Programs Produced by Dan Rudt

Host, Dirk Van

The Source Report

Program Description from the 1995 Westwood One Programming Guide:

This award-winning, half-hour, weekly public affairs magazine has aired nearly 1,000 episodes, making The Source Report the longest running, most widely acclaimed (and most imitated!!) program of its kind. The Source Report addresses issues of every description...from the AIDS crisis and animal testing controversies to gun control and women's issues, The Source Report tackles it all in an interesting and compelling style. Produced in WW1's Washington Bureau by Dan Rudt, The Source Report taps the resources of the best news writers and reporters in the business. For coverage of issues that really do matter to young adults, make The Source Report a part of your week.

 

The O'Leary/Kamber Report

Where the left meets the right in American politics!

Take two Washington insiders - one liberal Democrat and one conservative Republican - add a non-stop stream of Senators, Congressmen and political thought-leaders - and listen to the sparks fly! That's the formula for NBC Radio Network's O'Leary/Kamber Report, a two-hour, weekly public affairs program from the nation's capital, Washington, DC.

The hosts are Democratic public relations consultant, Victor Kamber, and Republican political consultant, Brad O'Leary, the ultimate Washington insiders. No other radio program in America gives you access to so many government decision-makers and political thought-leaders or offers such in-depth, honest debate over the leading issues of the day as the O'Leary/Kamber Report!

Bruce Williams Show

Program Description from the 1995 Westwood One Programming Guide:

He's the most listened-to nighttime radio talk show host in the nation ... and it isn't hard to figure out why. Bruce Williams has that rare ability to find solutions where others see only problems, to spot opportunities where others find only obstacles. Every weeknight from 7 to 10 pm (ET), Bruce takes calls from listeners across the nation, solving one problem after another in his down-to-earth, no nonsense fashion. Need to know how to clear up bad credit? Save for a child's education? Market banana bread? Start up a belly dancing business? These are just a few examples of the kind of calls Bruce receives each night. His common sense approach to giving advice stems from a background diverse enough to fill several lifetimes. A national talk show host since 1981, Bruce utilizes his vast background as a businessman, mayor, city councilman and entrepreneur to give helpful advice on just about every topic under the sun.

 

Myrna Lamb Show

Program Description from the 1992-1993 Westwood One Programming Guide:

Myrna Lamb does it all on her Talknet show, heard every weeknight from 10 pm to 1 am (ET). She blends her experience as a teacher, counselor and mother of two grown daughters to offer common sense advice to Talknet listeners - discussing everything from relationships and family life to lighter subjects, including travel tips and funny gift ideas! Schooled as a painter with exhibits throughout the Northeast, Myrna spent twenty years in the art world as an instructor, product designer, and agent. But she wanted to truly help others. So Myrna returned to school and earned a masters degree in psychology. "I believe my diverse career background has best prepared me as a Talknet host," she says. "I try to assist listeners in learning how they might be inhibiting themselves from solving their own problems, and getting them on the right track again."

 

Program Description from the 1992-1993 Westwood One Programming Guide:

Here's one doctor who still makes house calls! He's Dr. Harvey Ruben, heard every Saturday and Sunday evening from 10 pm to 1 am (ET) on Talknet. This internationally-known authority on family problems is now like a family doctor to radio audiences everywhere. Harvey's professional credentials inspire confidence: medical degree from Northwestern, public health degree from Harvard, and Associate Professorship of Psychiatry at Yale. A respected spokesman for his profession, Dr. Ruben is the Public Affairs Chairman of the American Psychiatric Association. But he's not out to impress people - he's out to help them. "Because I'm a practicing psychiatrist, my Talknet program tends to deal more with clinical issues in addition to advice," says Harvey. "I invite listeners into my confidence by including stories of my own family relationships and feelings into the Talknet program.

 

Program Description from the 1995 Westwood One Programming Guide:

From window boxes in the city to vast lawns in the suburbs, gardening has exploded into one of the fastest growing hobbies of the Nineties. Full-service garden supply emporia have popped up in every climate, from New Mexico to New England. That's why Jerry's live, two-hour, Saturday morning call-in show is more indispensable than ever. With down-to-earth gardening advice, Jerry fields calls from across the USA.

From spreading, seeding and soaping, to planting, priming and pruning, this is one expert who doesn't sit back and watch the grass grow. His fertile wisdom comes through every season of the year. In Spring, Jerry takes the "Garden Line" audience through the rites trumpeting the growing season. In Summer, listeners learn about the care and feeding of their lawns and controlling pests. In Fall, Jerry helps listeners prepare for the next season and guides them through planting Spring bulbs. And in Winter, Jerry offers tips on everything from houseplants to living indoor trees. Thanks to Jerry, even a weekend gardener who's all thumbs can have a green thumb.

