9News Forecaster Ed Greene on Why He's Really, Definitely Retiring This Time

It makes perfect sense that veteran weather prognosticator Ed Greene seemed relaxed during his retirement announcement on 9News this morning. After all, he's been through this drill before.

Greene supposedly holstered his clicker in 2017, when he stepped down as lead forecaster for CBS4 after spending 34 years at the station. But 9News president and general manager Mark Cornetta lured him before the cameras again in early 2021 on what Greene thought was a short-term basis — and he wound up staying for the better part of four years.

He insists that he won't be enticed back for yet another sequel, though. After 47 years of more or less continuous broadcasting in Denver, which he believes is a record, "I'm really done this time," he says. His spot on the 9News morning show is being passed to former Westword contributor and Best of Denver award winner Chris Bianchi.

Over his decades on the local airwaves (he also served stints at Denver7 and KOA radio), Greene has seen enormous changes in the way weather predictions are presented on local TV.

"When I first got into it, we were drawing with Magic Markers on a Plexiglas mat," he notes, laughing. "I was drawing little clouds and lightning bolts, and I was a terrible artist, so that was hard. After the show was over, you'd clean off the marker and get it all over your sleeves. Then they came out with the amazing technology of magnetic symbols on a magnetic map. You would take a magnetic sun and put it on the Midwest, so it would look like that whole part of the country would be sunny."

Then "the green screen came along, and computers got in on things — and a lot of the guys I was working with who were older at the time didn't like it," he continues. "Some of them washed out, because they preferred drawing on the maps. But I was of an age where I thought computers were going to be the future, so I'd better get on board. I embraced the computers, and they allowed me to produce a weather forecast that was much more artistic than anything I could make before."

Thanks to improved tech behind the scenes, the quality of Greene's meteorological soothsaying improved dramatically, too. In the beginning, he explains, "there was just one satellite, and black-and-white pictures would come across once or twice a day. That's what we used, because that's all we had. But that evolved into much more complex satellite images where you could watch systems in motion in real time and see how one system was going to react with the other one. And learning how to use all of this equipment and present the information they gave us helped me have a really great career."

Not that his professional life was entirely bump-free. Seven years ago, CBS4 announced that Greene intended to retire and began transitioning to his designated successor, Lauren Whitney — but he publicly chafed at the process. In an email to the Denver Post, he wrote, "I guess management is ‘going in a new direction'? I did not ask for ‘more time to spend with the grandkids’ (don’t have any, yet), or to spend more time at our home in Santa Fe (wife still busier than ever with her business...and we still have a student up at CU)."
Today, Greene suggests that the decision to step away from CBS4 wasn't made in a vacuum. "I kind of knew they were looking to change the regime and wanted the young, pretty people in there," he allows. "So I thought it was a good time to retire."

He didn't stay idle for long. Greene remained in the public ear by way of appearances on KOA, only to be subsequently swept away in a wave of cost-cutting — and even afterward, he continued to be heard regularly on sibling stations such as KHOW, Freedom 97.3 and AM760 via sponsored programs for Blue Heron Capital. He also had a gig as spokesperson for the Mintz Law Firm in Lakewood.

These side hustles went away in early 2021, "when Mark Cornetta called from Channel 9," Greene recalls. "He said, 'We're losing one of our weather people. Can you help us out for a couple of months until we find somebody we like?'"

The answer was yes, and when Westword spoke to Greene on the first day of his return to 9News (he'd worked at the station from 1996-2001), he said he'd be open to extending his stay — and it's a good thing he was amenable. "On the second day I was on the air," he recalls, "Mark said, 'We found somebody we like. It's you!'"

Sticking around put a crimp in Greene's plans; he and his wife had just purchased a motor home and were eager to hit the road. But Cornetta and the rest of the 9News management did all they could to delay his exit. Among Greene's perks: He was required to work only until 9 a.m., giving him the rest of the day free.

"Everyone was wonderful," he enthuses, "and the team was terrific to work with. They were so kind, so respectful. That's why I decided to stay as long as I did."

As for why he finally decided to exit, one factor was what he describes as "some minor health issues — nothing serious, but I screwed up my knee, and it probably took me three times longer to get over it than it should have." And then there was the arrival of the grandchild he didn't have in 2017. "Our first grandbaby is in Cleveland, and we would take our little motor home, see a few things and then go to Cleveland," he says. "But then my wife would stay and I would have to fly back to Denver to work. So the grandbaby really got to know Grandma but didn't really get to know Grandpa. I didn't want to lose that time to continue my career forever. I've been at this for 47 years, and I feel like I left it all out on the field."

Hence the exit, which Greene insists is definitive: "At the last minute, Mark said, 'What if one of the weather guys gets stuck in a blizzard? Would you come in and work one weekend?' And I said, 'You've got to take me off the list.'"

He adds: "I appreciate everyone's support at all the stations and from all the viewers for prolonging my career. And off we go to the next chapter."