February 18, 2024 • 15 mins
Original Air Date: February 18, 2024
Bernie Wagenblast is the voice of our subways! She also recently came out as a transgender woman.
Bernie Wagenblast is the voice of our subways! She also recently came out as a transgender woman.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio,conversations about issues that matter. Here's your
host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein. I want to introduce
you to a New York icon.You may not know the name, Bernie
wagon Blast, but you do knowwhat she is most famous for. Take
(00:25):
it away, Bernie, please standaway from the platform edge. And the
next Downtown Number one is approaching thestation. Please stand away from the platform
edge. And of course there standclear. That's not me though, that's
not you, No, that's CharliePellett. Give it, there's two of
(00:45):
you. This is the voice.Bernie Wagenblast is the voice of our subways.
How did you get that job?It was? They came to me.
I did not even know about it. I was working at the top
Well at one time for the PortAuthority, and I knew somebody from the
(01:06):
MTA, And it turned out thatyears later he had responsibility for coming up
with this new countdown clock system thatthey were going to run out run on
the subway stations. And he knewmy background was in radio, and said,
hey, we need a voice.Would you be interested? And I
said, sure, that sounds likefun. I had no idea what it
involved, but it sounded like fun. Wow. So tell me your background
(01:32):
in radio, because you're one ofus. Yes, I am. Yeah.
Started back at Siedenhall University WSOU,where I was very involved. I
was the news director, I wasthe station manager. Got a job when
I was in college still first onewas at a five hundred what daytimer in
Elizabeth, New Jersey, WJDM.My first New York City job was at
(01:53):
WHN, a country music station herein the city. And my big break
was in December of nineteen seventy nine, this new company called Shadow Traffic came
to New York to start doing trafficreports on the radio, and I was
one of the original traffic reporters thatwas hired by Shadow Traffic. And two
(02:14):
of my stations were ten ten WINSand WABC, which was still music radio
seventy seven back in the day.And my very first report was with Dan
Ingram, a legendary DJ. WowWow, and did you use your name
Bernie wagon Blast? On all ofthe stations except WABC, they came up
(02:34):
with the name, and actually itwas Dan Ingram that came up with the
name of Jack Packard one morning andif you look on YouTube, you'll find
a recording of this. It wasmy first report six o'clock on a Monday
morning. I forgot who I wasand I blurted out, I'm Bernie wagon
Blast and I immediately realized what Idid and stop. Actually I'm Jack Packard,
(02:57):
and I thought that was the endof my broadcast career. Thank goodness
it was. I did live tobroadcast another day and actually many more days.
And what do you so? Firstof all, I think everyone would
want to know, are you paidresiduals for this? You know, because
you are an iconic voice. Imean, you are the voice. I
(03:19):
wish if I could get paid onepenny for every time my voice runs in
the subway, I would be arich person exactly. But no, I
just get paid for the recording sessions, and which is fine with me.
How many recording sessions have you hadin like? How long do they last?
The first one was in two thousandand nine when they were getting ready
to roll out the system. Thatone lasted a couple of days. We
(03:44):
probably did about one thousand recordings.Because if you listen to it in the
subway, it sounds very staccato,broken up because the computer is putting together
all these little recordings to make thelonger recording. So I would go in
and record things like uptown, downtown, Brooklyn bound, and then first second,
all the way up to two hundredand fifty fifth, all different types
(04:05):
of things that I would have torecord that they could possibly use. Probably
the majority of them have never beenrun. But after that first session,
I've only had two more recording sessionssince then. I did one just before
COVID where we had to record somenew announcements for the seven line because they
(04:25):
were rolling out the voice there,and I think, for instance, originally
I had recorded it as Shay Stadium, but obviously that was not appropriate anymore,
so we had to do it asmetz Willet's point. And I did
one just this last December because theyhoped to have it rolling out on some
of the lettered lines before too long. Have you ever stood on a platform
(04:47):
or stood on a train and doyour voice as your voice is heard by
the other straphangers, just to freakpeople out. Although I'm also the voice
on the AirTrain at York Airport,and I have done it there mainly so
I could bug my daughters to seehow much I could embarrass them just by
(05:11):
I said, Hey, I thinkI can do a good imitation of this
voice, and I would repeat whatI had just said, and people were
amazed at how much I sounded likethe voice on the air train. And
you didn't just say, no,I am the voice on the air train,
right, No, I did not. My daughters weren't dying when I
was doing that. But don't youdo this for other transit systems around the
country. There are three transit systemsthat I'm the voice on, So the
(05:35):
AirTrain at York Airport, obviously,the New York City subway, and also
Patco, which is the transit linewhich runs between South Jersey and Philadelphia.
