Show Worth Discussing

Several weeks after Michael Jackson’s demotion from weekdays to weekends on KABC-AM (790), people were still calling in to vent. “He was the only person I listened to in the morning,” said Andrea Sher of Studio City. “I have nothing against Ronn Owens but he should have been put in another spot. Now I’m listening to music.”

Turned-off, tuned-out Jackson fans might consider another alternative--the earnest, soft-spoken Larry Marino, host of “Talk of the City,” which just entered its second year on KPCC-FM (89.3). Sandwiched between National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” and “Talk of the Nation” with Ray Suarez, the program, broadcast from Pasadena City College from 9-11 a.m., is heard with Marino at the mike Mondays-Thursdays; on Fridays, the host is journalist Kitty Felde, who debuted July 18. “We wanted to add a woman’s voice,” said Rod Foster, KPCC’s general manager.

A Pasadena native, Marino, 36, got his start at KPCC more than 15 years ago as a technical assistant while a student at the college. In 1983, he graduated magna cum laude from the University of La Verne. Before returning to KPCC last July, Marino hosted talk shows in St. Petersburg and Clearwater, Fla.; was a TV news reporter in Texas and a program director in Bakersfield.

In 1995, he felt it was time to come home. While teaching communications at La Verne, he occasionally filled in for Larry Mantle on his afternoon-drive show, and when KPCC switched from a classic American music format to talk, Marino won his slot.

“I see the show as a forum of ideas, a discussion platform,” he said after the broadcast on Tuesday, “as being a show that doesn’t have the idle bantering, the personality-based host but more the issue [at hand], and we come at it, bringing many points of view into the discussion. I see it as a responsibility. It’s not me up there, talking about me, me, me.”

Last week, with Marino on vacation, KPCC aired a pair of “Best of ‘Talk of the City’ ” shows. Programs ranged from an hour on physician-assisted suicide to an interview with Jeff Shaara, whose novel, “Gods and Generals”--a prequel to his father, Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer-winning Civil War novel, “The Killer Angels”--had just come out in paperback. It was clearly intelligent but also engaging talk and prompted serious and interesting callers.

It’s hardly a McTopic sort of show. On Tuesday, Marino devoted 35 minutes to the textbook crisis in the Los Angeles Unified School District; his call-in guest was Jeff Horton, a member of the Los Angeles City Board of Education. Among listener callers was Roberta from Pasadena, a former math teacher who wondered why textbook publishers had to put out $50-$55 books with “high-level production values [that were] beautiful to look at” but weighed 10 pounds, too heavy for students to carry. Other teachers phoned in as well.

The rest of the hour was spent discussing Los Angeles’ alternative newspapers. Harold Meyerson, executive editor of LA Weekly, was the in-house guest. The second and final hour was devoted to national parks.

“I’ve done commercial radio in talk and what I like here is that you don’t have to be superficial,” Marino notes. “You can go into the depth of a story, really take the issue and examine it, and not be afraid that you’re losing everyone. It’s not the question of ‘Abortion: Yes or No?,’ ‘Gun Control: Should We or Shouldn’t We?’ We can go beyond the headline and right into the meat of it.”

Asked if he sees himself as an alternative to Jackson who, of course, was on commercial radio, Marino says: “I’m a big Michael Jackson fan.” Ironically Marino moonlights Saturdays as a news announcer for Metro Networks, which is heard on KABC in the middle of Jackson’s show.

“In a lot of ways, we do the same thing as he did,” Marino adds. “Michael is known for his balanced approach to issues. We certainly invite everyone who did listen to him to come on over. The talk is good.”

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The popular 8-year-old financial news program “Marketplace” with host David Brancaccio, which airs on KUSC weeknights from 6-6:30 and on KCRW-FM (89.9) at 2 p.m. as well as on 280 stations nationally, has an upcoming spinoff.

It’s “The Savvy Traveler,” an hourlong show that debuts Aug. 9 on KUSC. Your choices for tuning in are Saturday afternoons at 5 on KUSC or Sundays at 11 a.m. on KCRW. “Traveler” will air on some 40 public radio stations. Both “Marketplace” and “Traveler” are produced by KUSC for Public Radio International.

The magazine-style series will be “lively, smart, entertaining, sophisticated, informative, literate and seductive,” offers J.J. Yore, executive producer of both programs. “We want ‘The Savvy Traveler’ to help redefine the way Americans think about travel in the 21st century.”

Hosted by veteran travel writer and continuing “Marketplace” contributor Rudy Maxa, the show will feature segments such as “Ask the Savvy Traveler,” with callers getting Maxa’s answers to their most pressing travel questions; “High Flyers,” with reports from frequent flyers on such topics as their favorite places and worst experiences; the “International Culture Club” with tips and updates on worldwide cultural events; and, of course, a “Deal of the Week.”

So why wait until summer is half over to offer the show? “Our feeling is that people are going to be interested all year round,” Yore replies. “It’s not the standard utilitarian, how-to stuff. People can listen at home and enjoy it.”

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Fast-talking political/societal humorist Bob Harris--who delivers 90-second barbs at 5:40 p.m. weekdays on KNX-AM (1070), railing against everything from anti-Barbie doll “pig anger” to mega-owner Rupert Murdoch to presidential candidates of all stripes--will present a longer, hourlong take in his one-man show, “How to Kill Friends and Influence People,” opening next Thursday night in Santa Monica.

Harris, whose comedy club credits include the Improv in Chicago and Catch a Rising Star in New York, appears at Creativity, 208 Pier Ave. at Main Street each Thursday in August at 8 p.m.

Of Harris, who began his broadcast gig in May, KNX news director Bob Sims says: “He makes me smile. He surprises me. He brings a perspective, a viewpoint that lets you see current events in a surprisingly interesting way.”

Asked whether Harris is Republican or Democrat, Sims notes with a touch of his own humor: “I don’t know. I don’t want to know.”