An Old Voice Returns to L.A. Airwaves : Radio: Working in other cities since leaving now-defunct KMET-FM in 1986, Jeff Gonzer has limited duties at KLSX-FM but hopes for more. So do his fans.

Morning radio listeners are getting a blast from the past on KLSX-FM (97.1) since longtime Los Angeles deejay Jeff Gonzer has come home.

Well, almost home. When Gonzer left the L.A. airwaves in 1986, he was at the helm of the morning show on the now-defunct KMET-FM. The station let Gonzer and other deejays go in an effort to shake off a ratings slump from which it never recovered.

Since his return to L.A. two weeks ago, Gonzer, now in his 40s, has been doing local news breaks during Howard Stern’s top-rated morning show and filling in at varying times on weekends.

The familiar voice and irreverent style apparently have caught many an ear already. “The listeners have been overwhelmingly kind. People have just rung the phone off the hook,” Gonzer said in an interview this week.

After leaving KMET, Gonzer worked at stations in Miami and Boston--where he branched out into talk radio--yet neither city fit like the L.A. he remembered. So when the opportunity arose to return, even for a part-time position with no promise of a show of his own, Gonzer jumped.

“It was a chance for me to re-establish myself in the market I know best and the market that knows me best,” he said. The Hamilton High School graduate got his start in radio at the campus station at Cal State L.A. and spent 17 years behind the mikes at various Los Angeles stations.

And the position at KLSX reunites him with former KMET colleagues Jim Ladd, Cynthia Fox and Frazier Smith.

So far, he’s been filling in for morning man Beau Rials, who assumed temporary control of the 2 to 6 p.m. slot after afternoon personality Damion’s contract expired. KLSX officials said that Gonzer was hired prior to the decision to let Damion go and that the personnel situations involving all three are “completely independent of each other.”

What KLSX has in store for Gonzer remains to be seen, as station officials say their only immediate plan is “to have him on as much as possible.” Yet for a man who seems to have left a quarterback’s job for a chance to be the water boy, Gonzer seems remarkably unconcerned.

“Sometimes, in order to make progress, you have to take a side road,” he said. “Right now, I’m just happy to be back. I really don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m up for everything and anything.”