Talk radio host Diane Rehm shares stories with Club dinner audience

WAMU and NPR radio interview host Diane Rehm made her on-air debut on her first day on a paid job when the announcer she was supposed to assist called in sick.

She had been a 10-month volunteer helping to book guests for the American University station's "Home Show," when she was offered a paid slot as a part-time producer, filling in for a staffer on maternity leave.

On her first day, she was greeted at the door of the Quonset hut that served as the station studios by the general manager, who announced that the host had called in sick. The GM was going to fill in and she wanted Diane to help her in the studio. Soon, the eventual host of the national "Diane Rehm Show" was asking questions of what she described as "a most boring guest" (among many who were more informative) on air. And, so it began.

For more than an hour Thursday evening, May 18, Rehm told stories in response to questions from National Press Club Broadcast & Podcast Team at its first Legends of Broadcasting dinner since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Before amusing the audience with tales of trying to get more than monosyllabic answers from reluctant guests, she responded by naming her most forthcoming guests. She quickly named then-up-and-coming Illinois politician Barack Obama and President Jimmy Carter. Whenever being interviewed on the air, Carter "was speaking very personally." For example, he revealed that he had not told his wife Rosalynn in advance that he was going to run for governor of Georgia. Later, Rehm asked if the couple had ever considered divorce over that slight. After a long pause, Carter answered affirmatively, she said; so she followed up with "and what did you do?" "I got down on my knees and prayed," he said.

She said her parents didn't believe in college for girls so she prepared to be a secretary. She met her husband-to-be on the job in the federal government, and after marriage, "I stopped being a secretary." She got into radio when she learned a friend volunteered at the public radio station, so she did too.

As to whether she actually read all of the books that she talked to their authors about, she revealed that she did in the beginning. Then her husband, distressed at the amount of time being absorbed. suggested she could streamline the process by reading the first chapter, a middle chapter and the ending chapter. She said that that only worked for nonfiction. For fiction you had to understand the twists and turns of the plot. As she rose in prominence "eventually my producers read the books for me."

Her final radio show was Dec. 31, 2016. The next week she was back doing a podcast that is still being produced, and she now runs a monthly "Diane Rehm Book Club" Zoom call that attracts 2,000-3,000 participants.  

The next NPC Legends of Broadcasting dinner is being planned for the fall.

Club members can join the Broadcast & Podcast Team by notifying one of the co-chairs, Adam Konowe at [email protected] or Mike Hempen at [email protected].