July 1, 2025 • 35 mins
Firmly established as the most popular voice on Denver radio, Alan Berg proved to be an incredibly shrewd businessman. Especially when it came to working with sponsors, even if he did occasionally go rogue when reading ads live on the air. Covering topics ranging from politics to sex to his beloved dog, Alan refused to hold back on the radio. But that outspoken nature would slowly make him a target.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Live Wire is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Modulator Media.
Previously on live Wire, The Loud Life and Shocking Murder
of Alan Burke.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Oh if that's my new theme.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
A new show, a new day, a new time, and
particularly enjoying thing with you here on KOA. So we're
going to be talking today and I kind of feel
like I'm an intruder of sorts, but We're going to
get you going on my side hopefully if we can.
But we'd like to talk to you today with all the
commotion that's going on in this town, much misunderstanding about
things that have happened. So we do want you to
join us here.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
I just sat down and I just I fell in
love with him. He was like he was like I
had worked in professional wrestling, and I realized that he
was just a professional wrestler.
Speaker 5 (00:44):
He was the first and the original shock jock. That's
the way I describe it. Alan did not care what
you thought about anything. He really didn't care what he
thought about anything or not for radio, he didn't or
he didn't try to push it on us. I mean,
I don't even know what his deep seated beliefs are.
(01:07):
And I knew him pretty well long conversation. So he
was the kind of guy that was on radio to
be on radio and to stir conversation, not to change minds.
He didn't have a mission except to entertain.
Speaker 6 (01:24):
I think you're the most I'm not disgusting infuriating commentators,
and sometimes you're rude and inconsiderate, and I very seldom disagree.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
With you, but I really agree that.
Speaker 7 (01:35):
I love to hear you disagree with people.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
That's very very well sid. I didn't like the first part.
The last part, I that was terrific.
Speaker 8 (01:50):
He's a prince, he's primitive, he's provocative. He's Alan Burry
and he's next on news Talk eighty five. K. Hey
try your luck at talking with him. Now dial eight
six one eight two five fine, that's eight six one
t a l K and now here's Alan berg Man.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Thank you, and went back for our final while half
hour of the show.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
So join us.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
We have lines of This has been just an incredibly
terrible day.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I don't know what to say.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Something was rather interesting that we brought up, But then again,
I guess I was wrong. I was in the minority here.
Speaker 9 (02:26):
Okay, it's Don Hartanov. I was a sales associate for
about fifteen years at KOWA. I got hired two weeks
after alan Berg was hired. So I got hired on
March first, nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
AOA sales associate, Don Harchinov had witnessed first hand alan
birts rise from a reclamation project at one of Denver's
biggest radio stations to a full blown local phenomenon. But
whereas most of Burke's KWA colleagues interacted with him in
the studio or in the office, Hartnoff's relationship with alan
Berg was a little different. As the man responsible for
(03:16):
pitching local businesses about advertising on the station, Hartonoff had
a variety of popular KOWA programs at his disposal, and
alan Berg was at the very top of that programming slate.
Speaker 9 (03:28):
You know, his reputation was growing every day, and when
I got there, it was pretty exciting to have him
as one of our people. We could sell on the endorsements,
because that was one of my big fortes. If you
got someone to do an endorsement, you could keep them
on for a longer period contract, so you know, you
(03:50):
sell them, sell them Boils and Berg, and as long
as things were moving you'd have an annual contract on
them because they liked the endorsement.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
That's right. I believe the Brentwood shopping Center.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
If there's an old radio available and nobody will want anymore,
they have it. I saw one I know in the
Pablo's Hairstyling shop. They had one of those big things
with the the dog used to sit there. They have
the dog sitting there staring into the pipe, I mean
the speaker thing. You don't see that very often anyway.
They actually have one of those, and they have a
lot of effects. He still cuts with the crew cut.
He does not believe in anything different. He's got one haircut.
(04:23):
It's called the crew cut cuts the quarter. Now tell
me where you can get a haircut in this country
for antquirk.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Go to Pablo's Hairstyling. He's ready for you.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I have on the women's side, I was beauty salone
over there is never there. What she does is leave
and she has a number on the window.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
You call her.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
She comes from the house, okay, and she cuts your hair,
then locks up again and goes home. It's not that
active a center. Let's be realistic. All they have babetics.
They have big apple records in which they are now featuring.
I understand they have all the old Berry Manilow records
that aren't selling right now. They have a special on those.
Speaker 9 (04:52):
He was always harassing the callers, you know. That was
his big fourtep was, you know, his one of the
his favorite phrases was get to the point, caller, Get
to the point, you know, and and if they didn't
get to the point, he'd hang up on because they
were wasting his time. So that was kind of the
(05:14):
fun part of his whole program. We'd go in and
watch him on the air, and it was it was
like a showman, and he was smoking cigarettes and and
he had the coffee cup. He'd always they had vending
machine coffee, which was horrible, but he'd go get this
(05:34):
cup of coffee with the with the poker game on
the cup on the cup, and that was his big deal,
just so he could wind himself up for the show.
So it was very it was very entertaining to watch
him perform. And and you know, it's the old just
spell my name right, you know, even though he's harassing
(05:58):
and hounding the callers if they were if they didn't
fit and they were dumb, you know he would. He
would make the scape going out of them and it
would be become good radio, entertaining radio.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I'm filmmaker and journalist Tal Pinschewski and this is Live
Wire episode three, The Man you Love to Hate. Having
owned his own businesses and advocated on his client's behalf
as a lawyer before coming to KOA, alan Berg knew
how to sell himself, and that was especially apparent when
he went out on sales calls with Heartenoff, you know, and.
Speaker 9 (06:37):
We'd set up our sales pitches and say all right,
I'll pick you up or meet me there or whatever,
and you know, it's usually about a half hour you'd
have the guy closed.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
In the nineteen eighties, talent like Berg were entitled to
a fee in exchange for their endorsement. This was in
addition to the payment sponsors provided directly to the station.
Radio has since adopted a different system when it comes
to endorsements, but this old way was a lucrative one
for alan Berg and kept him pretty motivated when it
came time to close the deal with potential sponsors.
Speaker 9 (07:09):
All Right, we go up and uh and I had
the Boils and Bird program going, and we had this
guy who had a camera shop and Boulder, and so
we go up there and meet with the guy and uh,
and of course we weren't We didn't know if we
could get him on. You know, it was we couldn't
clear his credit. But he had this drop dead gorgeous daughter,
(07:33):
and I mean, we just could not believe how beautiful
this girl was. And he was he was like a
German immigrant or something, and he was doing a camera shop.
So so we're we're sitting down, we do the seal,
we do the clothes. He was going to run this,
run this deal for two or three weeks, and I
think it was a going out of business or what
(07:55):
have you. And so we're like, okay, well we'll take
we'll take. It's got to cut us a check for Alan,
check for Peter, and check for the radio station. So
so we go back and we finished the pitch, and
what does Boyles do or Berg does. He takes it
straight to the bank and hammers the check and Boyle's
(08:17):
delayed his till the end of the day. And of
course the station I turned it into accounting. Well, the
only check that cleared was Alan's check, So the whole thing,
everything else was just hilarious as we're laughing, because all
we wanted to do was, you know, talk to his daughter.
(08:39):
But of course Alan was a shrewd guy who took
that check straight to the bank.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Alan Berg was as much a shrewd businessman as he
was a charismatic on their talent, and that was an
important part of the job during this nascent period of
talk radio.
Speaker 9 (08:52):
He could come in and talk and he just you know,
he'd butter him up. And another one other cornball client
we had to remember, we had a these are the
funnier ones. We had a woman who ran Missus Claus's
closet and this was like a Christmas gift shop, and
(09:14):
we did that with Berg and Boils, and it was
just Berg was making so much fun about the client.
