Picture this: It’s summer 1985.
You’re sitting in morning traffic on the 101. Aretha Franklin’s “Freeway of Love,” a top 10 hit that year, plays, ironically, in the background. When it cuts to commercial, you turn the dial — because there were dials back then — to 89.3 KPCC-FM and a new show called “AirTalk.”
“Good morning, this is Larry Mantle.” And just like that, your commute becomes less painful.
When “AirTalk” launched on April 1 that year, Mantle was the 25-year-old news director of Pasadena City College’s local radio station. Having successfully pitched the show idea to his station manager, he was the do-it-all captain of a bare-bones crew of five in those early days.
Back then, he couldn’t have imagined how, 40 years later, the guest seat across from his microphone would be warmed by the likes of Rosa Parks, Barack Obama, Quentin Tarantino and, eventually, the aforementioned Aretha Franklin, or that it would reign as the longest-running daily talk radio station in Los Angeles. He most certainly would not have imagined he’d have a namesake sandwich.
The station, rebranded as LAist 89.3, has seen plenty of change since that time. Staff has come and gone, facilities have expanded and technology has evolved. But at least two things are constant. “AirTalk” is still here, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., five days a week, and Larry Mantle remains its consummate host.
As “AirTalk” grew in scale and scope, it became an extraordinary space where an ordinary person could call in to, say, grill former President Jimmy Carter about the Iran hostage crisis or hear Quincy Jones quip that at 77, he felt like he was “just getting started.”
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Critics of the show have accused it of “gatekeeping” callers on behalf of the listener by screening for quality. Mantle, now 65, pushes back on that idea. “We want the caller to be as strong as the guest that we have on … they have to have a personal experience or a thought that really adds to the conversation or maybe challenges the contention that was made by me or one of the guests,” he says in a post-show interview from his Pasadena studio.
He sees himself as a stand-in for the average listener, who tends to be between 25 and 54 years old and a highly engaged, lifelong learner. Asking critical questions and probing more profoundly, “that’s what makes it different from a town hall,” he emphasizes.
A fourth-generation Angeleno, Mantle was born to teenage parents, an only child nurtured by an extended family that encouraged curiosity and independence. “It was intellectually extraordinary,” he says of his childhood. “I was so fortunate on what I was exposed to. … You know it was funny, I talked to my wife about this, and she said, ‘I’ve never met anyone who was as affirmed for who they are as you were [as a child].”
He didn’t know it then, but the freedom to talk about any topic with his family, like discussing the nuances of abortion issues with his physician grandfather, helped him see both sides of a debate early on.
Despite being an early voracious consumer of news media, it was only after he graduated from Southern California College with a bachelor’s in psychology and after briefly engaging in theology studies that he answered the siren call of radio — in the process changing his life and shaping L.A.’s airwaves.
The ‘Larry Mantle version of L.A.’
“Larry has created and sustained the ‘Larry Mantle version of L.A.,’” says veteran Times columnist Patt Morrison by phone. Morrison herself had a namesake show on KPCC and has filled in for Mantle over the years.
“This is a place in which he profoundly respects the people who live here. He has not resorted to insults, he is not snide, the way he deals with not just the topics that he takes on but the people he brings on, the callers in particular who have something to say about these topics, that’s the community that Larry creates every day.”
Filling in for him is a high-wire act, Morrison says, as the show is unscripted.
However, there’s an immense amount of preparation involved. Issues like homelessness have been so pervasive that Mantle has a good working knowledge of its complexities. Still, a 20-minute interview may take hours of work and shows such as a science segment on the geology of Mars require an even deeper dive.
“I may watch a film when I’m interviewing the director,” Mantle says. “Like with ‘Anora,’ I interviewed the director, Sean Baker, and the star, Mikey Madison. I probably invested 3 ½ hours in that.”
Sometimes, no matter the preparation, things don’t go as planned.
When that happens, senior producer Lindsey Wright leads the young, intrepid “AirTalk” staff, all under 40, in scrambling to rearrange segments and get new guests on the air.
Longtime “AirTalk” radio host Larry Mantle is a fourth-generation Angeleno.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
This year, crisis hit close to home. When the Eaton and Palisades fires broke out in January, smoke infiltrated the facilities at Southern California Public Radio, where “AirTalk” is produced.
“We had several staff members who lost their homes,” Mantle says quietly. “I’m up to 30 people I know personally who lost their homes between the two fires.” Of the many topics “AirTalk” has covered in the aftermath of the fires, the loss of the character and culture that defines the affected communities is one of the things he thinks about most.
“Each of these communities has such a sense of place,” he says. “Have we lost those forever? That’s the fundamental question.”
A ‘quintessential’ L.A. voice
“Larry Mantle is one of those quintessential L.A. voices like Vin Scully, Huell Howser and Art Laboe. You hear it, and everyone knows exactly who it is.” Over a phone call, Gustavo Arellano, L.A. Times columnist and one of Mantle’s favorite guests on “AirTalk,” reflects on how the show and its host fit into the history of Southern California.