And then if you call a pathto find out when the trains are running,
on the voice that will answer thephone there on the voice that answers
the phone at the port authority's mainphone number. So I do a few
(05:56):
different transportation things, but all ofit's here in the Northeast. And do
you do anything else? Oh,I do some occasional video narrations, but
I'm semi retirem these days. Sowhat I also do. I do a
couple of transportation related podcasts for clients. I also do one in my hometown
of Cranford, New Jersey, whichis really geared to just as a public
(06:16):
service to interview folks about the town. And then I'll do some electronic transportation
newsletters for different clients. So it'senough to keep me busy, but enough
where I also have free time todo things I want to do. So
I am speaking with Bernie Wagonblast,the voice on our subways and the air
(06:38):
train and Patco, which if youvisit Philly you will hear Bernie's voice.
But the other reason that I invitedBernie Wagonblast to join me this morning is
that Bernie recently transitioned. Bernie wasborn male and is now female. Tell
(07:00):
me about I mean this is it'sbecoming more and more common, but it
is still unusual, and everybody,of course, has their own story.
So can you share your story withus? Sure, I'll do the very
abbreviated version. I've known that Iwas trans from my earliest memories, but
(07:23):
I grew up in the nineteen sixtiesand the nineteen seventies and that just wasn't
something I felt that I could evershare with anyone, and I tried to
deal with it in a few ways. One of them was I really focused
on my career of broadcasting. Iwas really into radio and I was very
fortunate that I was able to beon the air in New York, so
that was a good way to focusmy energies on that. But as time
(07:49):
went on, obviously this never wentaway, and starting around twenty seventeen,
I started taking steps to transition.I wanted to take as many steps as
I could short of socially transitioning thatmaybe I felt would be enough for me
and I wouldn't have to socially transition. But it did get to the point
(08:13):
actually just a little over a yearago January first of twenty twenty three,
a few days before I posted onsocial media that there was going to be
a new Bernie that people were goingto meet. And as of January first,
I started living my life as awoman and it has been wonderful.
But what steps did you take firstbefore you socially took that enormous step.
(08:37):
Well, the very first one wasa very low dose of female hormones,
hoping that maybe that would sort ofcalm that anxiety that was within me.
That was one thing. Another thingthat I did was changing my name.
My old legal name was Bernard,but I've always gone by Bernie. But
(09:01):
now I consider Bernie short for Bernadette. So it was a name that worked
for either a man or a woman. So that was one of the things
I changed. A funny story backin early nineteen nineties, I had to
get a new copy of my birthcertificate for the passport office. And I
was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey. So I went to Elizabeth City Hall
(09:22):
to get a copy of that,and I'm reading through it and I look
up in the upper corner and Isee that they had typed on the birth
certificate female for my sex. Sothat was quite a surprise. Wow,
that's bizarre, right, Yeah,it apparently happens from time to time,
they tell me. But with that, I was able to change the gender
(09:43):
marker on my driver's license to female, because that's what my birth certificate said,
so long before I socially transitioned,my driver's license already had a big
f on it. Now you weremarried or are you still married? I
am still married at the present time. We are separated, however, And
how old are your children? They'reall adults. They range from thirty nine
(10:05):
to thirty five, And how didyou break the news to them and how
did they react. I told themabout myself before I had plans to transition,
and it was very difficult sharing thatwith my daughters. I had told
my future wife about this way backin nineteen eighty because I felt it was
(10:28):
important that she know about that beforeshe agreed to marry me. But our
daughters did not know about this,and we did not tell them until around
twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen. Andthey were all very supportive and very loving.