They ended up pulling their ad because he was he
thought it was such a goofy deal, you know. And
the other one Boyles might have told you about was
the guys who ran the safes, who they convinced everybody
(09:36):
to put their money in this separate Swiss vaults. It
was called, of course, they used the name Swiss right
Save Money, and and so Berg and Boils were selling
the Swiss vaults and they sold this guy's vaults out
with everybody putting all their money and valuables in it,
(09:56):
and the guy came in at night and stole all
the money out of his own Swiss vault and left
the country.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Between his ability on the air and his acumen on
sales calls, alan Berg had turned himself into something of
a cottage industry in Colorado. Here's his former producer, Susan Rylean.
Speaker 10 (10:13):
Our job is to make money and live. Personality endorsements
began with alan Berg because if that personality can go
on the air and say this is my guy, this
is the restaurant that I eat at, people will go
and eat at that restaurant if that personality tells them
to do so. But I think alan Berg was one
(10:34):
of the first ones and one of the best ones
for companies like our Heart to make a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Of course, he could be pretty unpredictable when it finally
came time to read the ads live on the air.
Take for example, this ad for a local home security company.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
But however, we aren't it You want to keep it right.
Everyone wants to keep there is to get more of
the other guys. Isn't that the true However, trying just
wants to protect you against those crazy burglars on the
street before they hit that house, and before that burglary
could ever possibly occur. What will happen is a screaming
siren and a flowlight will be released. It will emanate
across your neighborhood there because if he wiggles something debug,
(11:11):
knowing that that person's in the v scene will say
I got you, and he'll trigger all this all out.
He will go out and bite them on the leg.
And you're saving home with your children in the JC
Penny underwear saying oh mommy, I'm safe any of that
kind of stuff. So what I would do today is
culver trunks bug people. Get your free twenty four point
burglary analysis brochure.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Now Here is where things suddenly go off the rails.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
All right, You want to save your life, save your
dollars in case those hookers show up for dollars recks.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Here's your chance to do it.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Protect your dollars right now and make those hookers secure
when you bring them home when the wife's away on
the trip in Hawaii saying hi, honk, I'm home with
the kids, and you whip the chick down there to
the base, which you'll be safe though case and shows
the burglar won't ever get to testify against you. This way,
he will split the scene, never knowing that, in fact,
you have this hooker down there for a dollar in
the basement locked For many years.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Every indication was that alen Berg could go rogue on
these live ad reads without any repercussions, which speaks to
how popular and powerful he was at that time. If
that last read wasn't enough of a testament to his
influence in the market, try this one for a local restaurant.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Called WILLI Wing. They why away Willy's Wing? I mean
this is hot step now. We were at the one
on Zoh Broadway and it's a miracle that they actually
got me here in time. Small stomach bomb, but I'm
okay now, like any.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Remember you know I love them, I'm crazy about them.
I you know I did? Is I overrate? That's what happened.
I ate too many?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Like what that's Alan Berg on the air talking about
how a station sponsor's food made him sick and getting
paid to do it. That's pretty brazen. It's also pretty funny.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
They're nice.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
It's a nice different kind of snack. Let's put it
that way. Gone to the night or picnic tomorrow. Really,
that's right. Particularly if you don't like your children, just
give them many of these and to go off in
the woods hemorrhaging.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
No, I don't any reason for one second of belay
that they aren't good.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
And I give can I I was a little gassy anyway.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
I have an old stomach condition last night. Anyway, It's
called nervousness from the Dorean. So don't even judge me
by what I say here.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
All of this contributed to the persona alan Berg had
cultivated for years before refining and perfecting it at KOA,
about vilion on air presence, beholden to his listeners and
his own personal sensibilities, but not to business interests. Years before,
that philosophy had gotten him fired and left him desperate
for a new radio job, But now dominating the airways
(13:47):
with KOA, it made him iconic. Even the way Allenberg
looked and acted in the KOA studio set him apart
from the typical on air personality.
Speaker 9 (13:58):
He was always talking and slovenly, and and he had
dandruff coming off on his shoulders, and and you know,
and he was just yeah, it was. It was. It
was like a kid's playroom, you know, just messy in
papers everywhere, and very very entertaining.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Berg also had a tendency to chain smoke cigarettes in
the radio, a habit that is calling Ken Hamlin reflected
on after his death.
Speaker 11 (14:28):
I said, we had some cat fights and we did
damn it. We used to go round and round about
Burg cigarette smoking. And I used to work the midnight
to five in the morning shift, and twice a week
he'd start damn trash.
Speaker 9 (14:40):
Fires smoking the radio. Both we we we sat in
the sales room and the general manager and I would
smoke cigars in the office.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Alan Burg's fiery on air persona was starting to gain
a larger and larger audience across the country. But there
was another Burg, for some away from the microphone, that
was just as compelling and far more engaging. Here is
Berg's brending colleague, Peter Boyles.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
He dressed for radio, I mean, most impeccable dresser probably
ever known in my life. And I dressed like a bum.
But he would ties and turtlenecks and sport codes and
suits and impeccable sport codes. I mean he really wasn't
a clothes horse.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Alan Berg didn't use his stove and his cabinets for
cooking and keeping groceries. He used them to store his
impressive shoe collection. He would have put those shoes in
his other cabinets, but those were filled with his collection
of jazz records. Alan Berg's knowledge of shoes was so
voluminous that he occasionally hosted a segment on the air
that he called toastrology, on which he could put together
(15:50):
a profile of a woman's personality based on the kinds
of shoes she wore.
Speaker 10 (15:55):
I wear by eight tu, and I'm wearing a black
open coat.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Black open toe, all right? And what with with is
very important?
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Okay? Well double A, double A. H Okay, that's double
A is like I have a sea. First of all,
your shoe your foot is narrower than that. But you
had to settle for a double A. Fere you actually
I sent your a quade, but you had to go
to a double A.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
And your foot is spreading, oh earhead of course.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
See if you don't get the proper within the shoe,
it means the foot's gonna spread. And you know what
happens to the rest of the body, breast starts sagging,
the stomach starts sagging. You lose your whole shape. You
don't keep the right width going in your foot. The
whole body goes. Then it begins to affect the brain.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
That's true. Believe that or not. It's up to you. Okay,
Now I'm with your life.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
I have last come. It's seventy eight pair of shoes.
Seventy eight pair of shoes. Seventy eight pair, and this
is the lowest I've ever had in my life.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
You mass seventy eight pair of shoes.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
So I walk in the closet and I end up
working the same free pair almost every day because I
must say up the seventy eight pair. My Fred has
cut the inventory down to forty one last week out
what Fred? Yeah, I don't know how he has well.
I can't talk because I have the X ray his
stomach to determine that. Oh for because he's eaten all
(17:14):
these shoes.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
My dog is in the leather.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Allenberg loved talking shoes and never hesitated to discuss his
most beloved life companion, an Airedale Terrier named Fred, who
with his floppy hair, wore an uncanny resemblance to his owner.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Well, I tell you that's one dog. I love that
he had a bath yesterday. He looks gorgeous. You're a
part with him?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Oh? No way, there's nothing in the world a maybe
part with Fred, unless it was a job with WFCA
New York.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Well, good luck, all right, thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Here's Allen Berg's longtime colleague Tom Martine.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
And then he talked about was it Fred? Yeah, talked
about Fred. He freaking loved Now. That was the deepest
he ever got when it came to feelings his dog.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah, that was genuine.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
That wasn't a stick. He loved him.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Oh wait, why do you see Fred? Myerdad what our
first public appearance? Fred's gonna beat her? I see it?
