Kabc Radio

Ed (Superfan) Bieler's second stint at radio station KABC is over. Bieler announced on the air Friday that he has resigned. Bieler, who served as the host of KABC's "Sportstalk" from 1973 through '76 before being fired, was rehired last fall. He said on the air Friday that, for some time now, he and station management have disagreed on the direction "Sportstalk" should go. It was recently cut from four hours to two.

The Major League Baseball Players' Assn., the family of Bryan Stow and KABC radio are among five parties appointed Wednesday to represent the interests of unsecured creditors in the Dodgers' bankruptcy case. The committee, selected by a United States trustee, acts to ensure the interests of all unsecured creditors in the case. The Dodgers, as the debtor, are responsible for covering the legal bills incurred by the committee. The Dodgers' bankruptcy petition listed the team's top 40 unsecured creditors, in accordance with bankruptcy law. The majority of those 40 are current and former players, led by Manny Ramirez , to whom the Dodgers owe $21 million.

Night owls will hear a new voice on talk station KABC-AM (790) next week. Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels and a veteran talk show host, will be heard from midnight to 3 a.m. on Tuesdays through Saturdays. His syndicated program replaces "Midnight Radio Network." -- Lee Margulies

Night owls will hear a new voice on talk station KABC-AM (790) next week. Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels and a veteran talk show host, will be heard from midnight to 3 a.m. on Tuesdays through Saturdays. His syndicated program replaces "Midnight Radio Network." -- Lee Margulies

Tommy Hawkins, a KABC radio sportscaster and regular on the Dodger pregame show "Dodger Talk" for several years, quit the all-talk outlet without explanation Monday. A terse announcement was read Tuesday on the morning "Ken and Bob Show." According to station spokesman Judith Lerner, Hawkins left the station because of "irreconcilable differences." She said she could not elaborate and added only that his five-year contract with KABC ended as of this month.

KABC-AM(790) program director Wally Sherwin, best known to Los Angeles TV audiences as the mustachioed commercial spokesman for Adee Plumbing, is leaving the radio station after eight years to become a promotion consultant for radio and television. All-talk KABC will be one of the stations Sherwin will consult, so his brand of mixing journalism with entertainment won't be abandoned altogether by the station. "I approached radio as show biz," Sherwin said.

Less than a week after radio station KABC's announcement that Bud Furillo was leaving comes word that Lisa Bowman and Al Downing are returning. They will work some of the "Dodgertalk" shows before and after games, sometimes as a team. Downing will start Sunday, Bowman a week from Sunday. Wes Parker will continue doing some of the "Dodgertalk" shows, as well. Bowman was previously with KABC for 2 1/2 years after winning the job in a 1983 talent-search contest.

We get letters. . . . Most of today's concern KABC-TV's "Eyewitness News" and KABC Radio. In one column, I noted the tumult surrounding the return of commentator Bruce Herschensohn. Another mentioned the rough treatment given Jeff Cohen, head of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, on Tom Snyder's TV talk show. A third column observed Tawny Little's return as an "Eyewitness News" anchor. Other mail concerns the dropping of Maria Shriver and Forrest Sawyer as co-anchors of "The CBS Morning News" and also my review of the ABC "Closeup" special "After the Sexual Revolution."

The Major League Baseball Players' Assn., the family of Bryan Stow and KABC radio are among five parties appointed Wednesday to represent the interests of unsecured creditors in the Dodgers' bankruptcy case. The committee, selected by a United States trustee, acts to ensure the interests of all unsecured creditors in the case. The Dodgers, as the debtor, are responsible for covering the legal bills incurred by the committee. The Dodgers' bankruptcy petition listed the team's top 40 unsecured creditors, in accordance with bankruptcy law. The majority of those 40 are current and former players, led by Manny Ramirez , to whom the Dodgers owe $21 million.

