A Recollection of Peter Bergman

Peter Bergman died yesterday at age 72. I was privileged to meet him and work briefly with him. He had a significant impact on me.

In 1965, I started working as a volunteer at KPFK Radio in Los Angeles. I was only 14, so I either rode the bus or my bicycle to the station. At first I worked for the chief engineer, Nick Cramer, disassembling an old transmitter in hope of rebuilding it for the station's use. That was the summer of the Watts Riots, and I remember going with the news director, Mike Hodel, to interview Los Angeles residents at the Coliseum during the melee.

Peter arrived in 1966. To me he was an old man, already bald on top, but I guess he was only 26 or 27. He set about to create comedy shows. I remember helping him to create a reverberation sound effect for the line, "penis envy," for one of his early skits. A while later Peter started his Radio Free Oz program. He had a button that said OZ, but you could also rotate it to say ON, NO or ZO. I wore it with pride. I was too young to listen to the Oz program very much, but I remember calling in one time. Peter recognized my voice and called me the "Tin Woodsman."

Later on, Peter got together with David Ossman and Phil Austin, two KPFK announcers, and Phil Proctor, who I never met, to form the Firesign Theater. They were the rage of my friends at the UCLA Computer Club in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Surprisingly, I never bought their records or even listened to one completely at a friend's place. I regret that, and I'll make an effort to get to know all the material I missed so many years ago.

Peter was a unique individual. I'm glad to have met him; I'm saddened by his death, and, like so many, I will miss him.