Speaker 7 (18:10):
Thank you and goodbye?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I mean through a lot of bad nights.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Okay, right, not what line?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
What do we do here?
Speaker 12 (18:14):
Now?
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Alan Berg might not have been liberally sharing the personal
details of his life on the air, but he did
occasionally offer a glimpse into the truly complex individual he was,
and there was one go to topic that most reflected
that complexity. I'm talking, of course, about politics. Here's Peter
Boyles on Allan's politics.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Left of center Chicago liberal Wontakami. I mean he was
a left of liberal, left of center liberal, very civil
rights African Americans, Jews, women, he was. He was a
sixties liberal. You know, if you look up nineteen sixty
eight liberal America, his picture would be there. That's who
(18:56):
he was.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Bear in mind that the height of Allan's Runkowa came
during Ronald Reagan's first presidential term, and when it came
to the sitting US President, Berg didn't hold back.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Of course, Reagan has taken a step backwards, and a
lot of people said old, but he appointed a black guy.
This black guy he appointed hasn't even been in the
company of a black man in twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
And I don't really know.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
That, but I would guess that I have to go
to news. All right, I appreciate your call. I don't
think any president will be able to please all the
people all the time.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
They're not supposed to.
Speaker 10 (19:28):
Well, what do you feel?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
This was most of work for the betterment of the
whole country, and don't try to please the masses per se.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
But get a job done.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Okay, Well, misster, Reagan has set up a stage here
right now, and the stage is about the fallout from
under first of White Al said Reagan didn't know anything
about it until just recently. Now we've learned he's known
about it for months. Yeah, and then when they asked
Nancy Reagan about it, she said she didn't know messing
about it. Well, I don't think Nancy Reagan knows anything
about anything.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Alan Berg was happy the host guests of all political
persuasion on his show and hold them in equal contempt.
And he made it clear whenever possible that it wasn't
one party or another he had problems with.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
It is an attack on Ray because he's our current president.
I've attacked Carnor, I've attacked every president that ever lived,
because they're all one and the same. They're a bunch
a greedy power maniacs who could care less about the
well bang of anybody.
Speaker 13 (20:20):
Something I said about five words.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Well, I know what you would say anyway, go ahead,
I said it was our whole audience. He've been whining
on talk radio for somebody is why do you listen?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
If it offends you?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Take a walk li one, you're on Kowa.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
But alan Berg didn't see tearing down the entire political
infrastructure as a solution to help save America. He still
believed deeply in American institutions, even if they were flawed,
and there was one particular incident involving former American Secretary
of State Henry Kissinger that got him really fired up.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Alan Camplan, you're on KOA talk radio with Alan Berg?
Are you there?
Speaker 9 (20:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Okay, On, So what's the story? I heard you? I
just found out about this yesterday. Now, what did you
do to Henry Kissinger?
Speaker 7 (21:04):
What did Henry Kissing to do to the naighth He.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Said, Oh, okay, but let's start with the actual circumstance.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Did happen? I understand you walked up Daim Was it
the airport?
Speaker 1 (21:12):
The woman's name was Ellen Kaplan, and the twenty nine
year old volunteer for a pro nuclear power group made
headlines in nineteen eighty two when she confronted Kissinger and
his wife Nancy at Newark International Airport. It was while
the couple waited aboard a flight to Boston did Kaplin
asked Kissinger about his work in the White House before
asking him if he slept with boys at the Carlisle Hotel.
(21:35):
Kaplin later accused Nancy Kissinger of grabbing her in response
to that question. Allenberg may have been no fan of
Henry Kissinger, but he took serious issue with Kaplan's behavior
when he hosted her on his show following this incident.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Did you know at the time he just had open
heart surgery? Did you?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
I did not know?
Speaker 2 (21:52):
How could you not know? Ellen?
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Are you're your political activist? You mean this all this time?
You have never read a story anywhere that, in fact,
he had open heart surgery.
Speaker 7 (22:01):
There you're acting like a pig.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
You're you're a pathetic human being.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
You know what? You are one of the most vile
human beings to walk up to a human being. If
Nancy Kissinger merely choked you, she was only mistaken one sense.
It's too bad she'd have a gun and blow you away.
You're one of the slimiest human beings. And how much
is are you Jewish? Are you?
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Okay, I'm Jewish.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
I'm ashamed that you belong to my people, and I'm
sure most Jews in his country are.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
And the fact that you walk up.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
This man and said this on a totally unsupported accusation,
it's sick. It's disgusting, sweetheart. They should put you in jail.
You are the slime of the art. Honey, sue me
if you will. Since you're gonna sue Nancy, Baby, why
don't you sue me for defamation?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
You take it? I got You're a creeps waiting.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
The exchange was so volatile that heernberger short lived suspension
from KOA, something that almost never happened despite his numerous
angry exchanges with callers and rogue ad readings. But exchanges
like this one didn't just struck criticism from Berg's employers.
When a call ended with a woman being flustered or
even humiliated, Burg would be accused of being a misogynist.
(23:09):
To be fair, allen Berg did occasionally cross the line
with women collers, just as he did with all talkers,
and there were certain discussions that didn't exactly make him
look like an ally.
Speaker 10 (23:20):
I love talking about women breastfeeding in public. That was
that was always a tough topic. Women and Google Go
Go Boots. He's loved women in Go Go boots.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
A woman has to breadstpeet a ju how hard he
has to go somewhere and not get staut with him?
Speaker 2 (23:36):
I mean, how a woman bludding breadth.
Speaker 7 (23:38):
Needs to be humbled and sick because you have breath
or to be humbled in sick because he has a
child at that. And I think it's a simple aspect
of the third thing you don't do. I mean, if
there's one of a series of things that I think
are intimate in private, not to be a public desployer,
because this is veil wive with lots of people around.
(23:58):
And then what gets me more angry if a woman
is sitting there, look youve me like, what are you
looking at? Obviously I'm going to look.
Speaker 10 (24:05):
Well, he didn't think that it was proper for a
woman to actually do that in public? Who would want
to see that? Who wants to see a woman feeding
a child? Who wants to see their breasts like that?
And I, you know, and I would tease him, and
I just said, oh god, men are such boys some
what is this fascination with women in their breasts? So
(24:27):
all of a sudden, a breast is attractive in general,
but not when you're breastfeeding in a child. I said,
I don't even know, why do we do this topic?
Why do you like this topic? But every time he
saw a woman breastfeeding in public, we'd be back talking
about breastfeeding in public. I just wish he would stop
seeing it. It's like, please, please don't. Could we just
(24:49):
not talk about this on.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
The air anywhere?
Speaker 1 (24:51):
By the low bar set for most middle aged men
in the nineteen eighties, alan Berg was practically a renaissance
man when it came to his views on women, but
when it came to talking about sex, alan simply couldn't
help himself.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Never mind what the Yankee stuff. Whatever you do is
in the privacy of your own anyway, either paper or
metri bait, you know. And now I'll wait a minute, sir,
there's children listening. Look crazy, man, here I am saying
that just like nothing masturbate huh, just like that, like
it was just a casual word to be thrown out there.
(25:28):
Why do you think young children are turning on the
streets selling their bodies because they hair words like masturbation.
That's where the world has gone mad, ask Ric, who
sits back there many times contemplating his navel age six
one talk eight six one eight two five. That's disgusting
the fact that a person would actually do some massage.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Oh, by the way, where's that new what's the author
I'm having?
Speaker 13 (25:46):
Got?
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Oh? I can't wait. This is kind of a masturbation.
