Daryl Gates on Show’s End: ‘I Have Real Mixed Emotions’ : Radio: The former L.A. police chief’s 15-month stint as a KFI talk-show host is over on Friday.

This time Daryl Gates really is going to quit when he says he is.

Friday marks the final broadcast of his nightly talk show on KFI-AM, and while leaving the airwaves was not as tough for the controversial retired police chief as leaving the LAPD’s top spot, Gates says departing the station that has employed him for the last 15 months is bittersweet.

“I have real mixed emotions, to tell you the truth,” Gates said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “From one standpoint it’s kind of a relief and it opens up opportunities elsewhere. On the other hand, I have enjoyed the opportunity to talk to people. It’s been fun. And the opportunity to whack the Los Angeles Times on a regular basis, I have a good time doing that.”

“It’s the end of the year and this just seems like a good time for this to happen,” said KFI program director David Hall. “It was really only meant to be temporary. From the outset, even before he started the talk show, we both knew it wouldn’t be a long-term, full-time thing.”

Hall said that Gates’ many other interests precluded the talk show from becoming a permanent job and that he had been searching for the right replacement almost as long as Gates has been on the air.

Although he had had no formal broadcasting experience, KFI (640) hired the former police chief in September, 1992, and gave him the prominent afternoon drive-time slot, drawing widespread publicity since it was Gates’ first job after stepping down from the police department’s top position.

But after the initial flurry of publicity died down, KFI officials slowly reduced his on-air hours and ultimately moved him to the 7-9 p.m. slot last July.

However, Gates--who said he was told he is the highest paid broadcaster at the station--has no hard feelings. He never seemed completely comfortable behind the microphone but he had a relaxed attitude, readily acknowledging his limitations on air.

“Once I got there every night I’d enjoy it very much,” Gates said. “Then, the next day I’d think, ‘God, I’ve got to go back and do it again.’ ”

“Part of his charm, part of his appeal on the radio, is that he’s a non-broadcaster,” Hall said. “He says what he thinks and he’s not really concerned with ‘Are the buttons pushed right? Is it slick and well-produced?’ And that made it a very listenable show.”

Overall, Gates’ ratings were good, though the latest survey, in which he switched to the 7 p.m. spot, will not be available until next month.

Gates admits he never liked the evening slot. Because of his commitment to the station he says he had to turn down several speaking engagements, though he admits he accepted “only the very lucrative ones.”

He also has about 10 television offers to sift through, he said, as well as an interactive computer game he developed and helped to promote, and a security consulting business he calls Chief Inc.

“I hadn’t been happy with the nights at all,” Gates said. “They asked me to do it and I agreed. I’m a nice guy, but it’s an awkward period and by the time you get home your whole evening is gone. It’s very restricting. I have a place at the beach (in San Clemente) and I haven’t been able to get down there. . . . And every time I’d go on at 7 I’d ask myself, ‘Why is anybody listening to the radio?’ There must be something better for them to do.”

Gates believes a part of the decision to let him go had to do with his salary. He never signed a long-term contract and the last one he signed was for only three months.

“They were very generous,” he said. “I think they reached a point where they said, ‘Oh, oh. This guy’s going to cost us lots of money.’ ”

But station officials deny that Gates was too expensive for them.

“Considering something as important as a Monday through Friday talk show, finances are almost never a factor,” Hall said. “Finances were certainly not a factor in this case.” (Gates will be replaced Monday by weekend host Stephanie Miller, a stand-up comic and “liberal feminist,” Hall said.)

Looking back, Gates said he wishes he had been able to cover some topics more thoroughly.

“I wanted to spend more time on the legalization of drugs, why I think that’s such a bad idea,” he said. “I wanted to talk more about crime and what I think has to be done. I really wanted to do more of the Rush Limbaugh type of thing. And KFI was pretty much opposed to that. I wanted to take two hours and simply lecture people, much the way Rush does. He’s a real showman. I am not. They’re probably right. I probably would have bored people.”

Indeed, after 15 months as a talk-show host, Gates seems to have grown humbler than the persona seen in television sound bites during his tenure as police chief.

“I’m sure I didn’t have the sparkling, stimulating personality that some talk-show hosts have and I didn’t get into the wrangling that some of them get into to stimulate people,” Gates said. “I can’t imagine why people listened, but I’m glad they did.”