And were they adults then, yes, okay, yeah. Were they
surprised? Yeah? I think so. I don't think that there were too
(10:52):
many hints that I had given away. What was also interesting, I have
seven grandkids, and the oldest ofthem is currently thirteen, but at the
time I think he was probably nine, and the youngest now is two.
They adjusted almost instantly. It wasnot a big deal to them. It
was just, oh, okay,pop Up's a girl now, so did
(11:16):
you change? Is pop Up?No longer pop up now? They still
call me pop Up and You're okaywith that. Whatever they I've said to
them and their parents, whatever theywant to call me is fine with me,
and my daughters can still call meDad. And what sort of reaction
did you get when you finally sociallycame out. It has been amazing.
(11:39):
I told people in my hometown alittle before I socially transitioned, and they
were wonderful. I got a textfrom the police chief, a letter in
the mail from the mayor, acall from the president of the Board of
Education, all we've got your back, we support you one hundred percent.
(12:00):
Have been great, and my colleaguesin broadcasting and transportation have been one hundred
percent supportive across the board. Ithas been I wasn't sure what I was
going to see. I was ready, since I grew up in Crawford,
that if I had to, Iwould move to Burlington, Vermont, where
two of my daughters live, andnobody would know me up there except my
(12:22):
family, and I could start overagain. But after the reaction I had
from my hometown, I decided,I'm staying here and I'm going to live
in Crawford for as long as Ipossibly can. And the relationship you have,
how long have you been in arelationship forty three years? Wow?
So at what point did you tellher? I told her in nineteen eighty.
(12:46):
It was, Oh, that's right, you said that, But I
mean, all right, so I'mtrying to get a point of reference.
How deep you were into the relationship. Well, we had a very and
we had an unusual courtship. Imet her at the end of August and
we were engaged on Halloween the sameyear. Only it was less than three
(13:07):
months wow, a little over twomonths actually from when we first met to
when we were engaged. And Itold her probably it was late September or
early October, because it was apparentto me that I was going to ask
her to marry me. So Itold her probably a little over a month
after I first met her. Andwhat was her initial reaction? She was
(13:31):
wonderful. She's not surprised. NotI think she was surprised. I don't
think you can hear something like thatwithout being surprised. But she said,
that's fine. I told her,I have no plans to ever transition and
live as a woman, because,again, nineteen eighty I just did not
see that as something that was feasiblein my life. But she was there
(13:56):
and has been supporting, supportive ofme up until I socially transition, and
understandably for her, that was notwhat she bargained for. And we have
separated, but we still are friendsand we still communicate and such. Okay,
we only have about a minute left. What would you like to share
with the audience that we may nothave covered. I think one of the
(14:18):
things I would like to say is, you know, being one of the
voices of the subway, I'm inpeople's ears every day while they're going to
work and when they're coming home fromwork, and just to see trans people
as another part of everyday life.Being trans is just one part of my
identity. I'm a father, I'ma grandfather, I'm a spouse, I'm
(14:39):
a broadcaster. There are many differentthings that I am, but being trans
is just part of who I am. I thank you so much, and
I hope that you know, ifsomebody is listening and you feel that you
want to take on on this journey, that this inspires you and helps you.
(15:05):
And by the way, so ifpeople want to get in touch with
you, can they sure. Yeah, I'm the only Bernie wagon Blast in
the world. Very easy to googlebecause that's how I reached Bernie wagon Blast.
