Stations Scramble to Line Up Candidate Interviews

On the eve of the California primary--the big prize in the Super Tuesday set of 11 primaries--it’s a mad dash to beat out the competition. But it’s not just the four major presidential candidates who are engaged in last-minute jockeying. Radio stations, talk show producers and hosts across the Southland--at least those who haven’t given up in frustration--were working hard over the weekend and into today to land one or more of the prize quartet--Vice President Al Gore, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain or Sen. Bill Bradley--as a guest.

In the current sweepstakes, Michael Jackson of KRLA-AM (1110) leads the pack. From his studio at the Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills, the 33-year Los Angeles radio veteran has interviewed Gore, Bush and Bradley in the last three weeks. On Friday he talked to the holdout’s wife, Cindy McCain.

“I’ve been working my butt off to get them,” Jackson said Friday. “It helps having built a rapport with them over the years. Mine is not a forum for a particular political philosophy.”

On Friday, “The Michael Jackson Show,” which airs weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon, carried a rerun of his three interviews and an excerpt from McCain’s live interview Friday in Manhattan with syndicated host Don Imus (whose show precedes Jackson’s on KRLA). Jackson was also being trailed by cameras from C-SPAN and PBS’ “NewsHour With Jim Lehrer,” which will air that segment tonight at 6.

As for GOP contender Alan Keyes, Jackson and others have approached the candidate but said they received no response.

But it was not only the regular run of talk stations that sought candidate heat. KROQ-FM (106.7) had Gore and Bradley on with Kevin and Bean in morning drive last Monday and Tuesday, respectively. “Of course we’re trying for McCain and Bush,” producer Jay Tilles said. “Their camps are a little less responsive. We are one of the top-ranked stations in Orange County, commonly known as a Republican stronghold.”

An inviting microphone, of course, helps reel candidates in. In his second of two interviews with McCain in two weeks, Imus posed this question: “One of the charges leveled at you--which is absurd--[is that] you haven’t supported breast cancer research.”

The flip side of radio softballs was exemplified last week by host Michael Reagan during a Tuesday phone interview with McCain on KIEV-AM (870).

The interview began cordially enough, with McCain talking by cell phone with Ronald Reagan’s son. “I’m on the bus on the way to Bakersfield, headed through a lot of beautiful fruit tree areas. It’s very pretty here in the [San Joaquin] Valley.”

But the tone quickly changed when Reagan asked about the role of former New Hampshire Sen. Warren B. Rudman, McCain’s campaign co-chairman, in appointing judges such as Justice David Souter to the Supreme Court. “Warren Rudman did not appoint Judge Souter,” McCain noted. “President [George] Bush did.”

Then McCain moved on to criticize Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson for his automated telephone calls in Michigan calling Rudman a “vicious bigot.”

“Senator, senator,” Reagan interrupted at one point.

“I asked you, Michael, if I could finish. . . .”

“But you did finish,” Reagan replied.

Soon after Reagan sought to turn the discussion to education policy, loud static interrupted the interview. Then, with the static clearly gone, Reagan said, “Sen. McCain, goodbye.”

“There you go . . . ,” Reagan told his listeners. “This man does not have the temperament to be president. . . .”

Asked about the incident later, Reagan said, “I was really kind of tired of where he was going with [the interview]. And his cell phone was crapping out.”

McCain spokesman Dan McLagan brushed the incident aside. “The senator holds no ill will. It was a contentious radio interview. These things happen all the time.”