Another LARP Joins the Passing Parade ...

JACKSON, Michael: KHJ, 1963-65; KNX, 1965; KABC, 1966-1998; KRLA, 1999; KLAC, 2001-02; KNX, 2004-05; KGIL, 2007-08. The former rock and roll dj was a midday mainstay at News/Talk KABC for over three decades. He died January 15, 2022, at the age of 87. He had been sufffering from Parkinson's disease. Michael’s father owned several pubs in London and when he was 11, the family moved to South Africa, where Michael became fluent in Afrikaans. But he always imagined himself in radio, and by the time he was 16 (and finished high school) he was on the air in Johannesburg, having lied about his age. He trained with the BBC. Michael started his American radio career in Springfield, Massachusetts and moved quickly to the Bay Area where he played rock music at KYA and KEWB. In San Francisco he was known as Michael Scotland, and his program was called "Scotland's Yard."

In 1963, Michael hosted a two-hour Hootenanny show on KHJ. In 1965, when the format switched to "Boss Radio," he moved to KNX. The same year he became a U.S. citizen and married into Hollywood royalty. His wife Alana is the daughter of the late actor Alan Ladd, the man who played Shane. He won a local Emmy while hosting KCOP/Channel 13's The Big Question series. 

A 1974 LA Times profile said, "He is of small stature, as compact as a lightweight boxer. His facial expression is one of bemused, continental curiosity - a man secure in all things intellectual but having too good a time to be excessively tweedy." 

Michael has won seven Emmys and four Golden Mike awards. He has also received many other honors, including Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (M.B.E.) presented by  Queen Elizabeth, the French Legion of Merit Award, presented by president Mitterand in 1988, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1984. 

In the spring of 1984, he suffered a minor heart attack at the age of 50 while riding horseback through Griffith Park. Journalist Norman Cousins advised Michael during his recuperation period and told him, "A heart attack is something to laugh at. It really is."

In 1992 he was off the air for almost two months following heart surgery. In the summer of 1997, Michael moved to weekends on KABC, eventually leaving the station in 1999. He was a regular substitute for Larry King on CNN.