Radio’s Nights Mimic Daytime Madness

It was Valentine’s Day. The Poorman, the irrepressible KROQ-FM deejay who anchors the station’s 8 p.m.-midnight shift, was promoting romance.

A woman called who had just split up with her husband. Hoping to save the marriage, the Poorman put the woman on with her husband, who was at work that night.

“I was trying to smooth things out, because I felt bad that their marriage was falling apart,” he recalled. “So what happens? Instead of kissing and making up, they start beefing it out on the air. I was crushed. Finally, he got really mad and just hung up on her.”

Welcome to the unpredictable world of L.A. nighttime rock radio. Nearly everywhere you spin the dial each evening, you’ll hear so many crazy audience-participation features, loud-mouthed deejays, mystery celebrities and teen-date call-in lines, that you would think you were listening to . . . morning radio.

“It’s definitely a big trend in radio--we see it happening everywhere and it’s making for very creative radio,” said Jeff Pollack, president of the Pollack Media Group, an influential L.A.-based radio consultancy firm. “Whether you’re on in the morning or at night these days, the strategy is to get your older, 25-plus audience involved in the show.

“It’s a critical demographic audience, because if you can add their numbers to your teen numbers you can really make yourself very attractive to advertisers. But they’re a tough listenership to win over, because they’ve got families, they watch TV--let’s just say you need a really good hook to steal them away from ‘Moonlighting.’ ”

Consider these hooks:

On KROQ, the most imaginative local radio outlet, the Poorman regularly offers a “I Hate My Ex” feature, where he surprises old flames by putting them on the phone with disgruntled former girl or boyfriends. He also presides over a Candid Message Machine feature where listeners play their outgoing messages over the air, plus that night’s best incoming message. (One caller last week boldly played a message from his mother-in-law.)

Other staples include an Instant Request feature (where KROQ staffers scurry through the record library looking for obscure favorites), an Astrological Love Forecast and Megadate, where the Poorman offers a panel of girls a date with a male suitor.

The results are often hilariously devastating, at least for the male ego. “We once had five girls on the line who shut down a whole series of guys--it was like the Inquisition,” said Poorman. “They totally smoked four guys in a row.”

Not to be outdone, KIIS-FM’s Hollywood Hamilton runs a 9 p.m. Lovelines feature where libido-crazed teen-agers call up, offering unsolicited pick-up advice, dissing romantic rivals and, as one cheeky customer did recently, ranking the erotic charms of the girls in his graduating class.

And no one’s sweep of the rock dial would be complete without tuning in the Pit Bull of Evening Radio, KMPC-FM’s Guy Kemp, who hangs up on scores of callers each night, attacks his radio rivals and hosts a regular Pot Shots feature, where listeners can complain about their bosses or co-workers. (His ratings, however, are still dismal.)

The one thing you can bank on in rock radio--if someone dreams up a good idea, one of his competitors will lift it. And sure enough, Kemp claims that KLOS-FM morning men Mark & Brian have “blatantly ripped me off. At first I was angry, but then I saw how much they steal from David Letterman, so I figured I was in good company.”

(In his Saturday night improvisational-style serial, “Decadent Theatre,” Kemp now has a pair of characters known as Mark and Brian, who appear on a carnival attraction known as a Deliverance Ride.)

KLOS program director Charlie West responded: “Mark and Brian hold radio comedy classes every morning from 6 to 10 a.m. and it’s been great to see that Guy’s been attending regularly and using so much of what he’s learned.”

Are there any limits to how far you can go on nighttime radio? “We put very few limitations on the Poorman,” said KROQ program director Rick Carroll. “I don’t want him to be slick--his whole appeal is that he sounds like a Huntington Beach surfer who’s taken over the radio station. But I do monitor the show carefully.

“When they say on the air that they’re in trouble, because ‘the boss is calling,’ they’re not making it up. I don’t want to stop the spontaneity, but I’ll call right up on our hot line and say, ‘Hey, back off, dude. Remember, we’re on live .’ ”