 Bay Weekly Interview
with J. Alex Knoll:
The Woman Behind the Voice
If you live in the greater Washington, D.C. area, chances are you've heard her voice.
If you spend any time commuting mid-morning, listening to the radio, odds are you've come across her voice.
If you're a news junkie, keeping up on the latest politics, world events, literature, music and the arts, then you're most likely familiar with her voice.
If you're a supporter of National Public Radio, then you're undoubtedly aware of her voice.
If you're a follower of talk radio, then you know her voice very well.
But finding her voice was not easy for Diane Rehm, talk show host at WAMU 88.5fm. As a young woman in a traditional Arab-American family, she was forbidden to attend college. She married - once early and short, a second time to her husband of 42-plus years, John - and raised two children. Rehm was in her late 30s before first speaking on radio, as a volunteer at WAMU.
Since then, Diane Rehm has risen up the tower of radio success, bringing to her show kings and king-makers, artists and authors, scientists and celebrities. She's interviewed Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich; Carl Sagan, Salman Rushdie and Norman Mailer. Her show reaches well over a quarter million listeners on some 75 NPR affiliate stations across America and around the world.
But even now, at the prime of her career, Diane Rehm has had to fight to retain her voice - the instrument that allows her to do what she does so well. In 1998, Rehm was diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder, spasmodic dysphonia, that strangles the vocal cords, causing vocal tremors and worse. There is no cure. But the treatment, which consists of regular injections directly into the vocal cords of a strain of botulism, has allowed her to return to the airwaves she loves.
Diane Rehm visits Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons March 31 as a speaker in the Calvert County Public Library system's Authors of the Bay series. In anticipation of that event, Diane Rehm took an hour from her busy schedule to speak with Bay Weekly.
BW
Tell us a little about your book …
Diane Rehm
The book is really my life story. The book begins with my childhood here in Washington, growing up in an Arab family: My father came from Beirut, Lebanon; my mother came from Alexandria, Egypt. Education was not highly regarded in my family. I was not permitted to go to college. So the book is a life story.
BW
You were a stay-at-home mom?
Diane Rehm
I was. Until David was 14 and Jennie was 11. And that’s when I started wondering about what the rest of my life was going to be like. So I took a course at George Washington University called New Horizons for Women. The people there encouraged me for some reason, I have no idea why, but they encouraged me to go into broadcasting.
Within a week of completing that one-semester course, a friend told me that she was volunteering at this tiny little station on the campus of the American University for a brand new program called “The Home Show.” If you could have seen a cartoon depiction of that moment, you probably would have seen me standing there with a little light bulb in my head. I thought, “Wow! Maybe this is it!”
I said to her, “Do you think that they need any more volunteers?” And she said, “Well, I’ll be happy to check.” It turned out that I was welcomed.
I showed up the first day, and the host of the program that I was to work on was out sick. I was very dismayed, because I thought, “oh my gosh, that means I’ll just have to go home.” Instead, the manager of the station said, “We’ve got to do a show. So you come into the studio with me.”
So I was on the air that very first day I walked in as a volunteer in 1973. I’ve been here just about ever since.
BW
It’s not a small station anymore.
Diane Rehm
It was always a small station with a big reach. And of course now it’s huge. I love working here.
BW
Where did your show originate? Was it your idea?
Diane Rehm
No. The program was on the air. First it was called “The Home Show,” and the producer and host was my boss. I volunteered on her show for 10 months, and I developed a couple of medical ideas of my own for shows. Then she hired me. There was a job opening, and she hired me, and I worked for her for two years as assistant producer on the show. Then I went off to do some television, and that fell through after a very short period of time.
I was out of a job for a year and sort of walked the pavement, just following the ads, going everywhere I could, trying to get a job again in broadcasting. And it just didn’t happen.
