Well here’s one I was hoping not to write.
I worked with Joan for a few years around the turn of the century when she had her radio show on WOR (a stroke of genius by Hollywood Dave Bernstein the PD). As the APD I helped launch the show and then bowed in and out depending on staffing or where the show was in its life cycle.
The big takeaway I had with Joan was how she was a master of timing. She worked with two writers who would cut up pieces of paper on which they would scribble fast jokes. Joan could be mid-sentence and handed a note and she would read it cold and nail the funny. Really a pleasure to watch.
We did a lot of serious shows as well in the horrible fall of 2001. Folks forget about all the anthrax stuff that fall that followed 9/11. Was it Al Qaeda? Was the mail at the radio station covered? What would happen next to New York City? Scary times.
Toward the end of my run at WOR the PD had been fired, Bob Grant’s producer had had a heart attack and Joan’s producer quit. I was covering all those roles as well as my daily duties producing Dr. Joy Browne. I got quite efficient at booking shows and multitasking.
Joan liked to work. In those days she was frankly overcommitted. She would do work for QVC, and would often land at LaGuardia at 5:30 for a 6pm radio show. She’d walk in as the theme was rolling. We still weren’t at the modern-style smartphone age so it was challenging to communicate with Joan.
The last time we worked together she strolled in at 6:00:01 or whatever and I quickly talked her through the show. She gave me an earful and didn’t like the guests. So I threw back a “well, then you have open phones (meaning no guests, the burden is on the host) tonight.” I was done with Joanie.
A few years later, I can’t remember the details, Jeremy Coleman – who was head of talk for Sirius(-XM?) when I ran comedy there -and I went to Joan’s apartment for a meeting. I don’t recall why but I do remember how gracious and upbeat Joan was, including serving us some delicious iced tea. I’m glad I had that extra meeting with her lest this post would be about the time I told Joan basically to go hose herself.
One more note that doesn’t fit in any of the other paragraphs – it always bothered her that Johnny Carson never forgave her for taking the late show on Fox.
A terrific talent. Hopefully whoever has SiriusXM Comedy now will do a proper tribute.
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Vaguely related update: as I finished this post the neighbor kid came over. His dog ran away and his parents weren’t home. So I hit publish and jumped in the car. Dog safe, all OK. Then ran to soccer practice etc….checked my phone and saw this post was doing well on social media and noticed I had a few typos. Drat. Blame the dog.
