A Too-Familiar Situation

It was on his 42nd birthday, after his show ended last Friday night, that talk host Ed Tyll learned he was out of a job.

He had moved here six months ago from Florida, with his fiancee and his father, to take an afternoon slot at KABC-AM (790)--though it hadn’t been determined at that point which one. He took over the 5-7 p.m. slot from Larry Elder in November; then the boss who had put him on while cutting Elder to 3-5 p.m. was replaced in December.

Since graduating from St. John’s University, Tyll has been around the radio block: as a producer in small markets and then as a talk host--beginning 12 years ago in Pittsburgh, followed by Atlanta briefly, New Orleans, Chicago and Orlando.

Atlanta briefly, he says, because it was “very much like this [situation]. I was on a very staid station, I was brought in to push the envelope and then, when I do, it’s not what they bargained for.

“I grew up in New York, and [conservative] Bob Grant was the dominant personality,” he explains. “We’re polar opposites politically, but it was his biting style that I thought was key to his standing out.”

When Tyll got his walking papers Friday, it was in the form of an official letter from management. He reads its opening, which says that “as we’ve discussed, your style is not compatible with the image that we have worked hard over the years to achieve at KABC.”

Tyll has no quarrel with that. “I feel somewhat relieved,” he said rather amiably this week. “Even though I worked very hard, my style wasn’t compatible.”

Now he’s seeking another radio slot in the Los Angeles market.

Elder’s Thank Yous: Among those whom Larry Elder has been thanking publicly for helping to restore his full 3 to 7 p.m. show are David Horowitz, president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, and Jackie Ravel--pastry chef, businesswoman and “liberal, kind of,” who organized a grass-roots group on his behalf, Project Larry Elder.

On Oct. 28, Horowitz’s organization began airing three 30-second TV spots promoting Elder’s self-described libertarian viewpoints and attacking as “liberal extremists” those waging an ad boycott against him. Though neither Horowitz nor Elder knew that his show was about to be sliced in half, Elder believes that the center’s ads, which ran for a two-month period, and Ravel’s efforts spurred widespread support.

In turn, they helped increase ratings, which convinced KABC to give back the two hours it had taken away.

“I think it’s tremendous,” Horowitz said of Elder’s restoration. Pointing out that his ads and a direct mailer raised $500,000, Horowitz contends that “part of my purpose in waging that campaign was making [Elder] bigger than he was before.”

Ravel formed her group nearly two years ago in response to the Talking Drum Community Forum boycott of Elder. “I did a huge letter-writing campaign, had monthly meetings, put a lot of pressure on KABC, and a couple of demonstrations,” she says happily. “I initially went to KABC to sponsor my bakery on his show. It was too expensive so I started the group instead.”

Elder, meanwhile, had been drumming up support over the past year within the black community. Through homeless and youth activist Ted Hayes, he met with Los Angeles civil rights leaders--a number of whom wrote to KABC in support of continuing Elder’s program.

More Changes Afoot: The upgrade of Elder along with the downsizing of Tyll is only the first KABC shoe to drop under new president and general manager Bill Sommers.

Asked last Friday whether more changes were in the works, Sommers replied firmly: “Yes, inevitably,” adding, “but I will need to look at that a little further.

“I will stabilize this lineup,” he emphasized, which is what he told national advertisers in New York three weeks ago. “And then we will begin promoting and marketing it. You really can’t build audience loyalty with two-hour shows.”

As it happens, KABC suffered a significant loss of advertising revenue last year. According to figures obtained by The Times, combined 1996 revenues of KABC and talk station KTZN-AM (710) were $34 million; in 1997, KABC and the re-christened KDIS, which began Radio Disney’s children’s programming last summer, collected $28.7 million in advertising.

According to Leon Clark, KABC’s general sales manager, the lowered revenue had nothing to do with ratings but rather with sports sales, involving the Dodgers and the Angels baseball teams. He suggested that the Dodgers drew less revenue for KABC in 1997 because advertisers knew that it was the last year for the team on the station, and that the Angels on KTZN had always been a difficult sell.

The top revenue producer in the market last year was oldies station KRTH-FM (101.1) with $34.3 million.

Black History: In honor of Black History Month, “Street Science,” a Sunday morning series on urban station KKBT-FM (92.3), has aired two programs on slavery’s legacy and has more special programming in the works.

On the Feb. 22 show, Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Parks will join host Dominique DiPrima 9-11 a.m. to answer phone-in questions. Then on March 1, “Street Science” features a three-hour discussion program--”Black to the Future: Before We Were Slaves”--focusing on the period before slavery a few centuries ago in Africa.

“I want to leave us at the end of Black History Month with an uplift, more of an inspirational vibe,” DiPrima says. “Many [new] things are now coming to light, and let’s claim this as part of our legacy and move forward to the new millennium.”

Also for Black History Month, KCRW-FM (89.9) is airing an original docudrama, “Ruby McCollum,” Sunday at 6 p.m., based on the investigations and writings of William Bradford Huie and Zora Neale Hurston.

Produced by L.A. Theatre Works in association with KCRW, “Ruby McCollum” reveals a cover-up that occurred during the trial of McCollum, a wealthy African American from Florida who shot and killed her white lover, a respected physician and politician. The docudrama was written by Ron Milner with Steve Albrezzi, and was directed by Albrezzi. The cast includes Loretta Devine, Paul Winfield, Shirley Knight, Kevin McCarthy and John Randolph.

“Telling this story is the culmination of a longtime, personal dream,” notes Susan Albert Loewenberg, producing director of L.A. Theatre Works. “ . . . it combines social relevance with a suspenseful murder mystery investigation. The trail of lies, secrets and racial prejudice that Huie and Hurston uncovered has powerful implications to this day.”

And on Presidents Day Monday, starting at 9 a.m., KPCC-FM (89.3) will rebroadcast the 13-hour documentary “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?,” a personal history of the civil rights movement in five Southern cities.