You've been listening to Sunsteen sessions oniHeartRadio, a production of New York's
classic rock Q one O four pointthree
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio,conversations about issues that matter. Here's your
host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein. I want to introduce
you to a New York icon.You may not know the name, Bernie
wagon Blast, but you do knowwhat she is most famous for. Take
(00:25):
it away, Bernie, please standaway from the platform edge. And the
next Downtown Number one is approaching thestation. Please stand away from the platform
edge. And of course there standclear. That's not me though, that's
not you, No, that's CharliePellett. Give it, there's two of
(00:45):
you. This is the voice.Bernie Wagenblast is the voice of our subways.
How did you get that job?It was? They came to me.
I did not even know about it. I was working at the top
Well at one time for the PortAuthority, and I knew somebody from the
(01:06):
MTA, And it turned out thatyears later he had responsibility for coming up
with this new countdown clock system thatthey were going to run out run on
the subway stations. And he knewmy background was in radio, and said,
hey, we need a voice.Would you be interested? And I
said, sure, that sounds likefun. I had no idea what it
involved, but it sounded like fun. Wow. So tell me your background
(01:32):
in radio, because you're one ofus. Yes, I am. Yeah.
Started back at Siedenhall University WSOU,where I was very involved. I
was the news director, I wasthe station manager. Got a job when
I was in college still first onewas at a five hundred what daytimer in
Elizabeth, New Jersey, WJDM.My first New York City job was at
(01:53):
WHN, a country music station herein the city. And my big break
was in December of nineteen seventy nine, this new company called Shadow Traffic came
to New York to start doing trafficreports on the radio, and I was
one of the original traffic reporters thatwas hired by Shadow Traffic. And two
(02:14):
of my stations were ten ten WINSand WABC, which was still music radio
seventy seven back in the day.And my very first report was with Dan
Ingram, a legendary DJ. WowWow, and did you use your name
Bernie wagon Blast? On all ofthe stations except WABC, they came up
(02:34):
with the name, and actually itwas Dan Ingram that came up with the
name of Jack Packard one morning andif you look on YouTube, you'll find
a recording of this. It wasmy first report six o'clock on a Monday
morning. I forgot who I wasand I blurted out, I'm Bernie wagon
Blast and I immediately realized what Idid and stop. Actually I'm Jack Packard,
(02:57):
and I thought that was the endof my broadcast career. Thank goodness
it was. I did live tobroadcast another day and actually many more days.
And what do you so? Firstof all, I think everyone would
want to know, are you paidresiduals for this? You know, because
you are an iconic voice. Imean, you are the voice. I
(03:19):
wish if I could get paid onepenny for every time my voice runs in
the subway, I would be arich person exactly. But no, I
just get paid for the recording sessions, and which is fine with me.
How many recording sessions have you hadin like? How long do they last?
The first one was in two thousandand nine when they were getting ready
to roll out the system. Thatone lasted a couple of days. We
(03:44):
probably did about one thousand recordings.Because if you listen to it in the
subway, it sounds very staccato,broken up because the computer is putting together
all these little recordings to make thelonger recording. So I would go in
and record things like uptown, downtown, Brooklyn bound, and then first second,
all the way up to two hundredand fifty fifth, all different types
(04:05):
of things that I would have torecord that they could possibly use. Probably
the majority of them have never beenrun. But after that first session,
I've only had two more recording sessionssince then. I did one just before
COVID where we had to record somenew announcements for the seven line because they
(04:25):
were rolling out the voice there,and I think, for instance, originally
I had recorded it as Shay Stadium, but obviously that was not appropriate anymore,
so we had to do it asmetz Willet's point. And I did
one just this last December because theyhoped to have it rolling out on some
of the lettered lines before too long. Have you ever stood on a platform
(04:47):
or stood on a train and doyour voice as your voice is heard by
the other straphangers, just to freakpeople out. Although I'm also the voice
on the AirTrain at York Airport,and I have done it there mainly so
I could bug my daughters to seehow much I could embarrass them just by
(05:11):
I said, Hey, I thinkI can do a good imitation of this
voice, and I would repeat whatI had just said, and people were
amazed at how much I sounded likethe voice on the air train. And
you didn't just say, no,I am the voice on the air train,
right, No, I did not. My daughters weren't dying when I
was doing that. But don't youdo this for other transit systems around the
country. There are three transit systemsthat I'm the voice on, So the
(05:35):
AirTrain at York Airport, obviously,the New York City subway, and also
Patco, which is the transit linewhich runs between South Jersey and Philadelphia.
