A new podcast tells the history of L.A. and its fascinating stories

Podcast Summer … Evan Lovett has long been one of my favorite TikTokers. His popular “L.A. In a Minute” is a highlight of the platform, looking into various aspects of Los Angeles and the stories behind them.

Why are Trader Joe’s parking lots so seemingly small? …  The San Andreas fault … Restaurants that started here …  The oldest restaurants in town … early pioneers … pretty much everything he can find out about the history of Los Angeles and the surrounding areas, Lovett has done or will do on a TikTok.

But now he’s hit the big time. Teaming up with Audacy, Lovett has created the incorrectly named “In an Minute” podcast. Running anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour, the extra time allows him to dive deeper into the history and stories behind his featured topics.

Naturally, it is already one of my favorite podcasts.

Recent shows have explained how our beaches came to be what they are today, the best eats, the “Hollywood” before Hollywood, facts you may not know about our sports teams, things you think are from here … but aren’t, and is L.A. really the city with the most serial killers in history?

Like the TikToks, the shows help you not only understand the history behind things you might take for granted, his infectious positive attitude makes you feel great about living here — warts and all.

Two minor critiques — perhaps due to the relatively unlimited time allowed on podcasts, he occasionally repeats his points unnecessarily, something that doesn’t happen on the short-form TikToks … a bit more editing might be in order. But my main complaint — his “bumper music” and theme song is quite annoying, especially as it runs so much louder than the spoken word content.

But that’s OK — the content is a fun look at all things L.A., and has been since it debuted in early 2023. Find it on all the regular podcast venues, including Apple, Spotify, Podcast One, Audacy, iHeart and more.

One warning: Lovett might make you hungry … many of the best episodes revolve around food.

Too many lawyers

No, it’s not just a lament. “Too Many Lawyers” is a podcast hosted by Royal Oakes and his son, Connor. It pits dad against son, conservative/libertarian against liberal. Launched in 2020, the show’s premise is breaking down legal issues and presenting various ways to view a problem.

You probably remember Royal Oakes as a longtime legal analyst and contributor to KABC (790 AM), KNBC-TV channel 4, and a handful of other radio stations.

When it stays off of politics, it generally does a good job of meeting its premise. In politics, however, it tends to get into the superficial and stereotypical views of the politicians, especially when no evidence is presented to back up the supposition.

The program is carried by a small number of radio stations and thus is set as a one-hour program. It also is available on all the various podcast platforms mentioned above.

Firecrackers

Time was that every Independence Day, local listeners could tune into KHJ (930 AM) and later KRTH (101.1 FM) for the Firecracker 500 (or later the 300) … counting down the best hits ever made, determined, supposedly, by votes from listeners.

Seriously, I doubt that the listener votes truly made much difference in song popularity. I have a feeling, hopefully that can be confirmed or denied by those who truly know, that the song list was rather created internally, playing songs in the order that seemed palatable. My thinking on this is that especially in the old days, hand counting votes from listeners would be an undertaking that was just too time-consuming, and not necessarily reflective of all listeners.

Regardless, it was a fun way to spend the 4th of July; I remember always turning the radio to KHJ in my younger days to make sure the family and guests could all hear the countdown as we made — and ate —  burgers on the grill.

Facebook has memories of this as well; you can search it out for yourself. Alas, there was no countdown this year nor one in recent memory. Perhaps I missed one, but I think not. I do believe it is time to bring such programming back … I think it would help increase radio’s exposure in the minds of the public, especially if the stations made a huge splash of it in the newspapers and on social media.

Richard Wagoner is a San Pedro freelance columnist covering radio in Southern California. Email rwagoner@socalradiowaves.com