Pioneering talk radio host Michael Robin Jackson, who spent more than 32 years at KABC Radio in Los Angeles, has died following a 10-year battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 87.
Jackson's death at his Los Angeles area home was confirmed to Variety Saturday by Lyle Gregory, his close friend and producer of 30 years.
His KABC radio show aired from 1966 to 1998 and was syndicated for nearly a decade on the ABC Radio Network, largely before the era of "shock jocks" and political polarization that characterizes much of today's talk radio. "Michael molded an interview into conversation, news and information. Like two people sitting at a kitchen table talking. A table, an open window, where millions tuned in daily across the nation, so many of them referring to Michael as their personal university."
Jackson began his career as a disc jockey in South Africa after his family moved there following World War II. In 1958, he and his family relocated to the United States and Jackson continued his career as a DJ in San Francisco before moving to Los Angeles where he worked at KHJ and KNX prior to joining KABC.
Other accolades included receiving a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1984, being made a Member of the Order of the British Empire, the French Legion of Merit Award and an honorary Doctorate of Laws from Western School of Law.