San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Pioneer of call-in legal radio show
“The seven phone lines would never stop ringing. You’d need to wait 15 or 20 minutes to be on the air with Len.”
Susan Tillem, on-site producer and sister of Len Tillem
Len Tillem was a country lawyer who couldn’t resist dispensing free advice, so he finally went on local radio in Napa to give it away to a broader clientele.
A programmer at KGO heard it and decided to take a chance on Tillem’s mix of folksy humor and New York City street smarts, which he played up by referring to himself as a “loyuh.”
“When I’m on the radio, my New York accent seems to become even more pronounced,” Tillem told The Chronicle in a 2007 interview. “The other thing about coming from New York is I’m not afraid to tell you when you’re a moron.”
What started as a tryout on weekend afternoons at KGO evolved into “The Len Tillem Show,” for years the top-rated program in the noon weekday time slot. People would plan their lunch break to tune in to hear callers describe their legal woes, which Tillem spun into stories while delivering practical solutions in everyday language. “The Len Tillem Show” was believed to have been among the first successful legal affairs radio programs in the country. It lasted 11 years and probably would have lasted a lot longer if not for a drastic format switch and mass firing at KGO.
“I hired him reluctantly because there had not been a successful lawyer radio show anywhere in the country,” said Jack Swanson, former KGO operations manager.
“Lawyers on the radio are generally boring, but this guy was different. What people heard was not a radio lawyer but a wise old Jewish uncle. He just had really good common sense and a brutal honesty about people and their problems. He was like an early Judge Judy in a way, and that’s why people liked him.”
KGO let him go in 2011, but he kept practicing law and giving free advice until 2016, when a slow-developing blood condition suddenly accelerated, according to his daughter Freya Gonda. Tillem died Jan.13 after losing consciousness at his Sonoma home. He was 77.
As a practicing attorney, Tillem specialized in trusts and estates. But once he moved from his office to his radio studio, he could advise on any aspect of the law. His show was consistently a top-rated program among Bay Area listeners 12 and older, according to Arbitron, the radio rating agency. It ran from noon to 12:45 p.m. weekdays with an extended Sunday show from 4 to 7 p.m.
Calls were screened by his on-site producer and sister, Susan Tillem. The juiciest cases were heard first.
“The seven phone lines would never stop ringing,” she said. “You’d need to wait 15 or 20 minutes to be on the air with Len.”
In a 2007 interview with The Chronicle, Tillem described his process for choosing callers.
“If you call up and say, “What’s the difference between a will and a trust?” you’re not getting on,” he said at the time. “If you call in and say, ‘I’m 21 years old, my boyfriend is stoned on speed. He just ripped my bra off,’ we’re going to put you to the top of the list.”
Leonard Marvin Tillem was born June 9, 1944, in the Bronx, N.Y. His parents were Polish immigrants, and the language around the house was Yiddish, Gonda said. His dad, Carl, was a plumber, and his mother, Ethel, ran a rooming house in the beach town of Belle Harbor. Among the boarders were her own three sons and a daughter. Tillem, known as Lenny, graduated from Far Rockaway High School in 1962.
He majored in theater at Brooklyn College and later got his law degree at New York University. After passing the New York’s bar exam and working there for a few years, Tillem, along with his girlfriend, went on an extended spiritual trek that took them to India and Sri Lanka. Tillem had been introduced to the Bay Area while visiting his sister, Susan, who lived in Haight-Ashbury in the late 1960s. He moved out for good in the mid-1970s, passed the California bar exam and opened his office in a renovated 1914 Craftsman home just off the historic Sonoma Plaza.
“He loved getting to know his clients and hearing about their families,” Gonda said. “He always encouraged people to talk through disputes and make amends with estranged family members.”
Tillem spoke from experience because he was married three times, the first two being relatively quick affairs.
His third marriage, to Susan Fegan, stuck. Tillem picked her up hitchhiking in Sonoma when her own car broke down. She felt safe because Tillem had two nieces in the back seat, said his other daughter, Phoebe Tillem. They had plenty in common
because they were both headed to the bohemian Health and Harmony Festival. They were married in 1986. Daughter Freya was born in 1987 and Phoebe in 1990.
That was right around the time he started his radio career.
“This little station in Napa calls me up. I discovered that I could do radio better than I do anything, including sex. I’m much better on the radio than I am at law,” Tillem told The Chronicle in 2007.
After seven years broadcasting on weekends, he was given the preferred noon weekday slot, which put him immediately after Dr. Dean Edell, who answered medical questions before Tillem answered legal ones. Tillem built a studio in his law office and preferred to keep his tie on while broadcasting, to maintain a professional courtesy.
Bob Hoffman, a retired San Francisco adman who had known Tillem since high school, used to tune in while driving to meet with clients.
“He took a a dull subject and made it interesting because he was funny and at times outrageous,” Hoffman said. “He had a down-to-earth vibe that people were attracted to. It never sounded like he was performing. That was the key to his success.”
Another key was his unwavering enthusiasm, even during six-day workweeks on the air. After working all week, he happily made the commute to his studio on Sundays for his extended show. The only difference is that he didn’t put on a suit or his customary hand-tied bow. “Len was a super guy who always got tremendous ratings,” said former KGO President and General Manager Mickey Luckoff. “He was unique, and we never got complaints about the information he gave out.”
For 30 years, KGO Newstalk was ranked No. 1 overall in the Bay Area, but in 2009 it lost its top spot and after slowly leaking listeners, Tillem and fellow weekday hosts Ray Taliaferro, Gene Burns, Gil Gross and John Rothmann were fired on Dec. 1, 2011.
“More than any performer I knew in all my years at KGO,” Swanson said, “Len loved being on the air. He just loved it.”
After KGO, Tillem landed at KKSF-FM, which had switched from smooth jazz to classic rock, but left that job in 2013. His recording studio turned back into an office, and he never went back on the air again.
In 2016, Tillem merged his law firm, Len Tillem & Associates, into Tillem McNichol & Brown, with two lawyers he had mentored, Rosie McNichol and David Brown. He even paid Brown’s way through law school. Once the partnership was complete, Tillem retired. But he still came by, just to stay hello.
“Len was a compassionate guy who got along well with pretty much everybody,” Brown said. “We get calls and emails to this day from people asking when Len is going to get back on the radio.”
Survivors include his wife of 35 years, Susan Fegan of Sonoma; daughters, Freya Gonda and Phoebe Tillem of Los Angeles; and sister, Susan Tillem of Sonoma, and her daughters Joya, Keva and Lela. No services are planned at this time.