Today, Michael Jackson, the onetime stalwart of Los Angeles talk radio, begins what he hopes will be his last job. Before this, though, he wondered if he'd already worked his last job.
At 9 a.m., his new two-hour program debuts on KGIL-AM (1260), five years after he signed off his last talk show, ending a run that began with his arrival on Los Angeles airwaves in 1963 and included a landmark three-decade stint at KABC-AM (790).
"I'm usually just excited," said the wry and erudite Briton. "Now I'm nervous and excited. I've been off for a while."
His is the marquee name on the news/talk station being launched by radio entrepreneur Saul Levine, replacing the classical music on what had been KMZT-AM ("K-Mozart") since February. The weekday lineup begins at 6 a.m. with "Larry King Live," followed at 7 a.m. by the two-hour newsmagazine "The Wall Street Journal This Morning." Libertarian host Neal Boortz will air from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., followed by radio psychologist Joy Browne from 2 to 5 p.m. Jackson's show will air live from 9 to 11 a.m., with a replay from 5 to 7 p.m.
"Michael Jackson remains one of the best-known brands in Los Angeles talk radio and, as a result, will bring interest, credibility and notoriety to this new talk format," said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, the industry trade journal. "He's legendary. That's what a station like that can use."
From 1966 to 1998, Jackson held court at KABC with collegial, noncombative interviews of politicians, celebrities, authors and more ordinary Angelenos with a story to tell. He dominated his morning time slot and pushed KABC to the top of the local ratings, until Rush Limbaugh debuted at rival KFI-AM (640) and, with his brash style and zealous partisanship, began his ascendancy over a new brand of talk radio.
Moving around the dial
Citing the drop in listeners, KABC exiled Jackson to weekends for his last year at the station. He left for weekdays at KRLA-AM, then at 1110 on the dial, but a format change forced him off the air in 2000. He landed at KLAC-AM (570) but lost his show again when that station switched to music in 2002.
News station KNX-AM (1070) hired Jackson in 2004 to record interviews with newsmakers, which were played in snippets throughout the day. But he grew frustrated, he said, when 45-minute talks with Hillary Clinton or John McCain turned into three or four minutes on the air. When his contract expired in May 2006, the station didn't renew.