Oh here, well, this is gonna be exciting. I got
a guest coming up, doctor Michael Fox's massage program for
cats and dogs. Which you don't know is you have
been massaging your dog wrong for years.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
These kinds of conversations inevitably incited Pauls accusing Berg of
peddling pornography. But he carefully walked the line between pervert
and creep, and he never kink shamed, and he certainly
never attacked women who acknowledged the existence of a human libido.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
My guess today is Brenda, we will leave it at
that name here, not so you shouldn't be harassed anymore
in the phone book.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Although I don't think your name is in the phone book,
is it not?
Speaker 11 (26:26):
Really?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Not really?
Speaker 3 (26:28):
By way, Branda as Plat an experience with prostitution a background,
and it is now into another line of endeavor. But
she's here today to talk about many aspects of prostitution. Okay,
bro let's start with this. If I gave you one
hundred dollars right, not white, Let's say, can't believe it?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Would you said it? Well, just take a check.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
This is actually from an episode of Alan's short lived
TV show Bird's guest is a former prostitute, and for
thirty minutes they engage in a mostly adult conversation about sex.
It's informative and interesting. In fact, the only awkwardness arises
when Alan tries to turn on his signature chart.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Oh you, have you ever been in bed with a
man who was really good? And he said, besides myself, obviously,
But I mean, have you ever been in bed with
a man who all of a sudden really turns you on?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Not only you Alan?
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Okay, well, we're just the answer. It was the way
I talked before and after. Of course I made her
so nervous, he says, Hello an orgasm. Just to get
rid of this guy, I'll do anything. No, really, let
me ask you this. You are a stunning woman. There's
no question. Have you got a shot on this lady here?
I mean, she is an attractive woman. You run, you
could be a fashion you could be a lot of things.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
You have a toys about you, a grace. Can I
tell the truth. I'm in love with you. I'm here,
You're right so everything. I want to get you out
of this business, imily back.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
I did get right of this is through I said,
he in a medical school.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
She's now a brain surgeon. You wouldn't know that right away,
you didn't bring your stethoscope.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Now bear in mind that this is an exchange on
local network television in the early nineteen eighties. There is
literally a war beginning at this time across the country
for the soul of the American family. And Alan Berg
is hosting a former prostitute dressed demurely in a brown
jacket over a white blouse and talking about sex. No shame,
no name calling, just honesty.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Essentially, men are coming to you for sex quite obviously, right.
They're not coming to you, of course now they will
be coming you for brain surgery. Honestly, did get your
license and all that. But what are they essentially coming
for that they're not getting at home?
Speaker 13 (28:15):
What I think, more or less, what they're afraid to
ask their wife. I think the wife or the girlfriend
should feel the guy out, find out what he really
is into. I think she should be more open minded,
you know, and then he would not have to go
elsewhere and have his desires for filled, or his fantasies
for filled, or something that you know, he thinks he
would be too scared to ask her to do.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
But I think we're all prostituts degrees, don't you.
Speaker 11 (28:39):
To a degree?
Speaker 13 (28:40):
I think most women are.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
The conversation actually evolves when another prostitute calls into the
show to share her.
Speaker 6 (28:46):
Thoughts that don't you find now, I mean more nowadays
that more and more prostitutes are well educated girls, girls
who have gone to college, have a college education, and
are really basically pretty smart girls.
Speaker 13 (29:00):
They are most of the ones I know are really
smart ladies.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Now that's a good points here, rise, What does that indicate?
What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (29:08):
I want there were more intelligent, want to do better
things with their lives, end up being prostitutes for something,
any girl with no education good do?
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Why is it?
Speaker 6 (29:16):
No? No, The thing is, I'm a prostitute myself, but
I have girlfriends that are prostitute and they're well college educate, educute.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
Let's be clear.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
At times during this episode, allen Berg carried himself with
all the maturity of a middle schooler, but he mostly
conducted a pretty sophisticated and comic exchange about the world's
oldest profession on a local TV network affiliate in the
nineteen eighties. It's not salacious, it's not body, it's not raunchy.
(29:44):
It's kind of groundbreaking, and it generated plenty of discussion
once the show is over. Once again, Here's Burg's producer, Susan.
Speaker 9 (29:52):
Ryder Ellen was.
Speaker 10 (29:55):
What makes talk radio, talk radio interesting, poignant, relevant, what
holds an audience to a radio station. Alan Berg, I
believe is one of the most brilliant talk show hosts
(30:16):
that I ever had the pleasure of working with. He
taught me a lot about how to keep an audience
tuned in, how to keep them engaged, how to not
take them for granted, to treat them with respect, and
figure out what is gonna keep them s tuned into
this radio station. That's what we do every single day.
(30:37):
You have to keep this audience engaged, cause it's all
about the money, and if you're not keeping them through
that break, they're not buying anything. That's what Alan did,
kept him through the break, keep them through that quarter hour,
make sure that, cause everything is built on quarter hours.
You have to get 'em through the commercial to the
next break, and that goes over the quarter hour. He
(31:00):
got it, He got but he knew what made people listen.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Every woman who ever worked with Alan Berg, and there
were several immediately refused the idea that Alan was a misogynist.
Here's one of them, Former CHOA producer Lori Cantillo.
Speaker 14 (31:17):
Yes, he was very progressive in terms of his views
of women. He look his wife, Judith or ex wife,
was a very strong woman, and I always found him
to be very polite and professional and cordial. And you're right.
Radio in the early eighties was a very male dominated
(31:41):
world and continues to be so to this day. In fact,
when I started as a news anchor on KOA, I
recall that a caller had called to the board and said,
get that bitch off the air, and that really stayed
with me. But Alan really enjoyed and had very positive
(32:01):
working relationships with all of the women on the staff.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
And while Alan's relationship with women callers could be contentious,
he was nothing short of charming when it came to
his romantic entanglements.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
He loved women, truly loved He was the man who
loved women. Watching Alan Berg in a booth in a
restaurant with a woman was like watching Demaggio bat He
was the best. I mean, women loved him. But finally
when he came around with Linda, she was so different
(32:35):
than all the other women, and I went through a
lot of women with him, And here's Linda, and she
was just a special woman. She's great. It's great for him.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Alan met Linda McVeigh at a concert in Denver and
was immediately smitten.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
And I think Linda understood how neurotic we all were,
and and I think she guided him, probably more than
I'll ever know. She was a stabling force in that
guy's life.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
But as with everything else in Allenburgh's life, it was
never quite that easy. Here is Burt biographer Steven Singular.
Speaker 12 (33:13):
They went out for a while and she said, he said,
we should live together. You should move into my apartment.
And she said, now, it would never work if I'm
around you that much. We're around each other, it'll never work.
We see each other once in a while, that's good. Hey,
(33:35):
hammereder hammered her for a while, and she said, okay,
I'll move in. So she collected her cat and whatever
she had.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
She went over.
Speaker 12 (33:46):
She got to his apartment. She settled there for an hour.
He started pacing. He was very nervous. He didn't know
what to do. And he said something to the effect of, well,
maybe you should go. I think It's safe to say
he wasn't that big on commitment when it came to women.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Okay, Alan Brooks's personal life was still uniquely complicated, and
his work life was about to get even more complicated
as well.
Speaker 12 (34:18):
The radical right in the United States was sort of
gearing up. Berg would take him on, take anybody on
who was in that ILK would never back down from it.
Speaker 10 (34:28):
I talked to him afterwards and I just said, I'm
not sure we should do this anymore. I'm scared for
your safety.
Speaker 9 (34:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
Fred Wilkens came into the studio and I'm hard to believe.
