The big delay that never happened.

Although I teach on-camera skills, I’ve always loved radio. I’m a weekend news anchor at KFI-AM 640 in Los Angeles, the most listened-to talk station in America. Like all the media in LA, we went into breaking news mode for coverage of the planned shutdown of the 405 freeway. For you out-of-towners, it’s one of the busiest highways in the US and the closure was expected to cause the mother of all traffic jams. It was nicknamed “Carmageddon.”

Weekend producer Sean Frank

Actually, it was more like Carma-heaven. People heeded the warnings to stay off the roads and there was zero traffic. It reminded me of driving around LA with my parents when I was growing up here. Traffic was always moving. The bridge demolition on the closed section of highway went to smoothly that it actually reopened early! KFI Shannon Farren and I broke the news on Sunday morning.  Doing breaking news on the radio is fun because you not only have to read the script, you have to punch the right buttons on the board and coordinate the various people on the newscast. It’s the equivalent of being the anchor, the producer and the director at the same time. Of course, I had great support from my weekend producer Sean Frank and great master board operators like Fast Bill Morino. Overnight anchor Michael Crozier got me up to speed in the board and my daytime colleagues Amy King and Rob Archer were ready to rock and roll!

with Fast Bill Morino and Rob Archer at KFI

Due to the unpredictable nature of Carmageddon events, some of the syndicated KFI talk hosts came into the station to do their shows live. That’s how I got to hang with Jesus Christ. The “holy host” of the Jesus Christ Show on Sunday mornings is a really nice guy and it’s clear that someone’s prayers were answered as everyone in LA did their part to avoid the weekend from hell.  Actually, it was fun.

Hangin' with "Jesus" at KFI