The Talk of the Electronic Town : Radio and TV: The Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill controversy has local and national talk-show phone lines buzzing.

Local and national radio talk-show hosts said Wednesday that their phone lines have been jammed with people calling to discuss the issue of sexual harassment in the wake of allegations leveled against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.

“It’s been overwhelming,” said Carole Hemingway of KGIL-AM (1260). “Never on any other subject have I had the response to an issue like this. Nothing. Not the Gulf War, the Soviet coup, the Challenger disaster. I have been doing talk radio for 17 years and it’s a different kind of reaction.”

The allegations made by University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Faye Hill that Thomas sexually harassed her when she worked for him at the Department of Education and at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have touched off broader discussions of sexual harassment in the workplace and seem to have struck a nerve with male and female callers alike.

“I have never seen a more deep-felt reaction,” Hemingway said in an interview. “This issue is hitting something so deep that I’m not sure we’ve had time yet to sort it out. To me it represents a watershed in terms of the changing relations between men and women, particularly in the workplace. . . . One of the things it shows is that men and women look at this issue in very different ways.”

“There’s no doubt about it,” said Larry King, who hosts a syndicated talk radio show heard in the early mornings locally on KMPC-AM (710). “This is an enormous dilemma. Women are coming forward to discuss things that have happened to them.”

Additionally, some talk-show hosts regard this issue, more than any others in recent years, as one that may galvanize women while simultaneously raising the consciousness of men.

“This may be the issue that galvanizes the feeling that has been growing for a while that women are being ignored by this country,” said Tom Leykis, who hosts an afternoon talk show on KFI-AM (640). “There are a lot of women, especially younger women, who generally are not politically involved, who finally have woken up. This is getting their attention. Whether this will translate to action, it remains to be seen. But it’s certainly getting people to call talk shows.”

Indeed, a caller named Tina on Tuesday exhorted Leykis’ listeners: “Come on all you women out there, unite. . . . I cannot believe women will stand by for this. Women, guys, come on and fight this together.”

“I think it really makes everybody re-think their attitudes about sexual harassment,” said Steve Edwards, who hosts an afternoon talk show on KABC-AM (790.) “It’s an enormous consciousness-raising issue. This has led to more real and open discussions about sexual harassment. I think it’s healthy.”

While Edwards said his callers this week were reasonable and calm, Hemingway said she had many male callers who were extremely angry on Monday, just after the story was brought to light by Newsday and National Public Radio.

“The station’s lines were just jammed all day (Monday) because I took a stand that the vote should be delayed,” Hemingway said. “There was an instantaneous reaction. Men actually sounded panicked. They lashed out. The way in which they expressed themselves was to attack anything other than the issue: to attack her, to attack the media, attack me. They called me names. They accused me of all sort of sexual and other misdeeds. Nobody has ever done this to me before. They were just furious, and the only way they could lash out was through name-calling. Then (Tuesday) it was exactly opposite. They were thoughtful, asked me about the issue. Some men even called and apologized for their comments the day before. I think what changed it was the press conference by Hill. They had a chance to see her and to sit back and think.”

Longtime KABC talk show host Michael Jackson said about 65% of his calls were supportive of Hill and critical of Thomas; most of the women supported Hill.

But a caller to his show Wednesday morning, who identified herself as a black woman, had this to say: “I was taught as a child it was a man’s prerogative to ask, but it’s up to you to refuse. If (Thomas) had insulted (Hill), then she should have taken the initiative right then and there and spoken out. . . . I think Thomas is a good man.”

All the talk-show hosts interviewed said that a good portion of the calls directed their anger at politicians, specifically the Senate Judiciary Committee, which did not promptly bring the allegations to light.

“What I’ve been hearing from callers is that women are upset not so much with Clarence Thomas, but with the Senate Judiciary Committee,” Leykis said. “One thing women seem to agree on is that it shows that Washington is an old-boy network.”

Meanwhile, conservative syndicated talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, heard locally on KFI, opened his show Wednesday with the pronouncement: “Feminists are saying sexual harassment is now the plague of America and all men are guilty of it. I feel almost as if this has happened to me.”

Limbaugh went on to say that this subject was among the top five most serious issues that he has ever dealt with on his program and postulated his own theory about Hill: “I think she’s in love with him. I think she has been for a long time and I think he spurned her. I think it’s get-even time.”

Whatever the viewpoint, feminist attorney Gloria Allred sees talk-radio playing a key role in “this morality play.”

“Callers want to be able to talk about it,” said Allred, who filled in for Ira Fistell on KABC Monday and Tuesday nights. “They need to be able to talk about it. This is a great opportunity for talk radio. There are men actually listening to women and women listening to men. And hosts listening. It’s like a national town hall being conducted on talk radio.”

Television talk shows have not jumped as quickly on the sexual harassment issue as radio, but those that have are going all out.

For the last three nights, ABC’s “Nightline” has devoted its late-night news forum to the subject. And “Donahue” on Wednesday scrapped a previously planned topic to deal with this one instead; the program is scheduled for broadcast in Los Angeles at 3 p.m. today on KNBC Channel 4.

“It’s an important story, because it’s not arcane,” said Jeff Greenfield, political and media analyst on “Nightline.” “Anybody in the workplace can put himself or herself into the place of being a potential victim or the potential accused.”

Times Staff Writer Daniel Cerone contributed to this article.