#BookClub — Munsey Business

I recently finished reading Munsey Business, written by longtime Valley weatherman Dave Munsey. Dave retired last year after 51 years in broadcasting – the last 42 of them in Phoenix at Channel 10 (FOX 10).
Munsey Business tells some great stories about Valley TV personalities and other celebrities.  It’s got bite-size stories about his legendary career, the people he met, how the Phoenix TV market evolved, the things he did and how he worked tirelessly to create a following allowing him to stay at one station for so long.
Dave and his wife Bunny have been friends of my family’s for years, dating back decades to when my Aunt Care worked with Bunny.
As a kid, I remember visiting Dave at KOOL-FM to watch him do his morning radio show.  I remember him stopping by my Aunt Care’s to celebrate Christmas Eve between newscasts. He would entertain my brother, cousins and me with his newsroom stories and he humored my dad with his Ole and Lena jokes.
And then I followed him into the broadcasting industry.
(Written in a sarcastic tone).  My name does not appear in Munsey Business.  But there were a couple of other things I remember, too – that he only half-way pointed out in his book.

• In the chapter titled “Please Don’t,” Dave shares a story about local celebrities participating in a karaoke event to support a charitable cause. Dave’s song was “Raindrops Are Falling on my Head” by B.J. Thomas.

What’s not in the book:  I was working at Channel 5 at the time and also participated in the event.  I think it was sort of the “invention” of karaoke and for sure it was the first time I really felt validated to be a working member of the media in Phoenix. My song was “Taking Care of Business” by Bachman–Turner Overdrive.

• Dave mentions several times in his book about people requesting that he speak at their funeral, which he has done.

What’s not in the book:  after my paternal grandmother’s funeral, Dave came up to me and complimented me on how and what I had said at her funeral.  He knew from experience and followed that up with a warning:  “You’re toast.  Now everybody knows you’re good at this and you’ll get asked to do it a lot more.”   He was right.
If you want a first-person trip through some of Arizona’s biggest broadcasting events, aha moments, connections to people we all “know” and unknown-till-now back stories, Munsey Business has that and more.
Oh, and “Watch Your Kids Around Water!”