Then at the end of one year — almost in the same week — I got two job offers: one with Physicians’ Radio Network, a small closed-circuit audio program for doctors through a special radio feed; and a job as a freelance medical reporter for th e Associated Press Radio Network. That really did it for me. I was continuing to do radio programs here at WAMU, but on a volunteer basis, I was working for Physicians Radio Network three days a week, and I was doing freelance reporting for Associated Press Radio Network. So all that was combined for a two-year period: getting up at four o’clock in the morning to go downtown and carry all this heavy equipment and place it at press conferences and driving all over the place.
My former boss called me in March of 1979 to say that she was going to retire. She said “I just wanted you to know, because we’re going to open the job and I thought you might be interested in knowing that we are going to do a search.” And she said “I’m not going to have anything to do with selecting the next host, but I thought you just might be interested.”
Well, I weighed that for two days. I set up a plus and a minus list. I was specializing in medicine, I loved medicine and always had. The fact that our daughter has become a doctor, I think, is no accident. But I thought, it is probably time to broaden my scope, and so I threw my hat into the ring. One hundred people from across the country applied for the job
In August of 1979, I got the job. I’ve been doing a daily show since 1979, so I’m coming up on my 22nd year.
BW
And your enthusiasm has not waned?
Diane Rehm
No. As a matter of fact, working with this wonderful staff, working with all these wonderful people here at the studio and then taking the show national and hearing from people around the country — and indeed people from around the world — it sort of broadens your reach and broadens your perspective and changes the dynamic of what you’ve been doing for all these years. Of course this began six years ago, so I feel as though I’ve gotten a whole new start.
BW
Your show is so dependent on listeners. Did you ever worry that no one would call in?
Diane Rehm
Never crossed my mind. In those early days, there were fewer calls, many fewer. You know, you have to build, you have to build. You have to in radio, I think, gain people’s trust. If you don’t gain people’s trust that they are going to get a fair shake and that they’re going to hear fair commentary or what they want to hear — which is, I think, a broad range of topics and viewpoints — your audience won’t grow. Our audience has grown probably from about, let’s think, from about 2,500 in those early days and now, across the nation, it’s about 800,000.
BW
On how many affiliate stations are you broadcast?
Diane Rehm
We are now on about 75.
BW
You also broadcast overseas?
Diane Rehm
Overseas, as well, through American Forces Radio Network and through the NPR satellite system.
BW
Do you remember that first show?
Diane Rehm
I do. You know why? Because I had someone on whom I greatly admired. It was Hobart Rowan, now deceased. He was the sweetest man. His Washington Post column on economics helped me to understand what economics was all about. Now remember, this is 1979, the year before Ronald Reagan came into office. I just knew that I wanted to meet Hobart Rowan, and so I called and asked him to come on, and he said, “sure, I’ll come.” And he was marvelous. He was such a gifted journalist and a gifted speaker, as well. He died of cancer about three years ago. Sure, I do remember that first program.
BW
Do you know how many shows you’ve done over the years?
Diane Rehm
We figured it’s about 20,000. You know, 365 minus weekends is how many days a year, and I’ve been doing this for 22 years.
BW
Did you imagine that the show would grow to be what it is now when you first came on board?
Diane Rehm
I really didn’t. But you know, it was always my husband early on who kept saying, even when I was a volunteer, “Oh, Diane, someday you’re going to be the host of that show.” I’d keep saying, “no, not going to happen, not going to happen.” But then, of course, it did happen.
I never imagined size. What I have done is take it step by step by step, and that was important and meaningful to me. In other words, I really wanted the show to become national. And even before that, I really wanted this show to focus on political and medical and scientific and educational and all kinds of things. And, of course, to bring to the attention of listeners books that they might not have a chance to read.
BW
Was there a point that you reached critical mass? One day, perhaps, when you came in and the political power brokers in Washington were asking to be on your show?
