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Mr. KABC is one of those hosts too good to be on KABC radio (home to asshole Bill O'Reilly) so I shouldn't be as suprised as I am. But when I got the news early this morning when I tuned in to my favorite late night radio program, I was very suprised. And now I am even a little sad not because I'm going to go back to listening to psychedelic instrumental music, but rather because I can't stop thinking about being without the most unadulturated and entertaining late night discussion forum on the air from 10-1am during the week.
If you never heard his show, Mr. KABC is the new Ira Fistell for a new age of late-night radio listener. The show is information infused with subtle comedy that comes with plenty of intellectual ammo. Mr. KABC is a master presenter, offering general help (many times, quite specific help) to listeners with an answer for everything coming from his group of unscreened phone callers. It's tough to get laughs at midnight on talk radio, but his brand of funny works and will open your eyes, even when your room is pitch black. Some of the guests were outspoken regulars, like Mr. Doubletalk, Mr. Non-Sequitur, Mr. K and Zuma Dogg. They will be missed, but perhaps they will return when Marc Germain lands a new gig elsewhere.
The rumored theory is that KABC was genuine in their efforts to retain his services, but were probably paying Larry Elders 10x what they were offering him (not to mention what they probably pay O'Reilly), so be bailed.
To better understand his typical show format, the following is an unofficial excerpt on his ideology about being a radio host who does not screen callers (from Wikipedia):
Caller: "Getting into the radio field, when did you decide not to have a screener?"
Mr. KABC: "Well, here's the thing, before I was an on-air personality, I was a behind-the-scenes guy, and one of the things I did as a behind-the-scenes guy was screen calls, and people used to come and watch me screen 'cause they thought it was pretty entertaining, so my idea was to host a show where I basically screen the calls live on the air."
Caller: "Did they deter you from that?"
Mr. KABC: "Who?"
Caller: "Like you know, management, when you . . . ?"
Mr. KABC: "No, I pitched my boss at the time on the idea, and he said, all right, lets give it a shot, and he put me on at 2 in the morning on a Sunday, and figuring that if it blew up on the launch pad, no one would be the wiser for it – under the cover of darkness."
Caller: "Any reason why more hosts don't do that?"
Mr. KABC: "Because they can't."
Caller: "Meaning . . . a little deeper?"
Mr. KABC: "No, I don't think they have the skills to do it, I think that most hosts have a lot of skeletons in their closets or issues that they don’t want to talk about. Most talk-radio is issue-oriented, specific issue, heres the topic, we are going to talk about gays in the military for the next hour and if people were to call up and be off-topic, it would be distracting from their show, so if I did that kind of a show, and occasionally I do that kind of a show, ah, most hosts would need the crutch of a screener."
The Official Announcement From KABC:
Mr. KABC Show
From TalkRadio 790 KABC
February 12, 2007
The Mr. KABC program will no longer be broadcast on TalkRadio 790 KABC. KABC Radio and Marc Germain (a.k.a. Mr. KABC ) were unable to come to terms on a new contract despite on-going efforts on both sides to do so. KABC Radio is grateful to Mr. KABC for his years of service and to his listeners for their support. Changes like this are never easy. KABC Radio thanks Mr. KABC and wishes him well.
Crazy radio listeners will be listening for your reappearance, Mr. KABC. Or should I just call you Marc?
**Mr. KABC, who is from the Woodland Hills area (whazzup brotha!), did an amazing episode where he interviewed the president of Scientology. At the time it was her 1st public radio interview. If you want to hear him in rare interview mode, LISTEN HERE: www.xenutv.com/radio/mrkabc.htm
. The show starts off a little slow, but it gets good.
**Here's a podcast of a call from regular caller Zuma Dogg: http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/1095453
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