Where No Radio Has Gone Before : Media: A local station gains a following by beaming out interviews with stars and staff of the two ‘Star Trek’ TV series.

Hailing frequencies are open every Friday night for a new generation of “Star Trek” fans eager to discuss the popular TV series and films.

“Talk Trek” on KIEV radio (870 AM) features a five-member panel of fans who interview actors and production staff from the original TV series, which aired from 1966 to 1969, and the new series, “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” which airs Wednesday nights on KCOP-TV Channel 13.

“I ‘talk Trek’ with my friends all the time, so the idea for a radio show seemed a natural,” said North Hollywood resident Joyce Mason, who originated the idea for the show shortly before it first aired in November. “People who listen or call in love to hear our guests talk about all the behind-the-scenes stories.”

Mason is founder and president of the William Shatner Connection, a fan club begun in 1982. On “Talk Trek,” Shatner, who played Capt. James Kirk in the original series, announces commercials and gives away tickets for horse shows he is associated with. “Talk Trek” sponsors include the Mr. Burrito restaurant in Glendale and the Wizard specialty shop in Hollywood.

The show receives about 17 callers during its 10 to 11 p.m. time slot, a high number for a new show, KIEV account executive Roger Starks said.

“It’s one of the most popular brokerage shows we have on the air,” said Starks, adding that unlike regular shows, brokerage shows are charged for air time and obtain their own sponsors. “ ‘Talk Trek’ seemed to immediately gain an audience, partly because it was really talked up among fans before it ever aired.”

David Rossi, production assistant for the current TV series, was a guest on a recent “Talk Trek” show. “Today we did a lot of explosions--we blew up some pretty big ships,” said Rossi, referring to the day’s shooting schedule. “ ‘The Next Generation’ is in 98% of the market right now across the country and we’re very proud of that.”

Other guests have included actors Spice Williams (“Star Trek V”), Grace Lee Whitney (Lt. Janice Rand in the original series) and Eric Stillwell, script coordinator for the current series and an occasional writer.

Writers and various production staff members call in during the show, heightening the banter created by Mason and other panel members: Evelyn De Biase, Patti Byther, D. J. Hinson and Phil Wheyland. Byther is the program’s “know-it-all” who fields questions and comments about assorted trivia, Mason said.

“I can tell you how many Tribbles fell on Capt. Kirk’s head in the show, ‘The Trouble With Tribbles,’ ” said Byther, who travels from her San Diego home every Friday to help with the show. “It’s 1,760,129.”

Such absorption with the mechanics of the series (Byther also knows the combination to Kirk’s safe) is what non-Trek fans often focus on to belittle devotees of the series, Mason said in a recent broadcast. “I really don’t like the expression Trekkies or even Trekkers ,” she said, later adding that she prefers Trek fans . “It really has a terrible connotation to it. Hopefully, this radio show helps to dispel some of those myths.

“Fans are interested in the show because of its high ideals, reverence for life and love of mankind. The shows are often written to parallel what’s happening in the world today. In the ‘Star Trek’ universe, those problems get solved and so maybe we can solve our problems too.”

As an example, Mason said, the original series once focused on two beings who battled each other because the color of their faces, painted half black and half white, were on opposite sides. “That was really about racism in the ‘60s,” Mason said.

An upcoming show, she added, explores how the Enterprise crew encounters and grows to accept beings from a planet where inhabitants have an entirely different sexuality than humans, a theme that parallels today’s gay and lesbian civil rights movement.

Future episodes are a favorite subject for callers, who are often zapped over the airwaves by Mason, who wields a device that imitates the sound of the phaser guns used by crew members.

“We zap one guy who regularly calls in and kind of moans over the air,” Mason said. “We call him our ‘local Klingon.’ ”