Diane Rehm
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And offers from commercial broadcasters. But I just always knew that I didn’t want to go to a commercial radio station. The beauty of public radio and the luxury of public radio is that it does afford real conversation without an advertisement every three, four minutes. That would not have been very satisfying to me. Whereas public radio — though I have to acknowledge that the number of underwriters has increased dramatically since I first came in, but that’s of necessity — if you’ve got to have enough money to keep public radio going, you’ve got to broaden your perspective and your reach. But I would never have seen anything like this coming. Never imagined.
BW
You have on your show kings and kingmakers, politicians of every level. Can you talk about some of them?
Diane Rehm
Let me say more generally, that I have had the privilege of talking to the most interesting people in the world. I feel as though it’s a privilege to do this program. That’s all there is to it. I have the best job in the world.
Everybody comes here, to Washington. Whether they’re selling books, whether they’re painting pictures, whether they’re conducting music or directing a bill in the Senate or the House or whether they sit in the White House … I’m at the center of the world.
BW
With some of the national and world leaders that come into your studio, can you sense an aura — an air of power?
Diane Rehm
But you see, it all comes down to one-on-one; it all comes down to a human being. I don’t think about the nature of or the aura of the people I interview. I mean, Henry Kissinger walks in here and he is a charming man, absolutely charming. Knocks you off your feet with his charm. And Queen Noor [of Jordan] walks in with such grace and passion. The president or the first lady, they’re people, they’re human beings. They’re individual human beings. When you see them on television, when you see them surrounded by hundreds of people, that’s different. When you see them in that studio, one-on-one, that’s what I like.
BW
On some of your programs, for instance your Friday News Roundup with all the different guests, it sounds like it sometimes gets pretty heated. How do you keep the show so civil?
Diane Rehm
People who’ve watched the show have told me it’s like watching a conductor before a symphony. And that is that I’m pointing to that person, or I’m saying, Stop, or I’m going this way and telling this person to come in, because in radio you have to keep the voices in a place where people can hear them and understand what they are saying. If they all start talking at once, what’s the good of that? I mean, if they all start fighting, who cares? Then it’s a food fight and nobody cares about anything that they’re saying. And that’s not the way I do business and they know it.
BW
How do you come up with all the great ideas?
Diane Rehm
Our four producers.
BW
What’s a typical day in the life of Diane Rehm?
Diane Rehm
I get up at 5:30am. I’m usually in here by 8:00, 8:15. I going over that morning’s script for the second or even third time. I go into the studio to pre-record some promotions for the next day. Then I pre-record the billboards and the introductions. And then I come back here [her office on the American University campus in Washington, D.C.] and usually the staff and I have things to talk about before I go on the air. I’ll do telephoning or be on the computer with e-mail. Then I go into the studio at 10:00, and of course I’m there until 12:00. Even then, I am usually here until about 6:00 planning for upcoming shows, so it’s a long day. And from 6:00 on, if we have to go out, we’ll go out. Usually, if we don’t have to go out, I’m in bed between 9:30 and 10:00. It’s a busy day. It’s a busy day. It keeps me active.
BW
Would you want it any other way?
Diane Rehm
No. Not right yet, at any rate. My husband just retired, as of January 1. So, it’s a little difficult for me to get out of bed in the morning and watch him snooze away. But he deserves it. He has been practicing international law for 45 years. And he is a very, very young-looking 70. He has now taken on new projects. He’s become a docent at two galleries in Washington. He’s begun reading for the blind and dyslexic here in Washington. He hopes to do some work for the Washington Home and Hospice. And he’s taking a course in Chinese philosophy at American University. He’s busier than he was before he retired.
BW
You have two children?
Diane Rehm
Uh-hum. We have a son, David who is 40 years old. He is a professor of philosophy at Mount Saint Mary’s College in Emmitsburg, Maryland. His wife, Nancy, is a teacher of gifted and talented children.
Then our daughter, Jennnifer, is 36. She is a physician, an internist, at a clinic outside Boston. Her husband is also a physician, an internist. And they have the most beautiful 18-month-old baby boy, Benjamin.
