NO DR. TONI GRANT IN THE HOUSE?

Dr. Toni Grant may be leaving KABC-AM (790) at year’s end, despite attempts by the station to get the veteran talk-show psychologist to reconsider her decision not to renew her contract.

KABC management said Tuesday that it is leaving the door open to the matron saint of radio psychologists, who began phasing out her radio career two years ago when she cut her five-day-a-week program to four days. She has been offered a renewed contract to carry on her show two days a week, according to KABC General Manager George Green.

“A woman can always change her mind and Dr. Toni has on many occasions,” Green said.

KABC has announced no immediate successor and still holds out hope that Grant will reconsider continuing her three-hour afternoon drivetime show on Mondays and Tuesdays, beginning in January, Green said.

Grant’s departure comes at a time when KABC has been discussing making major changes in the entire all-talk format, including popular talk-show host Michael Jackson, whose show is heard locally from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“We have for some time talked about freshening up our 10 a.m.-to-3 p.m. block,” Green explained.

In one sense, the Toni Grant reshuffle is reflective of a larger scale revamping of the network which currently has 98 affiliates nationwide, according to ABC spokesman John Abrams.

“We’re really dependent on KABC for that block of time (10 a.m. to 3 p.m.),” Abrams said. “Whatever they decide to do with Toni Grant, we’ll probably follow.”

Since the TalkRadio network’s inception three years ago, KABC’s lineup of hosts has been its backbone. Grant’s afternoon show had been coupled with the morning Michael Jackson show as the centerpiece daily offering to ABC TalkRadio network affiliates.

But the Jackson/Grant time block and the network itself have shown signs of trouble in recent weeks.

Both the Jackson and Grant programs were relegated to taped-replay status this month over ABC’s flagship station, WABC-AM in New York. Instead of airing Jackson and Grant live by satellite, WABC management decided to tape the shows and put Jackson on from 9 to 11 p.m. and Toni Grant, 11 p.m. to midnight. Until now, those shows aired live in New York from 2 to 5 p.m.

Their former afternoon drivetime slot is now held by WABC’s own local talk-show host, Bob Grant, who is not carried on the network.

Toni Grant has refused to speak directly to KABC station personnel or to The Times about her decision not to renegotiate her KABC contract, which ends Dec. 31.

“It’s more that we don’t really want her to (speak to the press) than that she doesn’t want to,” said her manager, Eric Gold.

Instead of discussing Grant’s reasons for leaving the station that has been her radio home for 10 years, Gold concentrated only on Grant’s future plans. He said she will finish work on a book, develop a possible television program, put out a line of audio cassettes and expand the Dr. Toni Grant Institutes. Gold said Grant has opened three such “institutes” or counseling clinics in Tustin, Encino and Beverly Hills.

“She’s a busy lady,” Gold said.

Though Toni Grant’s decision took KABC executives somewhat by surprise, it was not entirely unexpected, according to Green. Last week, the station announced that the first hour of her program, beginning at 1 p.m., would be replaced as of Nov. 18 by San Francisco talk-show host Dr. Dean Edell. Edell hosts “The Doctor’s In,” a daily medical advice program over KGO, KABC’s San Francisco counterpart. Until now, his three-hour Saturday program has aired over KABC, but his daily program has been unavailable. The ABC TalkRadio network begins broadcasting the daily program via satellite this month and KABC became one of the first stations to sign up, Green said.

“Our programming of three hours of psychology in the afternoon for 10 years, plus the saturation of the media with Dr. Ruth (Westheimer) and other psychologists who have sprung up around the country seems to have had a weakening (effect) on ratings,” Green added.

He said the ratings of Grant’s 1 to 4 p.m. call-in program have stagnated in recent months, particularly in comparison to those of Dr. David Viscott. Viscott took over her Friday afternoon show two years ago after Grant complained that she felt the five-day-per-week regimen was burning her out. Green said Viscott will take over Wednesday and Thursday afternoons from Grant, regardless of her decision to remain or leave KABC at the end of the year.

If Grant still opts not to renew her KABC contract, Viscott could take over the entire week. His approach with callers is much more confrontational or “therapeutic” than Grant’s and has apparently garnered more interest among listeners, Green said.

“Toni had admitted frankly that she had burnt out some time ago,” Green said. “As she says herself, life is not a dress rehearsal. She will go on and we will go on.”

Station sources speculate that another possible replacement for Grant might be Dr. Susan Forward, who now hosts a Saturday call-in program that originates from the KABC studios. That program airs nationally over the ABC TalkRadio network, but is not heard over KABC in Los Angeles.

“That’s something we’ve always said to affiliates: that drivetime should be local,” Abrams said.

Abrams said another recent decision regarding the sale of TalkRadio programming to affiliates may also affect the Jackson/Grant time block after the first of the year. TalkRadio’s national acceptance among radio stations with all-talk formats has been stunted in part by a longstanding contractual requirement, forcing affiliates to carry four minutes of network commercials each hour whether they choose to carry the Jackson/Grant shows or not.

Beginning in January, that practice will end. Affiliates will have the option to follow the WABC lead and carry only those TalkRadio programs they want when they want to. They will no longer have to fear having to carry four minutes per hour of network commercial time if they air a local talk-show host instead of a Michael Jackson or a Toni Grant.

“Unfortunately, many talk-formatted stations have been interested in some of our programs, but not the entire package,” admitted ABC Radio Networks President Edward F. McLaughlin in a prepared press release on the new TalkRadio marketing plan.

Abrams said each affiliate is currently allowed about 14 minutes of non-program time per hour that can be used for local commercials, station identification, public service announcements or promotion. A total of 42 minutes per hour is allowed for programming. The remaining four minutes of commercial time is alloted to the TalkRadio Network.

Under the new marketing plan, an affiliate like WABC would be able to sell all 18 minutes of commercial time on a locally produced program like WABC’s Bob Grant show, with no contractual obligation to the network at all.

McLaughlin and Abrams said they hoped the new plan will finally boost their total number of TalkRadio affiliates past the 100 mark.