Kabc Radio

I wanted to take the time to commend the L.A. Times for your progressive affirmative action program. I have been reading some of the commentaries authored by Mr. Mike Downey and have also heard him on KABC radio. Mr. Downey's learning disabilities are apparent from the level on which he communicates. His handicap appears to be a cognitive reasoning disorder, typically found in adults suffering from dysfunctional disorders that keep many unemployed and living nonproductive lives. The fact that this has not deterred the L.A. Times from employing Mr. Downey is a tribute to your policy to employ people less fortunate than most.

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.

Ciji Ware laughingly confessed that she could not remember her subject for that afternoon's broadcast on "The Wink & Bill Show" on KABC Radio. She said this while walking at a fast clip through a rose garden, heading back to the books on 18th-Century England that line her desk at the Huntington Library in San Marino where she is one of three novelists to have research privileges. Ware, who is the health and life-style commentator for KABC Radio, had already written a 90-second radio spot and would broadcast it from home, but she had to call the station soon to give them a "lead in" to the broadcast.

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.

Condom commercials will soon be coming to KABC-AM (790), making it the first radio outlet in Southern California to accept the controversial advertising. In a surprise announcement during the Michael Jackson talk show Wednesday, KABC General Manager George Green said that the all-talk station will accept condom ads immediately if the emphasis is placed on AIDS prevention and not birth control. Green made the announcement in response to a plea from Rep.

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."

A lawsuit by an Orange County public defender who pleaded love to a contempt-of-court charge, was exonerated, and then sued radio station KABC for allegedly misreporting the story, is headed for trial this week. The $6.6-million suit stems from a series of broadcasts by talk show host Carole Hemingway that were critical of Deputy Public Defender Jean Farley's absence in the middle of a rape trial in 1982.

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.