A Short Chronology

Dan Rudt was hired by Westwood One Director of Production, Kevin DeLany, to produce the weekly On the Garden Line program in the Fall of 1990.

In 1992, the network moved NBC Talknet production from New York to Washington, and Rudt was placed in charge of producing two nightly Talknet programs, The Myrna Lamb Show and The Bruce Williams Show.

Dan would produce The Bruce Williams Show and The Dr. Harvey Ruben Show when Myrna Lamb left Westwood One in 1993.

By 1995, The Bruce Williams Show had grown from 315 to 380 radio stations and was the most listened to nightly talk radio program in America. Bruce Williams had been named the 1994 Radio Talk Show Host of the Year by the National Association of Radio Talk Show Hosts (NARTSH).

From 1995 to 1996, Dan produced The Bruce Williams Show, the award-winning Source Report and the O'Leary/Kamber Report.

The Ultimate Satisfaction

The most satisfying of the six programs that Rudt produced for Westwood One was unquestionably the weekly, half-hour public affairs magazine program, The Source Report, hosted by NBC Radio News anchor, Dirk Van.

The Source Report aired every weekend on 100 rock music stations around the United States. The target audience were young adults, 18-34.

More so than any other program he produced, The Source Report's success depended on a combination of Dan's understanding of his audience and his awareness of current events and socio-political trends and issues. Every week, Rudt researched and selected two or three timely topics and booked guests who had something insightful to offer the young adult audience.

Rudt dealt with the serious issues in the program's opening segments and offered lifestyle, entertainment-related, or offbeat segments to close the program.

Some of the opening segment topics included: controversy over nuclear waste cleanup, the 20th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, holocaust denial, the Brady Bill and handgun control, gender equality in the workplace, religious fundamentalism vs. modernism, growing violence among street gangs and many other topics.

Singer Judy Collins, who had travelled to the warring regions of former Yugoslavia as a spokesperson for UNICEF, discussed the effects that the warfare and genocide were having on the children of the region.

Bianca Jagger discussed her ongoing efforts to lobby Congress to do more to stop drug trafficing from Central America.

Some of the closing segments included film director Sidney Lumet discussing day-to-day life in the acting profession, Peter, Paul and Mary on their lives in the music world, law professor James Gordon with a tongue-in-cheek look at surviving law school, new media and popular culture guru Doug Rushkoff on some of the stranger ways in which people were using the newly popular Internet, and segments on Woodstock II, the new Rock and Roll Museum and Hall of Fame, and the age old, nagging question - were those really UFOs that landed in Roswell, New Mexico?

The Source Report demanded excellent written and verbal communication skills. Rudt wrote background information and scripted a program introduction, segment introductions and interviews for the host.

Rudt's creativity and editing skills also were called in to play. Each week, he selected two or three pieces of rock music with lyrics that were relevant to the topics of that week's program. He selected the particular lines of each song to include in the segment introductions. After editing each of the finished interviews, Dan mixed the show's opening and closing theme music with the rock music segments and the taped introductions and interviews. Dan then edited the final product to a 29 minute and 50 second program that was ready for national broadcast.

Producing Call-in Programs

Producing a live, call-in, talk program is somewhat like drinking a pot of coffee and then meditating for three hours straight. (In Dan's case, with two Talknet programs every evening, it was six hours straight.) The feeling is a combination of heightened sensory awareness and the self-assuredness that one needs in order to make a never-ending series of snap decions, one after another.

The producer is ultimately responsible for every aspect of every program. Before the program goes live, the producer must be certain that each player is ready to perform his or her duties and that all the necessary equipment is functioning properly. Are the host, engineer, master control operator, operations manager and producer all ready? Is the assigned satellite channel ready to carry the program? Is a taped, backup program rolling in case telephone service is disrupted? Are all the commercials ready to play at their assigned times? Does the host have commercials and promotional spots to record? Are there any special announcements that the host must make? Are all the clocks set to the right time?

Once the theme music begins, the producer screens all telephone callers, watches the clock to cue the host and engineer for commercial breaks, and somehow listens to the show. Did the host just say something that will offend a sponsor? Is the current conversation going on too long? Is it time to tell the host to move on?

The producer's greatest, single contribution to the call-in show is in the call screening process. Rudt controlled the direction of the program by deciding which calls to take, and in what order. A producer has thirty seconds, at most, to determine if a caller's question will be appropriate at any given time, and sixty seconds or so to decide if this particular caller is going to entertain the listeners, or is even capable of carrying on a conversation.

The producer also has to anticipate disruptions - "Turn off your radio, please, and listen on the telephone." - and ensure the best sound quality possible - "Are you on a cordless phone? Is that humming noise coming from your refrigerator? Would you move away from the refrigerator and switch phones, please?"

The quality of the final product, the completed call-in show, depends on how well the entire production team works together, on the producer's decisions and the host's ability to entertain and inform the audience.