TV commentator Bruce Herschensohn, who in June lost his California primary bid for the U.S. Senate Republican nomination, will return to two political commentary jobs on Tuesday, replacing Murray Fromson's morning spot on KABC radio as well as resuming his commentary on KABC-TV's "Eyewitness News." Fromson had taken over Herschensohn's commentary spot during "The Ken & Bob Co." morning broadcast in January after Herschensohn left to concentrate on his political campaign.

Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly is taking his controversial act to syndicated radio and will duke it out for Southland listeners with top-rated Rush Limbaugh. O'Reilly, who currently hosts "The O'Reilly Factor" on the Fox cable channel, will be the host of "The Radio Factor With Bill O'Reilly," a two-hour program that will premiere May 8 on KABC-AM (790) and run Monday through Friday at 9 a.m. The show will originate from New York and is being syndicated by Westwood One.

Describing himself as "not totally comfortable, but relieved" to be on the air, KABC-AM (790) talk-show host Ira Fistell, facing felony charges for leaving the scene of a fatal auto accident, resumed his nighttime program Wednesday. Fistell had been off the air since his Feb. 17 arrest at KABC's studios, where he had just finished his usual 11 p.m.-4 a.m. show. While en route to the station on the evening of Feb.

Thank you, Claudia Puig, for the somewhat overdue look at KFI radio's shift to the far right ("KFI: Turn On, Tune In, Turn Right," May 20). Although Puig considers balance for Rush Limbaugh, she fails to follow up on the fallacious allegation that "the media" has a liberal bias. Obviously, it is possible to turn on TV, radio or to pick up a newspaper or magazine and find a "business-oriented" perspective or something that the U.S. government would like the public to believe. However, only by seeking out small-circulation "alternative" publications is it possible to find out, say, American Communist Party views on labor issues, or what our government does not want us to know.

It's the end of an era with psychiatrist Dr. David Viscott's announcement that he is leaving KABC Radio ("Radio Therapist David Viscott Leaving KABC After 13 Years," April 14). KABC seems to be working overtime to compete with KFI Radio; fortunately the 50-something Viscott didn't change his style and personality to do that. Not so with the 50-something Michael Jackson and Steve Edwards. Much of the time they seem to be hyper and controlling (interrupting); trying to be controversial or trying to create it when it doesn't exist, or trying to be thirty-something!

Ira Fistell, the KABC-AM (790) talk-show host who was fired Wednesday after 15 years, says he bears no ill will toward the station. "I don't have any animosity," he said in a telephone interview. "I know this is the nature of the business. . . . (But) I was somewhat surprised and sorry for the audience that's so loyal and has been so wonderful. The audience is the real loser." Fistell declined to make further public comment on his dismissal.

Jackson Has Surgery: Veteran KABC Radio talk show host Michael Jackson has successfully undergone quadruple bypass surgery, his wife, Alana Jackson, said Monday. The surgery was performed Saturday and Jackson is expected to be off the air until the end of February. Susan Estrich, who is heard Sunday afternoons on KABC, is taking over Jackson's 9 a.m.-1 p.m. weekday program while he recuperates.

Jackson Has Surgery: Veteran KABC Radio talk show host Michael Jackson has successfully undergone quadruple bypass surgery, his wife, Alana Jackson, said Monday. The surgery was performed Saturday and Jackson is expected to be off the air until the end of February. Susan Estrich, who is heard Sunday afternoons on KABC, is taking over Jackson's 9 a.m.-1 p.m. weekday program while he recuperates.

. . . And now, Part Two in the continuing saga of "Mickey Rooney Calls KABC Radio." In a purported attempt to apologize for having accepted a phone call Monday from Rooney that was intended for Ken Minyard and Roger Barkley, KLOS-FM deejays Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps took a "meat snack" to the KABC-AM duo Tuesday morning. But before Minyard and Barkley could sample the dish, Minyard's daughter, Dana, telephoned to tell them what KLOS listeners already knew: It was dog food.