I'm in a bar with a guy named Charlie Martin
and the light beer guy comes in and says they
just tried to co Alan.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
That's next time on live Wire, The Loud Life and
Shocking Murder of Alan Berg. Live Wire is a production
of iHeart Podcasts and Modulator Media. For more podcasts from
iHeart Podcasts, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Live Wire is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Modulator Media.
Previously on live Wire, The Loud Life and Shocking Murder
of Alan Burke.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Oh if that's my new theme.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
A new show, a new day, a new time, and
particularly enjoying thing with you here on KOA. So we're
going to be talking today and I kind of feel
like I'm an intruder of sorts, but We're going to
get you going on my side hopefully if we can.
But we'd like to talk to you today with all the
commotion that's going on in this town, much misunderstanding about
things that have happened. So we do want you to
join us here.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
I just sat down and I just I fell in
love with him. He was like he was like I
had worked in professional wrestling, and I realized that he
was just a professional wrestler.
Speaker 5 (00:44):
He was the first and the original shock jock. That's
the way I describe it. Alan did not care what
you thought about anything. He really didn't care what he
thought about anything or not for radio, he didn't or
he didn't try to push it on us. I mean,
I don't even know what his deep seated beliefs are.
(01:07):
And I knew him pretty well long conversation. So he
was the kind of guy that was on radio to
be on radio and to stir conversation, not to change minds.
He didn't have a mission except to entertain.
Speaker 6 (01:24):
I think you're the most I'm not disgusting infuriating commentators,
and sometimes you're rude and inconsiderate, and I very seldom disagree.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
With you, but I really agree that.
Speaker 7 (01:35):
I love to hear you disagree with people.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
That's very very well sid. I didn't like the first part.
The last part, I that was terrific.
Speaker 8 (01:50):
He's a prince, he's primitive, he's provocative. He's Alan Burry
and he's next on news Talk eighty five. K. Hey
try your luck at talking with him. Now dial eight
six one eight two five fine, that's eight six one
t a l K and now here's Alan berg Man.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Thank you, and went back for our final while half
hour of the show.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
So join us.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
We have lines of This has been just an incredibly
terrible day.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I don't know what to say.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Something was rather interesting that we brought up, But then again,
I guess I was wrong. I was in the minority here.
Speaker 9 (02:26):
Okay, it's Don Hartanov. I was a sales associate for
about fifteen years at KOWA. I got hired two weeks
after alan Berg was hired. So I got hired on
March first, nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
AOA sales associate, Don Harchinov had witnessed first hand alan
birts rise from a reclamation project at one of Denver's
biggest radio stations to a full blown local phenomenon. But
whereas most of Burke's KWA colleagues interacted with him in
the studio or in the office, Hartnoff's relationship with alan
Berg was a little different. As the man responsible for
(03:16):
pitching local businesses about advertising on the station, Hartonoff had
a variety of popular KOWA programs at his disposal, and
alan Berg was at the very top of that programming slate.
Speaker 9 (03:28):
You know, his reputation was growing every day, and when
I got there, it was pretty exciting to have him
as one of our people. We could sell on the endorsements,
because that was one of my big fortes. If you
got someone to do an endorsement, you could keep them
on for a longer period contract, so you know, you
(03:50):
sell them, sell them Boils and Berg, and as long
as things were moving you'd have an annual contract on
them because they liked the endorsement.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
That's right. I believe the Brentwood shopping Center.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
If there's an old radio available and nobody will want anymore,
they have it. I saw one I know in the
Pablo's Hairstyling shop. They had one of those big things
with the the dog used to sit there. They have
the dog sitting there staring into the pipe, I mean
the speaker thing. You don't see that very often anyway.
They actually have one of those, and they have a
lot of effects. He still cuts with the crew cut.
He does not believe in anything different. He's got one haircut.
(04:23):
It's called the crew cut cuts the quarter. Now tell
me where you can get a haircut in this country
for antquirk.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Go to Pablo's Hairstyling. He's ready for you.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I have on the women's side, I was beauty salone
over there is never there. What she does is leave
and she has a number on the window.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
You call her.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
She comes from the house, okay, and she cuts your hair,
then locks up again and goes home. It's not that
active a center. Let's be realistic. All they have babetics.
They have big apple records in which they are now featuring.
I understand they have all the old Berry Manilow records
that aren't selling right now. They have a special on those.
Speaker 9 (04:52):
He was always harassing the callers, you know. That was
his big fourtep was, you know, his one of the
his favorite phrases was get to the point, caller, Get
to the point, you know, and and if they didn't
get to the point, he'd hang up on because they
were wasting his time. So that was kind of the
(05:14):
fun part of his whole program. We'd go in and
watch him on the air, and it was it was
like a showman, and he was smoking cigarettes and and
he had the coffee cup. He'd always they had vending
machine coffee, which was horrible, but he'd go get this
(05:34):
cup of coffee with the with the poker game on
the cup on the cup, and that was his big deal,
just so he could wind himself up for the show.
So it was very it was very entertaining to watch
him perform. And and you know, it's the old just
spell my name right, you know, even though he's harassing
(05:58):
and hounding the callers if they were if they didn't
fit and they were dumb, you know he would. He
would make the scape going out of them and it
would be become good radio, entertaining radio.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I'm filmmaker and journalist Tal Pinschewski and this is Live
Wire episode three, The Man you Love to Hate. Having
owned his own businesses and advocated on his client's behalf
as a lawyer before coming to KOA, alan Berg knew
how to sell himself, and that was especially apparent when
he went out on sales calls with Heartenoff, you know, and.
Speaker 9 (06:37):
We'd set up our sales pitches and say all right,
I'll pick you up or meet me there or whatever,
and you know, it's usually about a half hour you'd
have the guy closed.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
In the nineteen eighties, talent like Berg were entitled to
a fee in exchange for their endorsement. This was in
addition to the payment sponsors provided directly to the station.
Radio has since adopted a different system when it comes
to endorsements, but this old way was a lucrative one
for alan Berg and kept him pretty motivated when it
came time to close the deal with potential sponsors.
Speaker 9 (07:09):
All Right, we go up and uh and I had
the Boils and Bird program going, and we had this
guy who had a camera shop and Boulder, and so
we go up there and meet with the guy and uh,
and of course we weren't We didn't know if we
could get him on. You know, it was we couldn't
clear his credit. But he had this drop dead gorgeous daughter,
(07:33):
and I mean, we just could not believe how beautiful
this girl was. And he was he was like a
German immigrant or something, and he was doing a camera shop.
So so we're we're sitting down, we do the seal,
we do the clothes. He was going to run this,
run this deal for two or three weeks, and I
think it was a going out of business or what
(07:55):
have you. And so we're like, okay, well we'll take
we'll take. It's got to cut us a check for Alan,
check for Peter, and check for the radio station. So
so we go back and we finished the pitch, and
what does Boyles do or Berg does. He takes it
straight to the bank and hammers the check and Boyle's
(08:17):
delayed his till the end of the day. And of
course the station I turned it into accounting. Well, the
only check that cleared was Alan's check, So the whole thing,
everything else was just hilarious as we're laughing, because all
we wanted to do was, you know, talk to his daughter.
(08:39):
But of course Alan was a shrewd guy who took
that check straight to the bank.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Alan Berg was as much a shrewd businessman as he
was a charismatic on their talent, and that was an
important part of the job during this nascent period of
talk radio.
Speaker 9 (08:52):
He could come in and talk and he just you know,
he'd butter him up. And another one other cornball client
we had to remember, we had a these are the
funnier ones. We had a woman who ran Missus Claus's
closet and this was like a Christmas gift shop, and
(09:14):
we did that with Berg and Boils, and it was
just Berg was making so much fun about the client.