And then if you call a pathto find out when the trains are running,
on the voice that will answer thephone there on the voice that answers
the phone at the port authority's mainphone number. So I do a few
(05:56):
different transportation things, but all ofit's here in the Northeast. And do
you do anything else? Oh,I do some occasional video narrations, but
I'm semi retirem these days. Sowhat I also do. I do a
couple of transportation related podcasts for clients. I also do one in my hometown
of Cranford, New Jersey, whichis really geared to just as a public
(06:16):
service to interview folks about the town. And then I'll do some electronic transportation
newsletters for different clients. So it'senough to keep me busy, but enough
where I also have free time todo things I want to do. So
I am speaking with Bernie Wagonblast,the voice on our subways and the air
(06:38):
train and Patco, which if youvisit Philly you will hear Bernie's voice.
But the other reason that I invitedBernie Wagonblast to join me this morning is
that Bernie recently transitioned. Bernie wasborn male and is now female. Tell
(07:00):
me about I mean this is it'sbecoming more and more common, but it
is still unusual, and everybody,of course, has their own story.
So can you share your story withus? Sure, I'll do the very
abbreviated version. I've known that Iwas trans from my earliest memories, but
(07:23):
I grew up in the nineteen sixtiesand the nineteen seventies and that just wasn't
something I felt that I could evershare with anyone, and I tried to
deal with it in a few ways. One of them was I really focused
on my career of broadcasting. Iwas really into radio and I was very
fortunate that I was able to beon the air in New York, so
that was a good way to focusmy energies on that. But as time
(07:49):
went on, obviously this never wentaway, and starting around twenty seventeen,
I started taking steps to transition.I wanted to take as many steps as
I could short of socially transitioning thatmaybe I felt would be enough for me
and I wouldn't have to socially transition. But it did get to the point
(08:13):
actually just a little over a yearago January first of twenty twenty three,
a few days before I posted onsocial media that there was going to be
a new Bernie that people were goingto meet. And as of January first,
I started living my life as awoman and it has been wonderful.
But what steps did you take firstbefore you socially took that enormous step.
(08:37):
Well, the very first one wasa very low dose of female hormones,
hoping that maybe that would sort ofcalm that anxiety that was within me.
That was one thing. Another thingthat I did was changing my name.
My old legal name was Bernard,but I've always gone by Bernie. But
(09:01):
now I consider Bernie short for Bernadette. So it was a name that worked
for either a man or a woman. So that was one of the things
I changed. A funny story backin early nineteen nineties, I had to
get a new copy of my birthcertificate for the passport office. And I
was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey. So I went to Elizabeth City Hall
(09:22):
to get a copy of that,and I'm reading through it and I look
up in the upper corner and Isee that they had typed on the birth
certificate female for my sex. Sothat was quite a surprise. Wow,
that's bizarre, right, Yeah,it apparently happens from time to time,
they tell me. But with that, I was able to change the gender
(09:43):
marker on my driver's license to female, because that's what my birth certificate said,
so long before I socially transitioned,my driver's license already had a big
f on it. Now you weremarried or are you still married? I
am still married at the present time. We are separated, however, And
how old are your children? They'reall adults. They range from thirty nine
(10:05):
to thirty five, And how didyou break the news to them and how
did they react. I told themabout myself before I had plans to transition,
and it was very difficult sharing thatwith my daughters. I had told
my future wife about this way backin nineteen eighty because I felt it was
(10:28):
important that she know about that beforeshe agreed to marry me. But our
daughters did not know about this,and we did not tell them until around
twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen. Andthey were all very supportive and very loving.
