While doing my normal morning skim of the headlines, I noted an obituary in the Daily Breeze (Variety Obit) for Tracey Miller, who was part of the original KFI morning team when they moved to talk radio in 1990. Miller was among the first female talkshow hosts in Los Angeles, helping KFI establish itself as a drivetime leader with the popular “TNT in the Morning,” working with Terri-Rae Elmer. I used to alway listen to that program. After KFI replaced her with Bill Handel, Miller went on to other pursuits, cohosting the morning show with Peter Tilden on KABC. In 1996, on sister station KTZN, she hosted “Two Chicks on the Radio” with Los Angeles Times columnist Robin Abcarian. Miller may have been the only female talkshow host to have a radio engineer’s license, and could run the studio board herself in a pinch. In the earlier days of KFI, she was the consumer reporter for Gary Owens.
This got me to thinking about other programs that I always listened too that are gone. Starting from the days of Eliot Mintz and Lloyd Thaxton on KABC, to the later days of the morning news program on News-Talk 1260, KGIL in the Valley with Carol Hemingway (who used to host Religion on the Line on KABC). Miller, who was born in Santa Maria and grew up in Granada Hills, died in Glendale of brain cancer at the age of 51.
LA Radio is just not the same: it’s now right-wing wackos, or syndicated or network programs, with a bit of Air America. There are not real local hosts anymore.
Those were the days.
