TALK RADIO : Youths Candid on the Tough Issues

It’s Sunday morning, at the not-so-prime time hour of 9 o’clock. Her friends are sleeping, but Joanna Brown is “juiced.” Joanna, 17, and her brother Greg, 16, are hosting the latest installment of “Keep Talking,” a weekly radio show on Thousand Oaks-based KNJO, 92.7-FM.

The half-hour program is devoted to issues concerning teen-agers, and the Browns are ready to incite some controversy, arouse those irate callers.

The topic this week is drunk driving, and the special guest is Jodie, who was 19 when she got drunk at a bar and crashed her car, breaking a bone in her neck.

“It’s been a year now, and I know this is terrible to admit, but my mind is almost in the place it was before I was in the accident,” Jodie says. “It’s like I forgot about it. . . . I don’t have a car, but I’m afraid if I did, I’d do it again. It’s very scary.”

Jodie isn’t going to get off easy--from the hosts or the callers.

“I don’t want to be mean, but I think it’s just plain, right-out stupid,” Greg says. “If you know about things that happen, you say no. . . . I know it’s a tough situation, but you still can do it.”

One caller tells Jodie she should have been locked up, that the penalties for drunk driving aren’t stiff enough. “Society needs to be protected from people like you,” the man says.

Jodie stays calm but she’s clearly frustrated. “If I went to jail for a year, it would still be the same, until I get help for my alcoholism. . . . I broke my neck, I almost died. I had a brace for four months. That was a pretty stiff penalty to me. It doesn’t matter how much the penalty is. It depends on whether you’re going to get help or not.”

It’s an intense half-hour. When the show ends, everyone in the broadcast booth breathes a sigh of relief.

“That was a tough one,” says Loree Cohen, a therapist who moderates the show each week.

But that’s how it’s supposed to be. “Keep Talking,” which airs throughout Ventura County, is intended to raise compelling issues and to give teen-agers a chance to express their views.

“It’s the kids’ show, where they have a chance to talk about what’s important to them,” says Temma Landis, who created the program two years ago.

Each week Cohen is joined by local teen-agers who serve two-week stints. The teen-age hosts are peer counselors who have been trained to talk about issues such as drugs, sex, relationships and suicide.

Landis, an acting teacher who lives in Van Nuys, says she wanted to provide a forum for teen-agers to talk about issues they might be uncomfortable discussing with their parents.

“I have two kids--one could talk to me and the other couldn’t,” she says.

Landis took her idea to several Los Angeles radio stations, she says, but none were willing to take a chance on a show hosted by teen-agers. Finally, she sold the idea to Pete Turpel, general manager of KNJO, a soft-rock station that generally caters to adults.

Turpel liked the idea of giving youths a chance to talk, but, he says, he especially liked the idea of giving adults the opportunity to listen.

“This may give them a more objective point of view--some insight into the trials and tribulations and pressures their kids go through,” he says.

Some listeners have complained that the topics aren’t appropriate for the radio.

“A lot of people don’t like to talk about drugs and kids,” Turpel says. “They think that with the affluence we have here, those things don’t exist, when they really do.”

Turpel says it was easier for him to gamble on the show than it might have been for stations in Los Angeles. “You’re more tied into the rating games down that way,” he says. “I probably wouldn’t have done it if I were in L.A., but KNJO has the luxury of being really local.”

Turpel started the show at 8 a.m. and moved it to 9 a.m. when he saw it was working. Now he’s considering moving it to an evening slot. “We’ve been really impressed with the response,” he says. The positive response hasn’t been limited to Ventura County.

A producer in Austin, Tex., heard about the show and has asked Landis to help set up a similar program there.

Meanwhile, Landis would like to get the show syndicated and include teen-agers from other countries.

Some of the hosts, including the Browns, have served several two-week stints. Greg, who is articulate and self-assured on the air, says he has become a lot more comfortable with being host.

“My first word on the first show was ‘um,’ ” says Greg, a sophomore at Oak Park High School in Agoura. “Now I express myself a lot better. I’m a lot more self-confident.”

Cohen says she has seen the teen-age hosts grow from doing the show.

“They learn how to listen--not just how to talk,” she says. “And they learn that feelings aren’t just cut and dried.”

Joanna, who wants to become a psychologist, says she enjoys sharing her feelings about controversial issues.

“I’d like to have my own talk show one day,” says the senior at Oak Park. “I’ve always loved helping people, getting their emotions out. I like to give people reassurance that things aren’t as bad as they seem.”

Joanna says she particularly enjoys talking about peer pressure and school-related issues.

“One time a girl called and said that if she got a “C” in school, she thought she was a “C” person. But I told her that you’re not what your grades are. You can be really horrible in school and be a really great person. I felt like I made a difference.”