”Kyle,” ”Rob,” ”Sarah,” ”Danny” and ”Kristie” are high school students talking about how their parents` divorces hurt them.
Kristie was 5 when her parents separated. ”I took it really bad and I was real emotional about it,” she recalls. By the time she was 11, they`d gotten back together and broken up permanently. After getting through periods of anger and rebellion, she says, she has come to terms with the divorce. ”My life is a lot better now. . . . When they were together it was a destructive household, and it was really stressful.”
Danny, whose mother and father split up when he was 9 or 10, also remembers being angry ”because I was caught in the middle, and I didn`t want to deal with it. I felt it was their problem.”
Encouraged by a sympathetic moderator, Liv Mills-Carlisle, who is all of 13, the teenagers talk candidly-and publicly. They`re on ”Kidstalk,” a weekly program on KVON radio here.
The show, which went on the air in May of last year and is broadcast live on Saturday afternoons, is a rarity. As far as Marissa Carlisle, Liv`s mother and the show`s creator and co-producer, knows, there are only three or four other kids` talk shows in the country.
Carlisle, an artist and photographer, came up with the idea for the show years ago and brought it to KVON, a news and talk station, early last year. Barry Martin, program director, liked it.
”We have a seniors` show, and I saw this as a counterpoint,” he says. While many stations, seeking adult audiences, might not be interested in a children`s show, Martin says KVON, in a small town, can afford to be ”all things to all people.”
KVON gave Carlisle air time, but left her responsible for all production chores: coming up with topics, booking guests, finding a host, and keeping the show running. He recommended an adult host. ”I thought an adult voice was needed to retain a semblance of sanity,” he said. Marissa herself was set to moderate the show-”I believed in kids,” she says, ”but I didn`t know if they could actually lead the program”-until Martin met the then-11-year-old Liv (pronounced ”leave”).
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”She`s a near-prodigy,” he says. ”She has poise and assurance, and she can interview adults as well as kids. I guess it`s kids` instincts. They don`t worry about `I can`t do this.` They just do it.”
Liv, a bright and outgoing girl with an engaging on-air voice, has been a model for several years. That experience, she says, has been helpful. ”In the go-sees-when your agent sends you out on, like, a cattle call and you have to stand in front of the camera-you always have to be on your toes and able to improvise and stuff.”
Although Liv does as much as five hours of research on each topic, some subjects are simply too adult for her.
”In the case of subjects like premarital sex, a subject not really concerning me yet, we`ve got a couple of high school students we call,” she says. Older co-hosts, says her mother, helped moderate a program about date rape.
”I`d like to keep her informed about it, but I don`t feel she could emotionally cover it. But she has covered some touchy issues, like teen pregnancy and AIDS.”
For adults who think young people are generally most eager to discuss sex, drugs or rock `n` roll, Liv has news. The hottest topic among kids, she says, is the environment: ”We`ve got to change, or our Earth isn`t going to last much longer.”
Whether or not Liv`s own future includes radio, she hopes to see more shows like ”Kidstalk.”
”Kids need a voice, they really do,” she says. ”When they get to talking, it brings out the best in us.”