Ira’s Account: Sternberg rides the waves on radio shows

Friday, July 26, 2002 | 9:45 a.m.

What: "Traveling Nevada With Ira"

Where: KDWN AM-720

When: 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturdays

The public relations official for both the Southern Nevada Water Authority and Las Vegas Valley Water District sat at the microphone answering questions posed by radio talk-show host Ira David Sternberg.

"What's the difference between the authority and the district?" asked Sternberg, who was sitting across from his guest in the studio at KDWN AM-720 at the Plaza.

J.C. Davis explained the difference as being similar to the relationship between a wholesaler and a retailer the authority is the wholesaler, bringing treated water to the retailer (the district), which sells it to individual customers.

"Do you get a discount on your water, like I imagine the phone-company boys get a discount on their phone service?" Sternberg quipped.

Injecting humor at odd moments to enliven a conversation is typical of the man who has been a familiar face and voice on the Las Vegas scene for the past 24 years.

Sternberg has hosted his weekly "Las Vegas Notebook" from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesdays for four years.

If you are among the 2,000 names on his e-mail list, for the past five years you have been receiving his weekly "Las Vegas Notebook" newsletter, which is filled with humorous observations about news of the day "The Trauma Center is back open and treating Nevada politicians recovering from the Senate vote on Yucca"; "If the Water District buys the Power Company, will the power bills be watered down?"

Recently Sternberg became host of the weekly "Traveling Nevada With Ira," show heard from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Saturdays, also on KDWN.

Sternberg has been president of his one-man public relations firm, IDS Creative Communications, for five years and is heavily involved with the Chamber of Commerce. He is president-elect of the Chamber's Business Counci, and for four years was chairman of the National Tourism Week Campaign.

He teaches two courses at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas one on casino public relations and another (not surprisingly) on humor writing. Sternberg once wrote for the late Mel Blanc (the voice of cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig, among others).

"Mel and his son Noel had a production company and I wrote copy for them commercials and comedy material," he said.

Humor is a tool he often uses when conducting interviews on "Las Vegas Notebook."

"I like to keep it light, but informative," Sternberg said. "If I have a guest on who is, because of their own personality, somewhat pompous sounding, then I will inject humor. If I have someone on who is low key, I inject even more humor.

"What I try to do is balance the dynamics. If I have a dynamic guest on, I don't have to do anything. If I have the major (Oscar Goodman) on, I can almost sit back. I'll ask some questions, but he's so good as a guest that I don't have to work that hard. But if a guest is timid, I will exert the extra energy to make certain the show is entertaining. I don't want a flat or boring show."

"I find the show pretty engaging," Davis commented after the show. "I like the conversational style. He doesn't machine-gun you with questions. You get to explain things in depth."

Davis often appears on radio talk shows and other venues.

"I understand different radio stations have different needs," he said. "Ira's listeners are more inclined to want to listen to an explanation of something.

"It's a very relaxed atmosphere in which you get an opportunity to express yourself."

Monti rocks

Since first airing on March 3, 1998, Sternberg has interviewed more than 200 guests -- ranging from over-the-top Las Vegas personality Monti Rock III to the button-down Bob Maheu, who was Howard Hughes' personal assistant when Hughes took up residence in Las Vegas in 1966.

"What I like about it is it's an eclectic show," Sternberg said. "I can have a comedian on for an hour and have a riotous time, and the next week have on a substantive book author.

"It helps to have an interest in a lot of things, which I do."

Among his guests have been comedians Shecky Greene and Dick Smothers, singers Tony Orlando and Robert Goulet, and politicians Sen. Richard Bryan and Rep. Shelley Berkley.

"I have a three-pronged approach in selecting my guests," Sternberg said. "First, if something in the news is timely, and it makes sense to have someone on.

"Another thing is if the guest is just an interesting personality. And the third thing is my own interest."

The third category is the broadest -- politics, entertainment, business, national security issues and almost anything else interests Sternberg.

"I am interested in a wide variety of subjects. If I focused on one thing, I would get bored," he said.

Sternberg has a friendly, nonthreatening demeanor that may catch a guest off-guard if he is expecting an easy interview, especially politicians and government officials.

"There are two schools of thought," Sternberg said. "You can attack them and stimulate calls. But I would rather have an interview and conversation and have them impart information. Between my questions, and the callers' questions, I think that's the way it usually works best."

That doesn't mean Sternberg lets his guests off easy.

"I enjoy interviewing everyone," he said. "The only problem is when a politician gets into a robotic recitation of the line of the day. I'm not asking for answers that are necessarily controversial, I just don't want them to put out the party line. That's not good radio. It's not good conversation.

Entertainers can also be an interview challenge.

"Sometimes it's the same with performers. Some of them show up and they are in character. If I don't get them out of it, it's not good radio. I won't allow the guest to stay in character."

Although much of his career has been public relations, Sternberg says radio is in his blood.

"When I was growing up, the first item I ever saved my allowance to buy was a tape recorder," the native of Los Angeles said. "I would use it to do imaginary radio shows."

Budding DJ

Sternberg majored in political science at UCLA, where he worked on the campus radio station. He was going to be a lawyer.

"I was going to go into law, but I realized after a speech by a lawyer it wasn't something I wanted to do," he said. "It was not my mental cup of tea."

After graduation Sternberg worked as a DJ at a couple of radio stations in Los Angeles and Orange counties and wrote comedy material for Blanc.

In 1978 Sternberg moved to Las Vegas, where he went to work for KDWN and eventually became the first director of marketing for the Downtown Progress Association, which preceded the Fremont Street Experience.

In 1986 he became director of public relations for Tropicana, a position he held for 11 years, until he decided to start his own PR firm.

Sternberg's latest radio project, "Traveling Nevada With Ira," is the result of a grant from the Nevada Commission on Tourism. By the time the last weekly program airs on Sept. 28, Sternberg will have broadcast live from 13 rural communities in Nevada, interviewing locals and revealing some of the character of the area.

Sternberg has aired programs from Elko and Tonapah. Saturday he will broadcast from Reno. Among future stops will be Fallon, Virginia City, Laughlin and Pahrump.

Sternberg drives to the community the day before the show to get the feel of the area and to prepare for the show.

"We promote what rural Nevada has to offer," he said. "There is quite a bit out there -- history, recreation, art, culture."

Sternberg says he doesn't have any problem juggling his two radio shows, his PR duties, his work with the Chamber, his teaching duties at the university and his other interests.

It's all in a day's work for someone who describes his main job as being a "communicator."

"But no matter what I've done in my career, I have come back to radio," Sternberg said. "It complements the rest of what I do."

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