'FAN MAN'S CONFESSION
By JOHN MAINELLI
April 9, 2005 -- SID Rosenberg, the controversial WFAN talk show host and Don Imus sidekick, returned to the air yesterday — after a month in rehab for a previously undisclosed, suicidal crack-cocaine addiction.
"I just didn't care, I just wanted to get high," admitted Rosenberg, sounding subdued and introspective — a startling detour from his famously boorish persona.
"I knew I was a drug addict, an alcoholic, everything — gambling," he told listeners.
Rosenberg, 38, who's been suspended in the past for skipping shows, turned up missing after a trip to Cleveland last month and was later said by 'FAN execs to be on an "indefinite leave of absence."
In a dramatic and tearful confession yesterday, Rosenberg told Imus, himself a veteran of rehab for "cocaine and vodka" addictions, how he hit rock-bottom.
"As I stood by the 12th floor [hotel] window in Cleveland that Sunday morning at, whew, about 4:30 a.m., and I contemplated, uh, jumping — jumping out the window — I, um, don't know what happened or why it happened," he said.
"But all of a sudden, uh, something came to me and I decided to weigh my pros and cons," he said.
"I carry around a picture of my daughter, Eva, who was 1 yesterday," Rosenberg said, beginning to weep.
"And I took a look at the picture and I decided not to jump that morning."
At that moment, a priest and a rabbi, visiting Imus to discuss the pope's funeral, led Rosenberg in a short prayer.
"Man, this is really bumming me out," said Imus afterward, quickly cutting to a commercial break on his WFAN (660 AM) and MSNBC simulcast.
Rosenberg, who was treated at Sunrise House in Lafayette, N.J., is no stranger to trouble — or headlines.
He was briefly fired four years ago for calling Venus Williams "an animal" and saying she and sister Serena were better suited for National Geographic than Playboy.
He's also been criticized for calling female soccer players "juiced-up d**es," claiming "******s play tennis," and dubbing Palestinians "stinking animals."
Three years ago, Rosenberg was sued by a satellite-TV company after an on-air admission that he bootlegged free service.
www.nypost.com/entertainment/44123.htmWow! Coke, booze and a suicide attempt. Damn that's good radio.