They ended up pulling their ad because he was he
thought it was such a goofy deal, you know. And
the other one Boyles might have told you about was
the guys who ran the safes, who they convinced everybody
(09:36):
to put their money in this separate Swiss vaults. It
was called, of course, they used the name Swiss right
Save Money, and and so Berg and Boils were selling
the Swiss vaults and they sold this guy's vaults out
with everybody putting all their money and valuables in it,
(09:56):
and the guy came in at night and stole all
the money out of his own Swiss vault and left
the country.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Between his ability on the air and his acumen on
sales calls, alan Berg had turned himself into something of
a cottage industry in Colorado. Here's his former producer, Susan Rylean.
Speaker 10 (10:13):
Our job is to make money and live. Personality endorsements
began with alan Berg because if that personality can go
on the air and say this is my guy, this
is the restaurant that I eat at, people will go
and eat at that restaurant if that personality tells them
to do so. But I think alan Berg was one
(10:34):
of the first ones and one of the best ones
for companies like our Heart to make a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Of course, he could be pretty unpredictable when it finally
came time to read the ads live on the air.
Take for example, this ad for a local home security company.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
But however, we aren't it You want to keep it right.
Everyone wants to keep there is to get more of
the other guys. Isn't that the true However, trying just
wants to protect you against those crazy burglars on the
street before they hit that house, and before that burglary
could ever possibly occur. What will happen is a screaming
siren and a flowlight will be released. It will emanate
across your neighborhood there because if he wiggles something debug,
(11:11):
knowing that that person's in the v scene will say
I got you, and he'll trigger all this all out.
He will go out and bite them on the leg.
And you're saving home with your children in the JC
Penny underwear saying oh mommy, I'm safe any of that
kind of stuff. So what I would do today is
culver trunks bug people. Get your free twenty four point
burglary analysis brochure.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Now Here is where things suddenly go off the rails.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
All right, You want to save your life, save your
dollars in case those hookers show up for dollars recks.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Here's your chance to do it.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Protect your dollars right now and make those hookers secure
when you bring them home when the wife's away on
the trip in Hawaii saying hi, honk, I'm home with
the kids, and you whip the chick down there to
the base, which you'll be safe though case and shows
the burglar won't ever get to testify against you. This way,
he will split the scene, never knowing that, in fact,
you have this hooker down there for a dollar in
the basement locked For many years.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Every indication was that alen Berg could go rogue on
these live ad reads without any repercussions, which speaks to
how popular and powerful he was at that time. If
that last read wasn't enough of a testament to his
influence in the market, try this one for a local restaurant.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Called WILLI Wing. They why away Willy's Wing? I mean
this is hot step now. We were at the one
on Zoh Broadway and it's a miracle that they actually
got me here in time. Small stomach bomb, but I'm
okay now, like any.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Remember you know I love them, I'm crazy about them.
I you know I did? Is I overrate? That's what happened.
I ate too many?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Like what that's Alan Berg on the air talking about
how a station sponsor's food made him sick and getting
paid to do it. That's pretty brazen. It's also pretty funny.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
They're nice.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
It's a nice different kind of snack. Let's put it
that way. Gone to the night or picnic tomorrow. Really,
that's right. Particularly if you don't like your children, just
give them many of these and to go off in
the woods hemorrhaging.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
No, I don't any reason for one second of belay
that they aren't good.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
And I give can I I was a little gassy anyway.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
I have an old stomach condition last night. Anyway, It's
called nervousness from the Dorean. So don't even judge me
by what I say here.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
All of this contributed to the persona alan Berg had
cultivated for years before refining and perfecting it at KOA,
about vilion on air presence, beholden to his listeners and
his own personal sensibilities, but not to business interests. Years before,
that philosophy had gotten him fired and left him desperate
for a new radio job, But now dominating the airways
(13:47):
with KOA, it made him iconic. Even the way Allenberg
looked and acted in the KOA studio set him apart
from the typical on air personality.
Speaker 9 (13:58):
He was always talking and slovenly, and and he had
dandruff coming off on his shoulders, and and you know,
and he was just yeah, it was. It was. It
was like a kid's playroom, you know, just messy in
papers everywhere, and very very entertaining.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Berg also had a tendency to chain smoke cigarettes in
the radio, a habit that is calling Ken Hamlin reflected
on after his death.
Speaker 11 (14:28):
I said, we had some cat fights and we did
damn it. We used to go round and round about
Burg cigarette smoking. And I used to work the midnight
to five in the morning shift, and twice a week
he'd start damn trash.
Speaker 9 (14:40):
Fires smoking the radio. Both we we we sat in
the sales room and the general manager and I would
smoke cigars in the office.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Alan Burg's fiery on air persona was starting to gain
a larger and larger audience across the country. But there
was another Burg, for some away from the microphone, that
was just as compelling and far more engaging. Here is
Berg's brending colleague, Peter Boyles.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
He dressed for radio, I mean, most impeccable dresser probably
ever known in my life. And I dressed like a bum.
But he would ties and turtlenecks and sport codes and
suits and impeccable sport codes. I mean he really wasn't
a clothes horse.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Alan Berg didn't use his stove and his cabinets for
cooking and keeping groceries. He used them to store his
impressive shoe collection. He would have put those shoes in
his other cabinets, but those were filled with his collection
of jazz records. Alan Berg's knowledge of shoes was so
voluminous that he occasionally hosted a segment on the air
that he called toastrology, on which he could put together
(15:50):
a profile of a woman's personality based on the kinds
of shoes she wore.
Speaker 10 (15:55):
I wear by eight tu, and I'm wearing a black
open coat.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Black open toe, all right? And what with with is
very important?
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Okay? Well double A, double A. H Okay, that's double
A is like I have a sea. First of all,
your shoe your foot is narrower than that. But you
had to settle for a double A. Fere you actually
I sent your a quade, but you had to go
to a double A.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
And your foot is spreading, oh earhead of course.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
See if you don't get the proper within the shoe,
it means the foot's gonna spread. And you know what
happens to the rest of the body, breast starts sagging,
the stomach starts sagging. You lose your whole shape. You
don't keep the right width going in your foot. The
whole body goes. Then it begins to affect the brain.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
That's true. Believe that or not. It's up to you. Okay,
Now I'm with your life.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
I have last come. It's seventy eight pair of shoes.
Seventy eight pair of shoes. Seventy eight pair, and this
is the lowest I've ever had in my life.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
You mass seventy eight pair of shoes.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
So I walk in the closet and I end up
working the same free pair almost every day because I
must say up the seventy eight pair. My Fred has
cut the inventory down to forty one last week out
what Fred? Yeah, I don't know how he has well.
I can't talk because I have the X ray his
stomach to determine that. Oh for because he's eaten all
(17:14):
these shoes.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
My dog is in the leather.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Allenberg loved talking shoes and never hesitated to discuss his
most beloved life companion, an Airedale Terrier named Fred, who
with his floppy hair, wore an uncanny resemblance to his owner.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Well, I tell you that's one dog. I love that
he had a bath yesterday. He looks gorgeous. You're a
part with him?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Oh? No way, there's nothing in the world a maybe
part with Fred, unless it was a job with WFCA
New York.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Well, good luck, all right, thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Here's Allen Berg's longtime colleague Tom Martine.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
And then he talked about was it Fred? Yeah, talked
about Fred. He freaking loved Now. That was the deepest
he ever got when it came to feelings his dog.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah, that was genuine.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
That wasn't a stick. He loved him.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Oh wait, why do you see Fred? Myerdad what our
first public appearance? Fred's gonna beat her? I see it?
Speaker 7 (18:10):
Thank you and goodbye?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I mean through a lot of bad nights.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Okay, right, not what line?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
What do we do here?