It’s really important to make time for family. With Jenny and Russell and baby Benjamin up there in Boston, we’re trying to make a schedule so that we can get up there once a month.
BW
You must get so many offers, and I can only imagine how scarce your time is. What’s your criteria?
Diane Rehm
First of all, it has to be a really worthy, useful, important cause. I’ve turned down numerous things that friends have asked me to do. So it’s not just because of friendship that I’m going to Solomons for the Calvert County libraries, but because I believe in this project that Donnie Radcliffe’s been working on, that she’s been involved with for two years.
Second of all, the number of events that I do say yes to, I’m trying to cut back on. Because I really do have to pick and choose just to make sure that my husband and I have enough time together so that I stay strong, that I get enough sleep to do this job, which is very demanding. So we try during the weekdays to keep our events down, and that’s a combination of social events and obligations. Trying to keep most of those things to a minimum. Tomorrow, for example, I’m signing books at the Women’s Center as part of their annual fundraising event. And then, in the afternoon, I’m speaking at the Washington National Cathedral as part of their day of spirituality. And then on Sunday, my husband and I are going up to Gettysburg for our grandson’s birthday. So it’s going to be a busy weekend. And my family is just so important to me that, as I say, I have to make sure that I don’t overcommit myself.
This week [the second week in March] has been particularly busy. There was a luncheon for Alma Powell — the wife of the Secretary of State — that the Saudi Arabian ambassador’s wife gave on Wednesday. And then Thursday, I was asked to sit at the head table at a luncheon at the National Press Club for Queen Noor of Jordan. And then last night we went to a party given by the British ambassador and his wife in honor of Vice President Cheney and his wife.
So it’s been a busy, busy week. And then of course we are dealing with fundraising. Fundraising for Public Radio goes on twice a year, and it’s something that takes a lot of energy.
BW
Do you see any similarities between public libraries and listener-supported public radio?
Diane Rehm
I think that’s a great connection to make. Because public radio is supported by listeners — we’re at the end of our spring membership campaign — we go on the air and ask people to support the station because 57 percent of the operating budget of this station comes from listener contributions. The rest comes primarily from corporations, underwriters, some university support and a very small amount of government support.
So we really have to turn to listeners in the same way that libraries have to turn to their constituents to support the work that library is trying to do.
And I’m telling you, the concern about public libraries across this country is pretty great. Less and less funding. Less and less support.
I have to tell you, that when I was a little girl, I was scared to death of libraries. I was scared to death of librarians. They seemed to me very knowledgeable, very imposing and very distant kinds of figures. I didn’t have the courage to walk into libraries. I did not understand the Dewey decimal System. I did not understand how to do research for a book. So the library became a very imposing and unwelcoming place for me.
Of course in the 55, 60 years that I’ve been going to libraries, libraries have changed enormously. Even when my own children were young and I used to take them to the Montgomery County Library, it was a warm, open place with librarians reaching out — more than willing to help out.
And it’s a service that the government is funding less and less. Libraries across the country are closing down because of lack of community support, lack of government support, so I think it becomes our responsibility in terms of supporting them with our dollars to make sure that this extraordinary institution lasts in this country.
It’s really worrisome.
BW
You’re going to be in Solomons at the Calvert Marine Museum …
Diane Rehm
I’m looking forward to it.
BW
 What will you talk about for the Authors by the Bay series?
Diane Rehm
I’m going to talk about my book, Finding My Voice.
BW
Is Finding My Voice your first book published?
Diane Rehm
Yes.
BW
Will there be others?
Diane Rehm
Perhaps, but that’s too far in the future to say.
Meet Diane Rehm and hear her story at the second Calvert Public Library’s Authors by the Bay series. Dinner w/Rehm is small (only 30) and early (5:30pm; $100; rsvp). Dessert, coffee and talk at 7pm ($30). Book signings follow @ Calvert Marine Museum, Solomons: rsvp now for March 31: 410/535-0291.
Copyright 2001
Bay Weekly
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