Long, Winding Road for Beatles Show Hosts

It started out as “Survivor With the Beatles.” But now the continuation of “Breakfast With the Beatles” on KLSX-FM (97.1) following the death of longtime host Deirdre O’Donoghue in January has turned into “Breakfast With the Fab Five.”

Station program director Jack Silver decided that given how much the show’s identity was tied to O’Donoghue--who had founded the show 15 years ago and hosted it throughout its run at several Los Angeles outlets--he couldn’t just anoint someone to pick up the legacy. Rather, he felt, he would offer candidates in an on-air tryout rotation and let the audience decide.

Well, the audience decided . . . not to decide.

“What I’m hearing from the audience is they like the diversity each one brings,” Silver says. “Each week I get voicemail full of, ‘That host was really great.’ Each person has a pretty unique perspective on the show and I like it. So for the foreseeable future, we’re going to keep the rotation of hosts.”

Diversity is, indeed, the hallmark of the crew. The one who brings the most continuity for O’Donoghue fans is Tricia Halloran, who was her protege and close friend. She’ll kick off the second round of the rotation this week.

“I felt a certain element of carrying on for her the first week, not because it was the way she had always done it, but because that’s how good radio is done,” says Halloran, who is also a fixture at public station KCRW-FM (89.9) and oversees the Internet radio operations of music firm ArtistDirect. “And it’s also because she taught me everything about radio. At the same time, I have my own ways and interests and would like to bring in some other sounds, perhaps a segment each week on bands the Beatles influenced.”

Representing the furthest break from O’Donoghue’s blueprint is Martin Lewis, a protege of former Beatles publicist Derek Taylor, who finished off the first round last week with an Academy Awards-themed show heavy on chat--clips from interviews he’d done with star Beatles fans (Mike Myers, Robin Williams), Beatles producer George Martin and “Let It Be” director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, plus a live acoustic-music segment with Laurence Juber (a former member of Paul McCartney’s Wings), all worked around Beatles-related movie music.

“For me the most interesting aspect of doing the show is finding ways to reach people who don’t consider themselves Beatles fans,” says Lewis, who is talking about making his next installment a literal breakfast feature by having Wolfgang Puck in studio to prepare appropriate treats. “I’m happy broadcasting to the existing fans, of course. After all, I’m an extremely old fan myself. But it’s the challenge of reaching the next generation of fans that’s most appealing to me. To do that I believe I have to do more than just spin the hits.”

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Somewhere in the middle come Chris Carter, Michael Quarterman and Jim Neil. Carter took a creative approach by only playing mono recordings (“The way the Beatles intended the music to be heard,” he says), and only less-familiar versions drawn from the Beatles’ “Anthology” vaults and his extensive collection of obscurities. In addition, he played excerpts from an interview he did with George Harrison while serving as a consultant for the recent reissue of Harrison’s 1971 album, “All Things Must Pass.”

“I got quite a response--people really dug the mono,” says Carter, a former guitarist with the band Dramarama, host of “The Chris Carter Mess” on Internet radio station Channel 103.1 (https://www.worldclassrock.com), a band manager and producer of the upcoming documentary “The Mayor of the Sunset Strip,” about radio personality/rock scenester Rodney Bingenheimer. “If I have [four] hours of air time, I’m certainly going to do my best to make it absolutely, fabulously interesting to listen to. I don’t really want to just play ‘The Long and Winding Road,’ and if I do, it will be a version you’ve never heard before.”

Silver admits that he likes the edge that having five hosts trying to make their mark brings to the venture.

“What we get is a person who comes in here to really put on a great show and will spend the extra time to find the rare tracks or a unique story no one’s heard,” he says. “Candidly, I like the competition. It’s like having five children all vying for the father’s attention.”

Of course, that may work temporarily but not as well in the long term. The hosts seem to favor the hiring of a full-time host rather than being in a rotation--though of course each wants to be the winner.

“Obviously [keeping the rotation indefinitely] is not the idea I’m most happy with,” says Carter. “I want to be the host.”

Says Lewis, “I would think the audience, while it’s entertaining to have five people, will want continuity. And [having one personality] is also better for promotion.”

Silver expects that, eventually, he will settle on one--though he hasn’t ruled out bringing in even more hopefuls for tryouts. In the meantime, he’s looking at ways of expanding the show’s scope and reach, including discussions of a live remote broadcast from the Sun Theater in Anaheim that would feature a brunch buffet for fans and, after the show, a performance by a Beatles tribute band.

“There are no rules about how this breaks out,” he says of the process. “It was Deirdre’s show, make no mistake. But we always want to keep the music foremost. The hosts are icing on the cake.”

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“Breakfast With the Fab Five” can be heard Sundays from 8 a.m. to noon on KLSX-FM (97.1).