Speaker 12 (18:14):
Now?
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Alan Berg might not have been liberally sharing the personal
details of his life on the air, but he did
occasionally offer a glimpse into the truly complex individual he was,
and there was one go to topic that most reflected
that complexity. I'm talking, of course, about politics. Here's Peter
Boyles on Allan's politics.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Left of center Chicago liberal Wontakami. I mean he was
a left of liberal, left of center liberal, very civil
rights African Americans, Jews, women, he was. He was a
sixties liberal. You know, if you look up nineteen sixty
eight liberal America, his picture would be there. That's who
(18:56):
he was.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Bear in mind that the height of Allan's Runkowa came
during Ronald Reagan's first presidential term, and when it came
to the sitting US President, Berg didn't hold back.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Of course, Reagan has taken a step backwards, and a
lot of people said old, but he appointed a black guy.
This black guy he appointed hasn't even been in the
company of a black man in twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
And I don't really know.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
That, but I would guess that I have to go
to news. All right, I appreciate your call. I don't
think any president will be able to please all the
people all the time.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
They're not supposed to.
Speaker 10 (19:28):
Well, what do you feel?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
This was most of work for the betterment of the
whole country, and don't try to please the masses per se.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
But get a job done.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Okay, Well, misster, Reagan has set up a stage here
right now, and the stage is about the fallout from
under first of White Al said Reagan didn't know anything
about it until just recently. Now we've learned he's known
about it for months. Yeah, and then when they asked
Nancy Reagan about it, she said she didn't know messing
about it. Well, I don't think Nancy Reagan knows anything
about anything.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Alan Berg was happy the host guests of all political
persuasion on his show and hold them in equal contempt.
And he made it clear whenever possible that it wasn't
one party or another he had problems with.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
It is an attack on Ray because he's our current president.
I've attacked Carnor, I've attacked every president that ever lived,
because they're all one and the same. They're a bunch
a greedy power maniacs who could care less about the
well bang of anybody.
Speaker 13 (20:20):
Something I said about five words.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Well, I know what you would say anyway, go ahead,
I said it was our whole audience. He've been whining
on talk radio for somebody is why do you listen?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
If it offends you?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Take a walk li one, you're on Kowa.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
But alan Berg didn't see tearing down the entire political
infrastructure as a solution to help save America. He still
believed deeply in American institutions, even if they were flawed,
and there was one particular incident involving former American Secretary
of State Henry Kissinger that got him really fired up.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Alan Camplan, you're on KOA talk radio with Alan Berg?
Are you there?
Speaker 9 (20:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Okay, On, So what's the story? I heard you? I
just found out about this yesterday. Now, what did you
do to Henry Kissinger?
Speaker 7 (21:04):
What did Henry Kissing to do to the naighth He.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Said, Oh, okay, but let's start with the actual circumstance.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Did happen? I understand you walked up Daim Was it
the airport?
Speaker 1 (21:12):
The woman's name was Ellen Kaplan, and the twenty nine
year old volunteer for a pro nuclear power group made
headlines in nineteen eighty two when she confronted Kissinger and
his wife Nancy at Newark International Airport. It was while
the couple waited aboard a flight to Boston did Kaplin
asked Kissinger about his work in the White House before
asking him if he slept with boys at the Carlisle Hotel.
(21:35):
Kaplin later accused Nancy Kissinger of grabbing her in response
to that question. Allenberg may have been no fan of
Henry Kissinger, but he took serious issue with Kaplan's behavior
when he hosted her on his show following this incident.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Did you know at the time he just had open
heart surgery? Did you?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
I did not know?
Speaker 2 (21:52):
How could you not know? Ellen?
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Are you're your political activist? You mean this all this time?
You have never read a story anywhere that, in fact,
he had open heart surgery.
Speaker 7 (22:01):
There you're acting like a pig.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
You're you're a pathetic human being.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
You know what? You are one of the most vile
human beings to walk up to a human being. If
Nancy Kissinger merely choked you, she was only mistaken one sense.
It's too bad she'd have a gun and blow you away.
You're one of the slimiest human beings. And how much
is are you Jewish? Are you?
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Okay, I'm Jewish.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
I'm ashamed that you belong to my people, and I'm
sure most Jews in his country are.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
And the fact that you walk up.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
This man and said this on a totally unsupported accusation,
it's sick. It's disgusting, sweetheart. They should put you in jail.
You are the slime of the art. Honey, sue me
if you will. Since you're gonna sue Nancy, Baby, why
don't you sue me for defamation?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
You take it? I got You're a creeps waiting.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
The exchange was so volatile that heernberger short lived suspension
from KOA, something that almost never happened despite his numerous
angry exchanges with callers and rogue ad readings. But exchanges
like this one didn't just struck criticism from Berg's employers.
When a call ended with a woman being flustered or
even humiliated, Burg would be accused of being a misogynist.
(23:09):
To be fair, allen Berg did occasionally cross the line
with women collers, just as he did with all talkers,
and there were certain discussions that didn't exactly make him
look like an ally.
Speaker 10 (23:20):
I love talking about women breastfeeding in public. That was
that was always a tough topic. Women and Google Go
Go Boots. He's loved women in Go Go boots.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
A woman has to breadstpeet a ju how hard he
has to go somewhere and not get staut with him?
Speaker 2 (23:36):
I mean, how a woman bludding breadth.
Speaker 7 (23:38):
Needs to be humbled and sick because you have breath
or to be humbled in sick because he has a
child at that. And I think it's a simple aspect
of the third thing you don't do. I mean, if
there's one of a series of things that I think
are intimate in private, not to be a public desployer,
because this is veil wive with lots of people around.
(23:58):
And then what gets me more angry if a woman
is sitting there, look youve me like, what are you
looking at? Obviously I'm going to look.
Speaker 10 (24:05):
Well, he didn't think that it was proper for a
woman to actually do that in public? Who would want
to see that? Who wants to see a woman feeding
a child? Who wants to see their breasts like that?
And I, you know, and I would tease him, and
I just said, oh god, men are such boys some
what is this fascination with women in their breasts? So
(24:27):
all of a sudden, a breast is attractive in general,
but not when you're breastfeeding in a child. I said,
I don't even know, why do we do this topic?
Why do you like this topic? But every time he
saw a woman breastfeeding in public, we'd be back talking
about breastfeeding in public. I just wish he would stop
seeing it. It's like, please, please don't. Could we just
(24:49):
not talk about this on.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
The air anywhere?
Speaker 1 (24:51):
By the low bar set for most middle aged men
in the nineteen eighties, alan Berg was practically a renaissance
man when it came to his views on women, but
when it came to talking about sex, alan simply couldn't
help himself.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Never mind what the Yankee stuff. Whatever you do is
in the privacy of your own anyway, either paper or
metri bait, you know. And now I'll wait a minute, sir,
there's children listening. Look crazy, man, here I am saying
that just like nothing masturbate huh, just like that, like
it was just a casual word to be thrown out there.
(25:28):
Why do you think young children are turning on the
streets selling their bodies because they hair words like masturbation.
That's where the world has gone mad, ask Ric, who
sits back there many times contemplating his navel age six
one talk eight six one eight two five. That's disgusting
the fact that a person would actually do some massage.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Oh, by the way, where's that new what's the author
I'm having?
Speaker 13 (25:46):
Got?
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Oh? I can't wait. This is kind of a masturbation.
