Born bent

Michael Feldman: public radio's original Saturday wisecracker

Originally published in Current, Dec. 1, 1997
By Jacqueline Conciatore

The public radio audience has this rep: bunch of affluent, over-informed commuters. They're supposedly earnest--or as Garrison Keillor says, "Deeply Concerned." Also, and this is the unkindest cut, they're humorless.

But comic Michael Feldman disproves that stereotype, with a weekly audience of 1 million public radio listeners. The comedy/quiz program Whad'Ya Know? is mostly an arena for Feldman to exercise his clever, quick wit. But there's room for silliness; for instance, when he asks "Well, whad'ya know?" at the start of his show, the studio audience ritually yells back a prolonged, "Not much! You?"

Feldman's publicity materials call Whad'Ya Know? "a 20-year overnight sensation," and in fact its climb to success has been sporadic over 12 years. The show had about 80 stations early on, when NPR distributed it. After PRI took over distribution, carriage climbed to 190. A few years ago, PRI started pushing the program as an audience-building followup for NPR's Car Talk. Now, Whad'Ya Know? is heard on 260 stations and repeaters, including recent additions WBUR in Boston, Minnesota Public Radio and Oregon Public Broadcasting. Other big affiliates are WNYC, New York; WBEZ, Chicago; KERA, Dallas; KPCC, Los Angeles; and KPBS, San Diego.

The Museum of Television and Radio in New York has just added Feldman's two-hour weekly comedy/quiz program to its permanent collection. That's a satisfying win, but if imitation is the most flattering flattery, then Feldman could theoretically be even happier about NPR's plans to launch its own comedy/quiz show, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me ... , hosted by Dan Coffey, in January. Feldman simply quips: "It's quite a leap of faith to do a quiz show with a wise-cracking Jewish host. I don't know why they think it would work."

NPR in fact tried to re-acquire Whad'Ya Know? in 1996, for its Saturday entertainment lineup, but PRI offered a better deal, says Chris Bannon, Feldman's producer at Wisconsin Public Radio. Although he says public radio could use more comedy, Bannon also says NPR seems almost to be "lashing out" for having been rejected. PRI's survey of Whad'Ya Know? stations shows that so far no p.d.'s plan to drop the program for Wait, Wait ..., but some may air the two back to back, he says.

Feldman's program is actually only partly a quiz show. He begins with "All the News That Isn't," eight or so jokes such as: "[Jupiter's moon, Europa,] has no atmosphere to speak of, so we have to hang a few lanterns and streamers. Maybe a gazebo would be nice...." Or, "A federal court has ruled that Bill Clinton may not have the line-item veto, but he may doodle in the margins all he wants." Next, he may do an offbeat interview or phone-out. In "Thanks for the Memos," he reads actual office memos such as one that corrects an error in medical check-up guidelines —"No, we are not recommending prostate exams for females." Then, two Whad'Ya Know? quizzes have audience members and callers compete for prizes — usually trinkets and gag items.

"The program ... is really just an excuse for him to talk to people, spin off of what they have to say and react," says Wisconsin Public Radio Manager Jack Mitchell. "It's not really a quiz show." Feldman first discussed the idea of a free-wheeling program with Mitchell in 1985, after being fired from a morning hosting gig at WGN, a big commercial station in Chicago.

Feldman had briefly hosted a WPR program, but Mitchell was a fan from even earlier, when the host did daily morning comedy from a local diner for Madison community station WORT. "To me, he was a radio natural," says Mitchell. "He was funny, he was spontaneous, it was live radio at it's best." Mitchell gave the green light and Whad'Ya Know? launched nationally on the Wisconsin network and a few other stations.

Feldman's show for WORT originated from Dolly's Fine Foods, a 24-hour diner. "I sat in a booth behind the jukebox," Feldman says. "Most people didn't know what was going on. They just saw a guy talking to himself in a booth, which was commonplace at Dolly's."

During the first hour of the three-hour show, most of the diner's customers were stragglers from the night before. Once, a drunk began a ruckus, and then resisted the dish washer's efforts to push him outside. "I was on the air," says Feldman, "and the [drunk] guy was holding onto the jukebox, and the dish washer started pulling both him and the jukebox out the door." When the door finally opened, Feldman dutifully reported the temperature outdoors.

Feldman eventually left Dolly's and WORT to join the Chicago station — his big break in radio. But he didn't get along with his co-host, a woman he describes as a loud-voiced former traffic copter reporter, who had never before co-hosted. "It was literally a tug war, grabbing controls," he says. "It lasted about six months," when the station fired them both, he says.

