nothing about the subject.
[2][1] In July 1976, WBBM demoted Coughlin, who by that point was the station's top weather forecaster, to be a staff announcer and replaced him with part-time actor Tom Alderman, who also had been a public relations professional for then-Illinois Gov.
The station received more than 10,000 letters of protest from viewers, and eventually restored Coughlin in February 1977 to his previous job and apologized on the air.