Joy Browne, 71; psychologist of the airwaves began career in Hub . By
Sam Roberts New York Times . NEW YORK - Dr. Joy Browne, the syndicated
radio and television psychologist who dispensed advice and earnest
inspiration over the air for nearly four decades, died Aug. 27 in
Manhattan. She was 71 and still hosting her daily three-hour radio
program. Her death was confirmed by her brother David Oppenheim, who
did not give a cause. Beginning in Boston 1978 - when she was suddenly
thrust onto the air because a Bruins hockey broadcast had been canceled
- Dr. Browne reached millions of radio listeners, many of whom revealed
their concerns to her in cathartic call-in segments or e-mailed her
their problems, which she read and responded to over the air. "She was
the longest-running psychologist on AM/FM radio at the time of her
death," Michael Harrison, the publisher of Talkers magazine, said in an
e-mail Wednesday. "More importantly," he added, "she kept the presence
of the radio psychologist/relationships show alive on terrestrial
news/talk radio at a time when the genre had all but dried up in favor
of mostly conservative, political programming. On television, versions
of her program appeared on CBS, with a studio audience, and on the
Discovery Health cable channel. In contrast to other on-air
psychologists, some of whom could come across as scolds, Dr. Browne was
unflaggingly buoyant as she delivered self-help advice and gentle
goading. "I'm in the business of helping make lives better," she once
said, "not by bashing but by teaching people how to take responsibility
for their behavior. On a recent program she asked: "If we can figure
out a way to get to the moon, wipe out disease, double life expectancy,
don't you think we can be a little nicer to each other? Maybe. I know,
I believe in the Easter bunny and the Tooth Fairy as well. With her
advice came rules to live by, like these for couples: â If you're
married, go on dates together (to keep the romance alive). â If
you've gone through a divorce or a breakup, no dating for a year (to
let you experience life on your own). â If you're both in love and
either of you has children, get married (an unmarried state can be
disruptive for younger children, who tend to become attached, and for
teenagers, who are dealing with their own sexuality). The psychologist
Dr. Joyce Brothers, who became a fixture in US homes, made her
television debut in the 1950s, but the roots of radio therapy are
usually traced to Toni Grant, who started broadcasting on KABC-AM in
Los Angeles in 1975. (Grant died this year.) Dr. Browne was among those
who followed in her footsteps, in her case on WITS-AM (now WMEX) in
Boston. "When I first started, the APA tried to take my license away,"
Dr. Browne told The New York Times in 1996, referring to the American
Psychological Association. In 1998, the group gave her an award under
the rubric "outstanding contribution by a psychologist in the media.
Dr. Browne found her niche in the 1970s, at a time when seeking
professional help was still stigmatized and family and community
support networks had weakened. Radio gave people wrestling with
emotional issues the safety of anonymity. She said she was as much
concerned with moral and ethical issues as she was with mental health.
"It's Problem Solving 101," she said in 1996 (while acknowledging that
some listeners might consider it "Voyeurism 102"). Indeed, Dr. Frank
Farley, a former president of the psychological association and a
professor at Temple University, said in a phone interview Wednesday
that call-in programs like Browne's were more successful at offering
practical advice on ethical issues than at providing actual therapy in
public. "You can't give therapy to people you haven't seen," he said.
He added: "Joy Browne was certainly among the best of the media
psychologists. She was very solid, well-grounded in psychology, and
wasn't going to be shooting from the lip. She was born Joy Oppenheim on
Oct. 24, 1944, in New Orleans, the daughter of Nelson Oppenheim, a life
insurance salesman, and the former Ruth Strauss, a teacher. She was
raised in Pennsylvania and Denver and graduated from Rice University in
Houston with a degree in behavioral science. After earning a master's
degree and a doctorate from Northeastern University in Boston, she
began practicing psychology and attending Tufts University School of
Medicine. That was when she was recruited by WITS. "I found something
in my life I was good at and could help more people in one hour than I
could in one year," Dr. Browne told Talkers magazine last year. (She
took her husband's name when she married Carter Browne.) WITS had
scheduled her to begin broadcasting in October 1978, but weeks earlier
she was summoned one night without warning to fill in when a scheduled
broadcast of a hockey game was abruptly canceled; the ice had melted at
Boston Garden. Her mission, she said, was to persuade depressed
listeners that they could change only their own mind-sets, not those of
the people who might be causing them stress. Certain topics were taboo,
she said, including abortion, "because you will never change anyone's
mind," and horoscopes, "because it will get phone calls - but no
listeners. Partisan politics was also off limits. After another radio
stint in California, Browne joined the WOR Radio Network in New York,
which in the early 1990s sent her program into national syndication.
She remained at WOR until it was sold in 2012. She then shifted to
Radio America and finally to the Genesis Communications Network, where
her midday program was still being broadcast on more than 100 stations
at her death. Dr. Browne was also an author. Among her titles are "The
Nine Fantasies That Will Ruin Your Life" (1998), "It's a Jungle Out
There, Jane" (1999), "Getting Unstuck" (2002), "Dating Disasters"
(2005) and "Dating for Dummies" (2006), which includes this
dating-preparation tip: "If you have fingernail marks on the palms of
your hands, you're a little too tense. Her marriage to Browne ended in
divorce. In addition to her brother David, she leaves a daughter,
Patience; three sisters, Jane Russo, Judy Hawkins and Alannah
Sinclaire; and another brother, Daniel Oppenheim.