Feldman initially wanted to stay in Chicago, because he felt his reputation had been "impugned." But he took Mitchell's offer and now feels vindicated, because Whad'Ya Know? is a hit in the Windy City.

The 49-year-old comic could justifiably feel pretty good about his success, but he's not a feel-good sort of man. Is he bored or dissatisfied to be working solely in radio, having been stalled in attempts to get into TV? "I'm really no more than usual for me," he says. "A certain amount of that is built into me. But I enjoy doing my show."

Feldman has appeared in three television pilots, one for Disney and two for other syndicators, but none took off. "I think the main reason is, the demographics are wrong. I'm not appealing to 18- to 25-year-old males," he says. "Which is something I've always prided myself on."

Now, TV producers are floating two proposals to televise the live radio production of Whad'Ya Know? on PBS stations or for cable, he says.

"Where's the men's room?"

It's tempting to compare Feldman with Garrison Keillor because they're both midwestern comedians with live public radio programs. But there are few other similarities. Keillor's appeal has as much to do with wonderful storytelling and a lovely speaking voice as with comedy; whereas Feldman's has mostly to do with his sharp wit and wry observations. "Garrison is far more literary and it's very planned and very controlled," says Mitchell. "There's nothing spontaneous, in fact he's the epitome of care, and Michael is totally spontaneous. He's closer to Groucho Marx."

Feldman says he doesn't even listen to Keillor's Prairie Home Companion. But he tells a story about attending a live PHC taping in Madison, years ago, and introducing himself to Keillor backstage. "I told him all about myself, I was doing a show at a restaurant, a spontaneous live show, sort of like he was doing live." And Keillor asked him where the men's room was. "I had just been there," says Feldman, "so I showed him.

"Now, when I'm meeting fans and stuff, I try never to ask where the men's room is as my first sentence. I try to say, 'That's great, it's wonderful, I hope it works out for you,' and then I ask where the men's room is."

Like many radio personalities including Keillor, Feldman is an introvert, away from the microphone. When he first did his radio program on WORT, he found it helpful to imitate his outgoing older brother, Howard. Given his own shyness, hosting Whad'Ya Know is good for him personally, he says, because it forces him to mix with folks, who, he notes, are generally interesting, enjoyable and reassuring. Having grown up Jewish in a German neighborhood of Milwaukee after the war, "it was always us and them," he says. "I grew up feeling like it was a hostile world." That attitude started to change during his years as a high school teacher right out of college. "Now," he says, "I have Lutheran ministers who are my biggest fans, so I guess I've come full circle."

Whad'Ya Know?'s fans, says Bannon, actually fall into three categories: precocious sixth graders; young parents who appreciate the program's appropriateness for families; and the more typical NPR news listener in young middle age.

Feldman has a direct relationship with these folks; his program, after all, depends on callers and the in-house audience. Indeed, his very schtick would be impossible without the audience out in front, he says. "When I sit in a studio, I don't feel motivated to do anything," he says. "But if I'm in front of people, nervous energy forces me to talk."

But the same needed audience is sometimes subject to his sarcasm. Even at public radio conferences — among his dearest customers — Feldman has skewered the unfortunate folks who speak before or after him. Some people may be turned off by the barbs — he himself says, "You either buy my attitude or you don't buy any of it." Public radio host Tony Kahn, who is a regular panelist on WGBH's new national quiz program, Says You!, says that sometimes he has to stop listening to Whad'Ya Know? because Feldman's edge begins to wear. But he also notes that Feldman tempers his comedy with a certain laid-back manner, so that ultimately he is a mixture of hot and cool, half Don Rickles, half Johnny Carson.

What isn't as apparent as the wiseguy attitude is Feldman's commitment to crafting a good show, spontaneous though it will be. The host is deceptively skilled at interviewing and drawing comedy out of people, says Bannon. "People who don't think of themselves as funny show up, and they are funny." It's a matter of directing conversation, responding to what the audience member has to say, and giving them a little room to be funny, he says. "He seems on the surface to be not very calculating about how it's done, but he's careful about guests he chooses, and the questions he asks. You take it for granted until you see him do it 40 times a year."

That and the fact there is always another remarkably apt and quick joke from Feldman himself. The host's brain is "hardwired in a way that the rest of us haven't even begun to develop," says Arlen Diamond, g.m. of KSMU, Springfield, Mo.

"The first time I heard him, I thought, 'This guy is genuinely funny,'" says Kahn. "Feldman is the kind of guy who basically is born bent. He has a genuine point of view which is a funny point of view, and he can't help it, he's stuck with it."