Local Talk-Show Host’s Radio Show Canceled

VENTURA —  The Carl Haeberle Show, a daily fixture on Ventura County radio station KVEN, was canceled Friday, the talk-show host said.

Haeberle, 58, got the news just after Friday’s edition of his daily 90-minute show.

“As of a half hour after the show, I was given my walking papers and told, ‘Thank you very much,’ ” Haeberle said Friday evening. “I was told it was a budget move. I wasn’t so sure I was making that much money. But it was a good run.”

Haeberle, who has been in and out of the radio business since 1957, began broadcasting on KVEN-AM (1450) on Nov. 15, 1994.

What was initially a 2 1/2-hour broadcast was cut by an hour about a year ago, after new owners had taken over.

Haeberle said he was “stunned and disappointed” by the news, which came just after a broadcast featuring Ventura Mayor Jim Friedman and Ventura Unified School District Supt. Joseph Spirito.

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The two came on Haeberle’s show to discuss a recent outbreak of gang violence in the city and at schools.

A midday show that featured information on government, schools and other community happenings, its ratings were low, Haeberle conceded. But Haeberle said he was still surprised to see the plug pulled.

Station officials did not answer phone calls left at KVEN on Friday evening.

Friedman believes Haeberle’s departure will be a “real loss for the community.”

“Carl’s show was really one of the only outlets where people could tune in and find out what was happening and what’s going on in their community from the people making the news,” Friedman said. “That is a valuable public service and I do believe it’s going to be sorely missed in the community.”

Former Oxnard City Councilman Michael Plisky, now president of the Oxnard Harbor District Board of Commissioners, called the cancellation “a big blow to the listening community of Ventura County.”

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“I think he did a tremendous job of bringing people in touch with the politicians and various aspects of the community that we won’t know about any more.”

Haeberle, who with his wife Becky recently purchased a new home in Ventura, said he wants to stay in Ventura County. But barring a job offer from another area radio station, he said he will look to reenter the public relations or graphic design fields, where he has worked for years between radio gigs.

“You’re going to get higher ratings if you yell at people or if you’re Howard Stern,” he said. “I suppose had I ranted and raved and shouted, we could have had more numbers. But I don’t think we’d have done more good.”