Oh here, well, this is gonna be exciting. I got
a guest coming up, doctor Michael Fox's massage program for
cats and dogs. Which you don't know is you have
been massaging your dog wrong for years.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
These kinds of conversations inevitably incited Pauls accusing Berg of
peddling pornography. But he carefully walked the line between pervert
and creep, and he never kink shamed, and he certainly
never attacked women who acknowledged the existence of a human libido.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
My guess today is Brenda, we will leave it at
that name here, not so you shouldn't be harassed anymore
in the phone book.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Although I don't think your name is in the phone book,
is it not?
Speaker 11 (26:26):
Really?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Not really?
Speaker 3 (26:28):
By way, Branda as Plat an experience with prostitution a background,
and it is now into another line of endeavor. But
she's here today to talk about many aspects of prostitution. Okay,
bro let's start with this. If I gave you one
hundred dollars right, not white, Let's say, can't believe it?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Would you said it? Well, just take a check.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
This is actually from an episode of Alan's short lived
TV show Bird's guest is a former prostitute, and for
thirty minutes they engage in a mostly adult conversation about sex.
It's informative and interesting. In fact, the only awkwardness arises
when Alan tries to turn on his signature chart.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Oh you, have you ever been in bed with a
man who was really good? And he said, besides myself, obviously,
But I mean, have you ever been in bed with
a man who all of a sudden really turns you on?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Not only you Alan?
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Okay, well, we're just the answer. It was the way
I talked before and after. Of course I made her
so nervous, he says, Hello an orgasm. Just to get
rid of this guy, I'll do anything. No, really, let
me ask you this. You are a stunning woman. There's
no question. Have you got a shot on this lady here?
I mean, she is an attractive woman. You run, you
could be a fashion you could be a lot of things.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
You have a toys about you, a grace. Can I
tell the truth. I'm in love with you. I'm here,
You're right so everything. I want to get you out
of this business, imily back.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
I did get right of this is through I said,
he in a medical school.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
She's now a brain surgeon. You wouldn't know that right away,
you didn't bring your stethoscope.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Now bear in mind that this is an exchange on
local network television in the early nineteen eighties. There is
literally a war beginning at this time across the country
for the soul of the American family. And Alan Berg
is hosting a former prostitute dressed demurely in a brown
jacket over a white blouse and talking about sex. No shame,
no name calling, just honesty.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Essentially, men are coming to you for sex quite obviously, right.
They're not coming to you, of course now they will
be coming you for brain surgery. Honestly, did get your
license and all that. But what are they essentially coming
for that they're not getting at home?
Speaker 13 (28:15):
What I think, more or less, what they're afraid to
ask their wife. I think the wife or the girlfriend
should feel the guy out, find out what he really
is into. I think she should be more open minded,
you know, and then he would not have to go
elsewhere and have his desires for filled, or his fantasies
for filled, or something that you know, he thinks he
would be too scared to ask her to do.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
But I think we're all prostituts degrees, don't you.
Speaker 11 (28:39):
To a degree?
Speaker 13 (28:40):
I think most women are.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
The conversation actually evolves when another prostitute calls into the
show to share her.
Speaker 6 (28:46):
Thoughts that don't you find now, I mean more nowadays
that more and more prostitutes are well educated girls, girls
who have gone to college, have a college education, and
are really basically pretty smart girls.
Speaker 13 (29:00):
They are most of the ones I know are really
smart ladies.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Now that's a good points here, rise, What does that indicate?
What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (29:08):
I want there were more intelligent, want to do better
things with their lives, end up being prostitutes for something,
any girl with no education good do?
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Why is it?
Speaker 6 (29:16):
No? No, The thing is, I'm a prostitute myself, but
I have girlfriends that are prostitute and they're well college educate, educute.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
Let's be clear.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
At times during this episode, allen Berg carried himself with
all the maturity of a middle schooler, but he mostly
conducted a pretty sophisticated and comic exchange about the world's
oldest profession on a local TV network affiliate in the
nineteen eighties. It's not salacious, it's not body, it's not raunchy.
(29:44):
It's kind of groundbreaking, and it generated plenty of discussion
once the show is over. Once again, Here's Burg's producer, Susan.
Speaker 9 (29:52):
Ryder Ellen was.
Speaker 10 (29:55):
What makes talk radio, talk radio interesting, poignant, relevant, what
holds an audience to a radio station. Alan Berg, I
believe is one of the most brilliant talk show hosts
(30:16):
that I ever had the pleasure of working with. He
taught me a lot about how to keep an audience
tuned in, how to keep them engaged, how to not
take them for granted, to treat them with respect, and
figure out what is gonna keep them s tuned into
this radio station. That's what we do every single day.
(30:37):
You have to keep this audience engaged, cause it's all
about the money, and if you're not keeping them through
that break, they're not buying anything. That's what Alan did,
kept him through the break, keep them through that quarter hour,
make sure that, cause everything is built on quarter hours.
You have to get 'em through the commercial to the
next break, and that goes over the quarter hour. He
(31:00):
got it, He got but he knew what made people listen.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Every woman who ever worked with Alan Berg, and there
were several immediately refused the idea that Alan was a misogynist.
Here's one of them, Former CHOA producer Lori Cantillo.
Speaker 14 (31:17):
Yes, he was very progressive in terms of his views
of women. He look his wife, Judith or ex wife,
was a very strong woman, and I always found him
to be very polite and professional and cordial. And you're right.
Radio in the early eighties was a very male dominated
(31:41):
world and continues to be so to this day. In fact,
when I started as a news anchor on KOA, I
recall that a caller had called to the board and said,
get that bitch off the air, and that really stayed
with me. But Alan really enjoyed and had very positive
(32:01):
working relationships with all of the women on the staff.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
And while Alan's relationship with women callers could be contentious,
he was nothing short of charming when it came to
his romantic entanglements.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
He loved women, truly loved He was the man who
loved women. Watching Alan Berg in a booth in a
restaurant with a woman was like watching Demaggio bat He
was the best. I mean, women loved him. But finally
when he came around with Linda, she was so different
(32:35):
than all the other women, and I went through a
lot of women with him, And here's Linda, and she
was just a special woman. She's great. It's great for him.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Alan met Linda McVeigh at a concert in Denver and
was immediately smitten.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
And I think Linda understood how neurotic we all were,
and and I think she guided him, probably more than
I'll ever know. She was a stabling force in that
guy's life.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
But as with everything else in Allenburgh's life, it was
never quite that easy. Here is Burt biographer Steven Singular.
Speaker 12 (33:13):
They went out for a while and she said, he said,
we should live together. You should move into my apartment.
And she said, now, it would never work if I'm
around you that much. We're around each other, it'll never work.
We see each other once in a while, that's good. Hey,
(33:35):
hammereder hammered her for a while, and she said, okay,
I'll move in. So she collected her cat and whatever
she had.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
She went over.
Speaker 12 (33:46):
She got to his apartment. She settled there for an hour.
He started pacing. He was very nervous. He didn't know
what to do. And he said something to the effect of, well,
maybe you should go. I think It's safe to say
he wasn't that big on commitment when it came to women.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Okay, Alan Brooks's personal life was still uniquely complicated, and
his work life was about to get even more complicated
as well.
Speaker 12 (34:18):
The radical right in the United States was sort of
gearing up. Berg would take him on, take anybody on
who was in that ILK would never back down from it.
Speaker 10 (34:28):
I talked to him afterwards and I just said, I'm
not sure we should do this anymore. I'm scared for
your safety.
Speaker 9 (34:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
Fred Wilkens came into the studio and I'm hard to believe.
I'm in a bar with a guy named Charlie Martin
and the light beer guy comes in and says they
just tried to co Alan.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
That's next time on live Wire, The Loud Life and
Shocking Murder of Alan Berg. Live Wire is a production
of iHeart Podcasts and Modulator Media. For more podcasts from
iHeart Podcasts, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
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