Alameda’s Stan Bunger Recounts Some Highlights From His Near 5,000 Conversations With Legendary Hall Of Fame Football Insider And Previews New Madden Book
LISTEN TO ENTIRE INTERVIEW HERE:
By Larry Freeman
“BOOM! ”
The brash, plain speaking, drill down, tangential mind of one of America’s most uncommon, common-man personas stands out in this interview with former KCBS News Radio Morning Anchor, Stan Bunger.
This exploration rekindles and vivifies the down to earth person and media personality of John Madden, whose legend has been told and retold thousands of times over the decades and who also lives virtually and vicariously in scores of football based video games spanning five decades.
(It also brings the warm familiarity of ‘hey, I remember hearing that frank, even keeled voice, good old Stan, all the time on the radio’ for those who had to have their daily morning radio news dose.)
Bunger likens what were formally scheduled as morning interviews to something more akin to freestyle journeys; forays into ‘where are we going now,’ grass roots conversations that always opened up the room of the airwaves as we listeners felt as though we were right there with Madden, Bunger and another local Alameda (also retired) KCBS radio personality, sportscaster Steve Bitker.
Madden, irreverent on the outside and a man of deep conviction and self- directedness, is the focus of a unique book Bunger has just finished, “Mornings With Madden.” The exact release date has not been set, but the book should be out this Fall.
Bunger, a member of the Bay Area Radio Hall Of Fame, rounded up and scoured thousands of hours of archival recordings, some on old cassette tape and others on disks, and began the Herculean task of piecing excerpts together to create a written chronicle showcasing amazing, amusing and sometimes profound musings of Madden.
Madden’s passing in 2021 struck Bunger hard and the book project informally came to mind as a kind of homage to the legend, and Bunger learned something bittersweet in the process.
“Part of me realized that I’d failed to build the level of relationship I could have built with him. I just treated him as a superstar and a colleague, not as a friend. He wasn’t the kind of guy that would throw his arm around you and say ‘I love you buddy.” said Bunger, who later learned that Madden did consider Bunger as a friend and part of his personal circle.
Bunger’s special recognition award for the heart and soul he showed towards Madden, endearing him to the football folklore legend and his family.
“But I was looking for that, so that rattled around in my brain,” and he wrote a small tribute piece about Madden’s radio career which fell upon deaf ears and blind eyes around Bay Area big media.
“It just sat there,” and became a quiet nagging notion of something more yet to be done.
“Out of the blue” the Madden family asked Bunger to speak at John Madden’s memorial at the Oakland Coliseum, on Valentine’s night, of all times, in 2022.
That seminal event sparked a realization for Bunger.
“Wait a minute,” he thought, “I have a book here about all the wisdom and humor and philosophy that were embedded in his daily segments.”
There began the slog to transcribe and make book-ready the primary source, treasure trove of interview audios, provided him by Madden’s sons Mike and Joe.
The book, to be published by Triumph Books, will take the reader into some of those magic morning meanderings that so many of us eagerly looked forward to each day, as did Bunger.
The book’s working subtitle is, “My Radio Life With An American Legend,” emphasizing its distinction from standard biographical works about of Madden.
For now, this audio will provide a taste of what more is yet to come and take you, at least for a surface scratch, into the mind and heart of Madden.
HERE IS THE AUDIO OF THE FULL INTERVIEW AGAIN:
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Afterword:
Just minutes after the audio recording was shut off, and we veered off into Superbowl LVIII banter, and the impending quarterback matchup, Bunger said that, “Madden was thrilled with Patrick Mahomes, just thought the world of him, and he would have loved Brock Purdy.”
And “BOOM!” There you have it.