Paul ‘Panther’ Pierce; L.A. Newsman, Traffic Reporter

Paul Allen “Panther” Pierce, the veteran Los Angeles newsman and television show host best known for his many years as a colorful traffic reporter for radio station KMPC-AM (710), died Wednesday at his home in Quartz Hill. He was 87.

Pierce logged an average of more than 50,000 miles a year as he cruised the concrete byways of metropolitan Los Angeles during the 1960s and 1970s, spicing his traffic reports with baroque descriptions of the sunrises he witnessed every morning.

He carried with him a loose-leaf binder he referred to when his imagination lagged, dusting off such favorites as “lacy ruffles of clouds tucked into the bodice of the mountains.”

Pierce regaled his audience with the sights he had seen--everything from a bikini-clad blond in a convertible, seated beside a lion, to a five-hour freeway gridlock triggered by an overturned root beer truck.

He even wrote a book--”Take an Alternate Route”--about his love affair with the freeways.

“People always want to know if the traffic gets me down,” he said in 1971. “Why should it? I’m not going anywhere.”

Pierce picked up his nickname--Panther--after one of his freeway journeys led to a series of broadcast reports about a 15-hour search for a big cat that had escaped from an animal compound in Thousand Oaks.

Between his morning and evening traffic stints, he worked as a regular radio reporter. He carried a coat and tie in his station wagon so he could cover a news conference at City Hall or a celebrity verdict at the county courthouse.

The station wagon was crammed with radio gear and coolers stocked with beverages that he shared with the police officers, firefighters and fellow reporters he encountered during his daily meanderings.

Pierce began his career as a disc jockey. By the early 1950s, he was hosting local afternoon television talk shows on Channel 4--then KNBH--the National Broadcasting Co.’s affiliate in Los Angeles.

His long stint with KMPC began in 1958, when he joined a popular team of traffic reporters that came to include Donn Reed, who punctuated his “Nightside” reports with long dramatic pauses, and Max Schumacher, a Korean War helicopter pilot.

Schumacher became such a local folk hero that KMPC published a comic book about him for children--”The True Adventures of Captain Max.” Schumacher’s career ended tragically in 1966 when his chopper collided with a police helicopter near Dodger Stadium, killing him and four others.

Pierce retired from KMPC and broadcasting in the 1970s, spending much of the rest of his life in Malibu, writing occasional freelance articles for Westways and other magazines.

Last year, he moved to Quartz Hill, where several of his relatives live.

His daughter, Mary Stegeman, said he was stricken Wednesday at his home.

He is also survived by another daughter, Lea Pierce, a son, Paul Jr., and three grandchildren.

Funeral services are pending.