Former radio producer’s book dishes on career behind the glass

Sept. 2, 2016 | G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.com

LONGMEADOW – What do Larry King, Sally Jessy Raphael, Tom Snyder, Lou Dobbs and Charles Osgood have in common? At one point they all relied on Bernadette Duncan as their producer, screening their calls, booking their guests and giving them the environment on radio they needed to succeed.

Duncan has now released a memoir about her more than two decades working on national talk shows, “Yappy Days.” It’s subtitled “Behind the scenes with newsers, schmoozers, boozers and losers.”

For any fan of talk radio this book provides a truly inside look at what goes on to make a national show happen. Duncan isn’t afraid to name names or to recall incidents that aren’t always complimentary such as the time King, without warning, came over and kissed her, an incident about which he never spoke.

She recalled in the book how David Letterman wouldn’t acknowledge her, keeping his back to her as she facilitated a string of interviews for the television star with a group of radio stations.

Those incidents are outweighed by the clear enjoyment for the medium she expressed in the book.

She relished working with Raphael and the rush of producing live radio where anything could happen.

A native New Yorker, she moved to Longmeadow when she married Michael Harrison, the publisher of Talkers Magazine, the trade publication for the talk radio industry.

Writing gave Duncan a chance to relive her career in what she called “the Golden Age of Radio.” She told Reminder Publications, “It was a trip.”

Inspired in part by realizing the hundreds of books written by talk shows host never address what goes on behind the scenes – “the magic” – she wrote her book “to honor my brother and sister producers.”

She credited Harrison for supporting her efforts, as well as noted author Suzanne Strempek Shea and her writing program and colleagues at Baypath University for guidance.

The collapse of one job led to her 26 years in radio, Duncan explained. She was working at 17 Magazine as a writer when that job ended. She went back to college to finish her degree work and interned at a radio station, which led her to be part of the producing team on a show featuring New York Daily News Assistant Manager Editor Dick Oliver, who she described in her book as “ a real Lou Grant.”

The daily program was heard over the legendary station WOR and Duncan said, “The numbers [ratings] were off the charts.”

Her next job was with long-time radio and television talk show host Raphael. “Sally was part fair godmother, part rascal,” Duncan said with obvious affection. “She knew how to have fun in talk radio before politics took over.”

She called how one listener called Raphael with a question about what to do with a dead horse that was on his lawn.

“She didn’t have the answer, but she had fun with it,” she said.

Duncan reveals in the book the techniques she used to get the best callers on the air and the split-second decisions she would make to give the host with whom she was working the calls that would propel the show forward.

She recalled producing a show about cars and a caller who identified himself as “Shaky Al” was on the line. “You know a good caller. How could you resist someone who called themselves ‘Shaky Al?’” she asked.     

“Shaky Al” became a monthly caller to the show.

Speaking of her two years with King, Duncan said he “had a reputation that preceded him,” but didn’t expect the show of affection. Nonetheless she called him “a nice man.”

She also described in the book what she had to do to placate guests, such as even sewing buttons on comedian Lewis Black’s shirt and making sure his drycleaners delivered pair of pants to the studio. If she hadn’t, Black was saying he had to leave before he finished the interviews she had set up.

She said she wanted this book “to sound like the exit [from the industry] that I felt. It was a real privilege to work in radio. I loved radio. It’s about community and creating that sense of being.”

Duncan is still involved in some radio projects, ­ just not ones with deadlines, and she is working on another non-fiction book.

“Yappy Days” is available from Amazon.com.

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