Veteran Radio Reporter Finds a Hero in Benny

A lot of seniors love Jack Benny, and Hadrian Lesser is no exception. Almost every night at 9 o’clock you can find Lesser in front of a television set watching reruns of Benny’s show on a New York cable station.

“I love all the characters, Jack, Rochester. . . , “ he said. “If only there were those kinds of shows today.”

You could probably find a lot of seniors who would agree, but Lesser is a different sort of senior than you might expect. Lesser is a senior at Beverly Hills High School.

Radio pioneer Benny is a fitting hero for 18-year-old Lesser, who is something of a pioneer himself. Lesser recently celebrated his 10th anniversary as a health news radio reporter.

Lesser’s favorite programs are, like Benny’s radio show, all talk.

“I never listen to a music station,” said Lesser, whose “Youth & the Health Issues” airs between 8 and 10 a.m. Saturdays on KGIL AM 1260. “I’m always tuned into a talk radio station.”

Lesser was one of the youngest radio reporters in the country when he started doing reports on such topics as nutrition, Vitamin A deficiency, and the importance of pets on KIEV AM 870 at the age of 8.

Now a veteran reporter, he said that after he graduates in June he he plans to study broadcast journalism at Santa Monica College and one day host his own radio talk show.

“My main goal is (that) I want to bring the public information they can use to help them live a better, healthier, more enjoyable life,” he said.

The Santa Monica Hospital Medical Center recently honored 207 volunteers at its annual awards luncheon in Marina del Rey. Top honors this year went to Santa Monica’s Jette Simmons, who volunteered more than 30,000 hours of service.

Also receiving special recognition were Grayce Reidenbach and Mildred Collins, both of Santa Monica, who have accumulated 24,000 hours and 17,000 hours respectively.

Beverly Hills High School baseball Coach Bill Erickson has been selected as an assistant coach for the 1990 U.S. Olympic Festival to be held in July in Minneapolis.

Erickson, a special education teacher at the school, will be an assistant on the West team, which will include players from 13 Western states.

Dr. Loren L. Zachary, founder of the Loren L. Zachary Society for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, has received one of the highest honors Austria can bestow on a private citizen.

Zachary, a Vienna-born physician who is the general director of the Los Angeles Concert Opera, received the “Knights Cross Second Class” for merits and services rendered to Austria.

Elizabeth King, a sophomore at Mt. St. Mary’s College in West Los Angeles, has been awarded a four-year, $28,000 scholarship by the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation.

King, who plans to study law or public policy, was one of 92 students across the nation honored this year for outstanding potential for leadership in government and public service.

For his contributions to improve the lives of people with disabilities, Douglas Martin, special assistant to the UCLA chancellor and co-founder of the Westside Center for Independent Living, has been honored by President Bush with the Distinguished Service Award.

Martin, who is on the Westside Center’s board of directors, was recognized for his 15-year history of promoting legislative reforms of Social Security programs to help people with disabilities work, marry and become more independent.

Beverly Hills podiatrist Harry C. Reizner was recently awarded the 1990 Hiram Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Masons, by the Los Angeles Lodge No. 42 for his outstanding service to Masonry.