She was once the irascible voice of Middle America, the sarcastic matriarch of a working-class family just trying to keep their jobs and raise their kids.
So what's Roseanne Barr doing on a radio station known for world music, beat poetry and radical politics?
"I'm a little bit of a crusader. I want people to know what's happening to them," Barr said of her hourlong talk show that began earlier this month on KPFK-FM (90.7), the Los Angeles outlet of the left-leaning Pacifica Network.
But the new role shouldn't seem a stretch to anyone paying attention to the themes Barr tackled on her eponymous sitcom, which ran on ABC from 1988 to 1997 and consistently ranked as one of the nation's most popular television programs. The character of Roseanne Conner often ran into issues of gay rights, worker rights and social justice.
"She staged a union walkout. After she won the lottery, she bought the factory where she was laid off," Barr said. "I was always telling this same story. I was always saying this."
One main difference between network TV and the listener-supported KPFK: "You don't have to worry about pleasing a sponsor, and that's really such great freedom," she said.
Barr co-hosts the show -- the Wednesday edition of KPFK's daily "Beneath the Surface" program, airing from 5 to 6 p.m. -- with her partner of six years, Johnny Argent, who is also her co-writer and musical arranger.
"He is a great partner for me," she said. "He's an intellectual, well-read, well-educated, who kind of fills in the facts for me. I'm kind of the passionate one who yells."
And though radio is not what most people associate with Barr, she and Argent aren't newcomers to the medium. For a week in February and again in April, they filled in on Air America, the liberal talk-radio network. And since 2007, they've hosted a similar talk show on the Inland Empire's KCAA-AM (1050) that airs Tuesday through Friday from 4 to 5 p.m.
Barr said she's long been a talk-radio listener and KPFK supporter. "It's where you hear the voice of the people. It's about your thoughts and ideas, rather than being about selling something."
The KPFK opportunity came up last year when Barr met Christine Blosdale, a senior producer at the station, while talking to Green Party presidential candidate and former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney at a party fundraiser.
