Born in 1939, in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, Bergman found his first taste of radio (and scandal) when he became an early morning DJ for his junior high school's radio station. Bored with reading the same old news one day, he announced that Chinese Communists had taken over the high school and was quickly replaced in the job. In high school, he formed a comedy group with some friends and was able to get a novelty single that satirized the 1956 Democratic convention pressed and played on Cleveland's local radio stations.

In 1957 he left for Yale University and met future Firesign Theatre member Phil Proctor in the drama department. The two soon became close friends, and in the mid-'60s, both moved to the West Coast, sitting in on broadcasts at Los Angeles' KPFK radio station. Bergman met Phil Austin and David Ossman at a station fundraiser, and the four began helping out with each other's work, particularly around a free-form, early morning show called Radio Free Oz, which Bergman co-hosted. Interested in astrology, Bergman was the first to notice that Proctor, Ossman, Austin, and himself were all fire signs, and a group name was born.

After the initial success of the Firesign Theatre radio shows and records, Bergman and Proctor split as a duo, recording the album TV or Not TV and touring with it in 1973. Two other albums followed with Proctor -- What This Country Needs in 1975 and Give Us a Break in 1978 -- both of which failed to match the critical or popular success of the foursome's outings. The duo also scripted and starred in several films, including Americathon, which still gave them credit after turning their script over to other writers. Bergman continued to work with the Firesign Theatre through the end of the century, while making his living writing and performing for television and radio. He died in 2012 after a bout with leukemia.