After 47 years, ‘Fresh Air’ executive producer Danny Miller retires

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In 1978, Danny Miller was 24 years old and asked to be an intern on “Fresh Air,” a relatively new show on WHYY in Philadelphia, then called WUHY.

At the time, he knew little about radio and even less about NPR. But he loved jazz. His introduction to the station was through its overnight jazz show hosted by DJ Bob Perkins, which led him to Terry Gross who also played jazz on “Fresh Air” in the afternoon.

Both Gross and Miller have called themselves “lucky” that the unlikely beginning of their professional relationship proved to be so successful for 47 years.

“Working with Danny since 1978 has been one of the greatest gifts imaginable. There would be no ‘Fresh Air’ without him,” Gross said in a statement. “On a daily basis, he’s created an environment that allows creativity to flourish and is flexible enough so that we can be parents, or have aging parents, spouses or life partners.”

“It’s hard to know where to take credit for something when you’re working with somebody as brilliant as Terry,” Miller said. “But one thing I will give myself credit for is knowing, as a student intern, she was really going to go someplace. I could tell there was something really extraordinary about her.”

After nearly a half-century in his only career job, Miller, 71, has decided to retire, officially at the end of 2025 but he will likely linger for a month or so as his successor, “Fresh Air” producer and occasional guest host Sam Briger, transitions into the position.

“Danny has such great editorial authority, but he wears it so lightly,” Briger said. “I can only hope to try to emulate some of that.”

A career evolution

In 1978, Miller was a student at Temple University, studying film and music therapy, while holding down five part-time jobs to make ends meet, including taking tickets at the old TLA movie theater on South Street and playing in a salsa band.

Following his internship at WHYY, Miller was hired in 1979 as “Fresh Air’s” first associate producer and later became its co-executive producer along with Gross. Together, they shepherded “Fresh Air” from a local talk show into a daily national show that has become a definitive element of National Public Radio.

Miller credits the WHYY station manager at the time, Bill Siemering, for pushing the show into the national spotlight in the 1970s.

“He found the money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to do it,” Miller said of Siemering. “Despite a distinct lack of enthusiasm on the part of the station management which was in place at the time, which never really cared all that much for the radio part of the operation.”

With Gross and the “Fresh Air” staff, Miller guided the show through its many stages of evolution, from a local show to a weekly national show, then a daily national show; from analog to digital; from a show primarily about music and books to a mixture of politics, science and cultural topics.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Miller restructured the show’s workflow so that much of the production could be done remotely. He recently hired “Fresh Air’s” first co-host, Tonya Mosley.

“He belongs to the show, he and Terry,” said “Fresh Air” director Roberta Shorrock, of Miller. “It really feels big that he’s leaving. I know that Sam [Briger] will do a really good job, but Danny helped build this show.”

Like many staff members, Shorrock has a long tenure with “Fresh Air” starting in 1989. Producer Phyllis Myers started in 1987, hired away from Washington, D.C., when “Fresh Air” became a national daily show.

“Danny’s the best boss ever,” Myers said. “At some point, I realized I’m never going to have a boss like that. He cares about the show. Cares about Terry. Cares about the staff and who you are. He cares about everyone who’s ever worked here.”

‘A hypnotic attraction to chaos’

The yin and yang of a show like “Fresh Air” is the push to make the show as excellent as possible against the pull of unforgiving deadlines. Getting the show right and getting it on time could produce an adrenaline rush.

“Danny likes to live on the edge,” Shorrock said. “But I always had total confidence that even if the clock was ticking and we were getting close and I needed this tape, he would get it in there. But it would be nerve-racking sometimes.”

Some members of the “Fresh Air” staff in the 1990 once described Millers as being “hypnotically attracted to chaos,” which he does not deny but has learned to manage.

“You can always make something better, but if you take too much time making something better, you will crash. That’s devastating for everybody.” he said. “But there is nothing like pulling it off.”

If production of “Fresh Air” is sometimes hectic, it never shows on the air.

“One thing about being a producer and an editor is that if you do your job really well, people don’t know it,” Miller said. “The hours that can go into an edit, or the hours that can go into selecting just the right guests for an interview segment, that’s not apparent when you hear the show.”

Miller’s replacement, Sam Briger, has been with “Fresh Air” for 21 years, most of that time as the booking producer of author interviews, occasionally stepping into the executive producer’s role as needed. Gross praised Briger for knowing the show “inside out,” and for his ability to stay calm in a production crisis.

“There’s a certain amount of stress that is baked in because it’s a daily show that has a deadline at noon,” Briger said. “But people who work on the show tend to be able to handle that stress level pretty well. I think that is in part because Danny is a role model. A lot of the staff sees how Danny handles that daily stress and it trickles down.”

Miller praised Briger for his editorial judgment, wide areas of subject interest and compassion for the “Fresh Air” staff.

“He’s a good guy. And a kind guy, and will look out for the staff and be their best advocate,” Miller said. “That is one of the things that makes me feel really good about Sam taking over.”