And were they adults then, yes, okay, yeah. Were they
surprised? Yeah? I think so. I don't think that there were too
(10:52):
many hints that I had given away. What was also interesting, I have
seven grandkids, and the oldest ofthem is currently thirteen, but at the
time I think he was probably nine, and the youngest now is two.
They adjusted almost instantly. It wasnot a big deal to them. It
was just, oh, okay,pop Up's a girl now, so did
(11:16):
you change? Is pop Up?No longer pop up now? They still
call me pop Up and You're okaywith that. Whatever they I've said to
them and their parents, whatever theywant to call me is fine with me,
and my daughters can still call meDad. And what sort of reaction
did you get when you finally sociallycame out. It has been amazing.
(11:39):
I told people in my hometown alittle before I socially transitioned, and they
were wonderful. I got a textfrom the police chief, a letter in
the mail from the mayor, acall from the president of the Board of
Education, all we've got your back, we support you one hundred percent.
(12:00):
Have been great, and my colleaguesin broadcasting and transportation have been one hundred
percent supportive across the board. Ithas been I wasn't sure what I was
going to see. I was ready, since I grew up in Crawford,
that if I had to, Iwould move to Burlington, Vermont, where
two of my daughters live, andnobody would know me up there except my
(12:22):
family, and I could start overagain. But after the reaction I had
from my hometown, I decided,I'm staying here and I'm going to live
in Crawford for as long as Ipossibly can. And the relationship you have,
how long have you been in arelationship forty three years? Wow?
So at what point did you tellher? I told her in nineteen eighty.
(12:46):
It was, Oh, that's right, you said that, But I
mean, all right, so I'mtrying to get a point of reference.
How deep you were into the relationship. Well, we had a very and
we had an unusual courtship. Imet her at the end of August and
we were engaged on Halloween the sameyear. Only it was less than three
(13:07):
months wow, a little over twomonths actually from when we first met to
when we were engaged. And Itold her probably it was late September or
early October, because it was apparentto me that I was going to ask
her to marry me. So Itold her probably a little over a month
after I first met her. Andwhat was her initial reaction? She was
(13:31):
wonderful. She's not surprised. NotI think she was surprised. I don't
think you can hear something like thatwithout being surprised. But she said,
that's fine. I told her,I have no plans to ever transition and
live as a woman, because,again, nineteen eighty I just did not
see that as something that was feasiblein my life. But she was there
(13:56):
and has been supporting, supportive ofme up until I socially transition, and
understandably for her, that was notwhat she bargained for. And we have
separated, but we still are friendsand we still communicate and such. Okay,
we only have about a minute left. What would you like to share
with the audience that we may nothave covered. I think one of the
(14:18):
things I would like to say is, you know, being one of the
voices of the subway, I'm inpeople's ears every day while they're going to
work and when they're coming home fromwork, and just to see trans people
as another part of everyday life.Being trans is just one part of my
identity. I'm a father, I'ma grandfather, I'm a spouse, I'm
(14:39):
a broadcaster. There are many differentthings that I am, but being trans
is just part of who I am. I thank you so much, and
I hope that you know, ifsomebody is listening and you feel that you
want to take on on this journey, that this inspires you and helps you.
(15:05):
And by the way, so ifpeople want to get in touch with
you, can they sure. Yeah, I'm the only Bernie wagon Blast in
the world. Very easy to googlebecause that's how I reached Bernie wagon Blast.
You've been listening to Sunsteen sessions oniHeartRadio, a production of New York's
classic rock Q one O four pointthree
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