“The show itself has always been this fascinating mix of what’s going on nationally and locally and a place for listeners to call in and express themselves, but also for authors, artists, politicians, everyone and anyone to come on and say their bit before Larry.”
Arellano was first brought on as a guest for a regular roundtable discussion on issues in and around Orange County. “I credit ‘AirTalk’ with allowing a complete radio novice to find his voice on air while discussing some very important topics,” Arellano says of himself, and today, with every guest appearance, he has one main goal. “Larry has such a great laugh … if I can make Larry laugh, that’s all I need to hear.”
And his favorite moment from the show? “It was probably his worst interview,” Arellano says. “He had Brian Wilson on from the Beach Boys, and Brian Wilson would only give one-word answers. In that interview, you could hear Larry at his best. Larry was trying everything possible, but he was never flustered or frustrated and just took Brian for who he was.”
Leslie Berestein Rojas, a former journalist and reporter at 89.3, now associate professor of professional practice and director of audio news at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, has been on “AirTalk” several times as a guest expert on immigration.
One thing that sets the show apart, she says, is Mantle’s ability to relate to his audience on a deeper level. “He focuses on facts,” she says by phone, “but at the same time, he also comes across as a human being.
“I’ll never forget, after the death of Steve Julian, who hosted ‘Morning Edition’ on KPCC, Larry opened up to the audience. He went on the air and talked about how they’d been best friends for 33 years. It was beautiful, and even if you didn’t know either of them, you could relate to his sense of loss.”
“We want the caller to be as strong as the guest that we have on … they have to have a personal experience or a thought that really adds to the conversation or maybe challenges the contention that was made by me or one of the guests,” Mantle says.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Many times, it’s the voice callers and listeners recognize first when Mantle is out and about town. Screenwriter Glenn Camhi, 55, and his husband Paul Felix, 59, who works in animation, were listeners and callers to “AirTalk” for over 30 years when one day they noticed a couple walking with their son in the neighborhood.
The voice was a dead giveaway.
After running into Mantle and his family several times in the neighborhood and at events, the couple, still faithful listeners, became close to the family, with Mantle even officiating their 2009 wedding.
“AirTalk’s” coverage of the early days of the COVID-19 shutdown stands out to them. “He had, every morning, one of a handful of experts on for the first half-hour or so of the show,” Camhi says, speaking from his home in Pasadena. “When so much was unknown, it was such a comfort and helpful because it was tough to get answers … you could get on and talk to them [the experts] if any question wasn’t being answered.”
Mantle’s soft yet authoritative vocal style has adjusted from the high-impact radio delivery fashionable when “AirTalk” first launched in the ‘80s to a Fred Rogers-like ability to calmly convey interest, curiosity, and warmth, even when dealing with complicated or painful subjects.
His voice often becomes tinged with excitement, especially on his regular one-hour weekly segment, “FilmWeek,” where he discusses the day’s films with a panel and interviews actors and filmmakers.
“The marketing director for LA Weekly approached me [and said], ‘How would you like to do a weekly show with our critics about the new movies?” Mantle said yes but wanted the panel to include a variety of critics from different outlets.
“So many listeners come up to me and say, ‘I love “AirTalk,” but my favorite is “FilmWeek.” I need a break from the news.’ ”
“FilmWeek” has become a one-stop roundup of the industry’s best critics; listeners have heard from Martin Scorsese how growing up watching films in Little Italy inspired his work and how Christopher Nolan knew Cillian Murphy was the one to play Oppenheimer.
‘I believe in the public media model’
In the weeks leading up to the April 1 live anniversary taping of “AirTalk” at Southern California Public Radio’s Crawford Family Forum, Mantle and his producers are pulling favorite moments to rebroadcast for third-hour member drives.
These include episodes Mantle is proud of, like the award-winning segment in which women called in with their heart-wrenching personal stories of abortion or moments when guests let their guard down.
Mantle recalls Lakers legend Jerry West as “so open in sharing about his anxieties and his challenges as a person, his difficult childhood.” Or when then-Sen. Obama talked about how his ego made him think “he could be a good president.”
Though “AirTalk” is live five days a week, “Morning Edition” host Austin Cross has taken over on Fridays. But Mantle is not taking any time off. He hosts an LAist podcast, “Passing the Mantle” with his 23-year-old son, Desmond, in which they discuss issues of the day from an intergenerational perspective.
Like his father, Desmond was an only child and appears to have also been raised in a loving, intellectually curious home. Their connection on the podcast is endearing. Then there’s Mantle’s wife of 27 years, Kristen, a speech pathologist. “There’s no way I could have done this program without Kristen’s support because she’s just a sounding board … and she shares the L.A. mission.”
That mission includes looking toward the future of radio journalism. “When you look at how many journalists have left the profession in the past few years because it’s not economically sustainable in so many ways, that’s very frightening,” he says.
However, he believes that the public-supported media model that has sustained “AirTalk” for 40 years and is increasingly adopted by independent journalists on platforms like Substack could be part of the solution. “I hope that in 10 years, I’m talking about how we weathered that storm, we’ve come out the other side, and we’re stronger than we were before.”
That’s worth staying tuned in for.
