Larry King Is Shifting to Drive Time : Radio: The popular talk-show host will begin doing his syndicated show from 3-6 p.m. EST in February--but not on KGIL-AM.

Radio’s “king of late night” will soon attempt to broaden his reign to afternoon drive time.

Larry King, the host of a popular syndicated call-in talk show heard nightly on the Mutual Broadcasting System, will begin doing his show from 3-6 p.m. EST starting Feb. 1.

After 15 years of broadcasting during late-night and early morning hours, this will be the first time he’s worked days on the radio.

“I’m looking forward to being home at night after my show and still sleeping late in the mornings,” King said in a telephone interview. “I’ll be able to have dinner and relax. It will certainly be a lot easier than having to be up till 2 in the morning every night.”

King, whose fame soared during the presidential campaign because of the candidate interviews he conducted on his CNN talk show, said that the change is being made to allow for more guests, advertisers and listeners.

Locally, however, King may continue to be heard in the late-night hours, with a taped delay of each day’s broadcast.

“We’re negotiating with Mutual to keep Larry King on at night,” said Saul Levine, the new owner of KGIL-AM (1260), which currently runs King’s show from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Even though he plans to alter the station’s format from talk to music, Levine said, “We’ve said we would continue to carry Larry King if he could be on at nighttime as he was.”

Levine said he had heard that several other stations across the nation had expressed resistance to switching King from nights to days.

King’s late-night successor on Mutual will be Jim Bohannon.

King will continue to host “Larry King Live” on CNN and to write a weekly column for USA Today.