Michael Jackson

Michael Robin Jackson (16 April 1934 – 15 January 2022) was a British-American talk radio host and occasional actor. He was based in the Los Angeles area. Jackson is best known for his radio show which covered arts, politics, and human interest subjects, particularly in the Los Angeles and greater Southern California area in the era before "shock jocks". His show originally aired on L.A. radio station KABC and briefly aired on KGIL. Early life Jackson was born in London, England on 16 April 1934, and experienced The Blitz as a child. After the war, during which his father served in the RAF as a navigator trainer, his family moved to South Africa where he became a radio disc jockey and struck up what was to become a lifelong friendship with South African pianist and composer, Charles Segal (pianist). The Jacksons were appalled by the apartheid then dominant in South Africa, and they moved to the United States in 1958. Jackson had always wanted to be on the radio in Los Angeles, but first, he worked in cities like San Francisco, where he did a Top-40 show for station KYA. He made an appearance on the U.S. television program What's My Line? on 7 August 1960. Listeners reportedly loved his British accent, but he didn't especially enjoy being a rock DJ. In fact, he hated rock music and ended up getting fired. When he was hired in the early '60s at KEWB to do an overnight shift, he gradually phased out playing records, and began chatting with callers. He got the reputation of being a problem-solver, and comedian Mort Sahl, a big fan of his, jokingly called him "the all-night psychiatrist". The police regularly monitored his show, with his permission, so they could trace the calls of the occasional listener who expressed suicidal thoughts and make sure the person was okay. Time magazine praised him for his ability to maintain a calm demeanour no matter what the subject turned out to be. Career The Time article and other favourable publicity earned him some offers, and Jackson was finally hired in Los Angeles, where he briefly did the 7 p.m.-to-midnight shift at KHJ. Radio and TV critic Don Page of the Los Angeles Times took notice of him almost immediately, saying he was a "good talker and a patient listener," with an "elegant and flexible" command of the language. But when his ratings weren't what KHJ hoped, he was fired. Fortunately, the CBS affiliate KNX picked him up, but he found their format very confining.