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Call to Talk Radio
00:03:33
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| I want to tell you about when I first met Dennis. | |
| I was living in Cleveland, although I'm from here, and I did a show called Morning Exchange, which was a live show, like a Today show. | |
| I think one of the longest-running regional Today type shows in the country at the time. | |
| And there was a host named Fred Griffin, who's very good. | |
| And I would come in from time to time to be a lawyer to explain the Supreme Court case in lay terms. | |
| I was on a number of times. | |
| So one day I came in to talk about sexual harassment in the workplace. | |
| And there's this big guy sitting in Fred's chair. | |
| And he's introduced to me, and I did the segment, and I was good. | |
| And Dennis complimented me. | |
| It's a live show, by the way, about a two-hour morning show. | |
| And as I'm taking off my earpiece to leave, I overheard somebody say, when are you going back to L.A.? | |
| I turned around. | |
| I said, you're from L.A.? | |
| He said, well, not originally, but I live there now. | |
| And I said, I'm from LA. | |
| He said, what are you doing in Cleveland? | |
| I said, well, I'm a lawyer, but I left. | |
| I started a business. | |
| And I write, not getting anything published, but I'm a writer. | |
| What kind of stuff do you write? | |
| He said, well, I'm a conservative. | |
| And I thought Dennis was a liberal since he was from L.A. | |
| And Dennis said, well, I am too. | |
| When are you going to be back in LA? | |
| I said, well, I come home around Christmas time. | |
| This is like June or July. | |
| And he said, when you come, contact me. | |
| I'll have you on my radio show. | |
| And I said, fine. | |
| So that night, I'm talking to my mom, who's in L.A., and she loves talk radio. | |
| I should tell you, KABC, where Dennis and I work, was the first 24-7 talk station in the world. | |
| 1965, if I'm not mistaken. | |
| And in 1965, she had it on and never had it off. | |
| So she knew Dennis from Religion on the Line, which was a weekend show Dennis had for a while. | |
| And then, of course, Dennis is a regular show. | |
| So my mom and I are talking about family stuff. | |
| At the very end of the conversation, I remember meeting Dennis. | |
| I said, Mom, before you go, I want to tell you, I met somebody. | |
| I know you'll know who he is. | |
| He's a talk radio host out of L.A. His name is Dennis Pearson Dennis, Pauper Dennis. | |
| She said, Prager, almost blew off my ear. | |
| She said, he is by far my favorite host. | |
| He had a show called Religion on the Line, and she'd walked him through his whole career. | |
| He's asked you to be on his show. | |
| I said, yeah, she said he doesn't have very many guests. | |
| It's so, what an honor. | |
| So fast forward to Christmas, I call Dennis. | |
| He doesn't call me back. | |
| And Alan, I'm thinking it's a Hollywood thing. | |
| You know, you call me, I'll call you. | |
| He didn't really mean it. | |
| It wasn't sincere. | |
| And my mom said, call him again. | |
| Yeah, literally, you know, it was a Dennis thing. | |
| Yeah, and I called him again. | |
| He picked up the phone. | |
| He had me on that night. | |
| I'm shortening the story, but the general manager, George Green, heard this show. | |
| I was on for almost an hour, I think about an hour and a half. | |
| I'm flying back to Cleveland now. | |
| Plain lands. | |
| I walk into my office, phone rings. | |
| It's George Green. | |
| I heard you on Dennis' show. | |
| You were amazing. | |
| I said, I was. | |
| Oh, my goodness. | |
| Have you ever thought about doing talk radio? | |
| Come back to L.A. I'll give you a two-day audition. | |
| So I fly back after one day. | |
| He says, Do you want this job? | |
| I said, I think so. | |
| He said, well, have a good time. | |
| Have fun. | |
| Don't speak so damn quickly. | |
| And Dennis recommended me to George Green before this happened. | |
| When the show was over, I did my thing with Dennis. | |
| Dennis said, you were amazing. | |
| I said, I've been thinking about doing talk radio. | |
| I had a little experience sitting in for somebody for a week a couple of years ago, but nothing came out of it. | |
| Would you introduce me to management? | |
| He said, I get these requests all the time. | |
| I have never in my life introduced somebody to management. | |
| In your case, you're that good. | |
| I will do so. | |
| And if it hadn't been for Dennis, I wouldn't have been on radio. | |