KPFK 90.7 FM: Programming Highlights

LA Theatre Works, Sunday, September 27 at 10:00 pm, Luis Valdez' "Zoot Suit," starring Marco Rodriguez

Donna Walker — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 23:50:00 +0000

The original production which began in Los Angeles, subsequently moved to Broadway, eventually being made into a film starring Edward James Olmos as "El Pachuco."

Zoot Suit presents a fictionalized version of the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial, where a group of young Mexican-Americans were charged with murder, resulting in the racially fueled Zoot Suit Riots throughout Los Angeles. A benchmark play written and directed by Luis Valdez, it marked a breakthrough in Latino theatre and themes.

Chicano playwright Luis Valdez masterfully uses the Sleepy Lagoon murder case to examine the Chicano Zoot Suit Culture of the 40’s. Passionate and provocative, Zoot Suit pulses with the beat of big band music and traditional Latin songs.

Music Direction by Daniel Valdez.

Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles in July of 2001.

Directed by Luis Valdez
Marco Rodriguez as El Pachuco
Kinan Valdez as Henry Reyna
Daniel Valdez as Enrique Reyna
Alma Martinez as Dolores Reyna
Primavera Flor-Valdez as Lupe Reyna
Lakin Valdez as Rudy Reyna/Sergeant Smith/Bailiff/Bosun’s Mate
Gregory Itzin as George Shearer
Xochiquetzal Candelaria as Alice Bloomfield
Estrella Esparza as Della Barrios
Ruben C. Gonzalez as Smiley Torres/Rafas/Swabie
Raul Cardona as Joey Castro/Marine
Daniel Chacón as Tommy Roberts/Cub Reporter/Sailor
Katrina Valdez as Bertha Villareal/Newsboy
Seth Millwood as Lt. Edwards/Guard/Shore Patrol
Spencer Garrett as The Press
Al Ruscio as Judge F.W. Charles

Phil and Ted's Sexy Boomer Show, Tuesday, September 22 at 2:00 pm with guest author D.W. Pasulka ("The Others: UFOs, AI, and the Secret Forces Guiding Human Destiny")

Donna Walker — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 23:40:00 +0000

About the Show

Phil and Ted's Sexy Boomer Show is a free-form, comedy/talk live radio show heard in Los Angeles on KPFK and as a podcast. Co-hosted by long-time collaborators Phil Proctor and Ted Bonnitt, the show features special guests and Hollywood stars in fun and deep conversations.

A voice for the fast-growing 50+ podcast audience while appealing to all ages, the show is produced by Radio Pictures, Inc., a Hollywood-based creative production company. More at sexyboomershow.com.

Hosts

Pacifica Performance Showcase/Arts in Review, Friday, Sept. 26, 2-3 pm with guests actors Jefferson Mays and Melinda Page Hamilton ("The Visit," Pasadena Playhouse), journalist David Greene and director Doug Pray ("Louder Than Guns")

Donna Walker — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 22:45:00 +0000

Hosts Donna Walker and Julio Martinez combine forces for a special fund drive hour with guests Tony Award-winning actor Jefferson Mays ("I Am My Own Wife," "Amadeus," "A Gentleman's Guide to Murder") and actress Melinda Page Hamilton ("Mad Men"), now starring in Friedrich Durrenmatt's "The Visit," running through Oct. 4 at Pasadena Playhouse. In the second half, journalist David Greene (NPR Morning Edition) and director Doug Pray on their powerful documentary, a music film about firearm safety in America "Louder than Guns" a collaboration with Old Crow Medicine Show's Ketch Secor. Tune in to pledge for tickets and 'thank you' gifts.

Pacifica Performance Showcase, Friday, Sept. 18 at 2:30 pm with guests actor Robert Tully ("Water for Elelphants" at The Pantages Theatre), actor/director Christina Harris ("Women of Lockerbie" at Actors Gang), and Katy Dammers, Dept Dir. of Redcat

Donna Walker — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 21:00:00 +0000

Host Donna Walker is joined by Katy Dammers, Deputy Director and Chief Curator for RedCat to talk about "The Ford/Hill Project" verbatim transcripts from the Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford Senate testimonies performed by guest artists Rosemarie DeWitt and Dule Hill; actor Robert Tully starring as "Mr. Jankowski" in "Water for Elephants" currently playing at The Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, and director/actor Christina Harris on "The Women of Lockerbie" now playing at The Actors Gang.

LA Theatre Works, Sunday, Sept 20 at 10:00 pm, George Bernard Shaw's "Misalliance" Starring Roger Rees, Victoria Tennant, Eric Stoltz

Donna Walker — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 20:50:00 +0000

Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, is considered one of the most influential, prolific and lauded playwrights in theatre history, considered by some second only to Shakespeare in the annals of British theatre., influencing subsequent playwrights from Noel Coward to Alan Ayckbourn and Tom Stoppard. From "Arms and the Man," "The Devil's Disciple," and "Man and Superman," to "Major Barbara," "Mrs. Warren's Profession," and "Pygmalion," his plays are considered classics and are regularly performed throughout the world.

Recorded before a live audience at the DoubleTree Suites, Santa Monica in January of 2003.

Directed by Eric Simonson
Tom Beyer as Bentley Summerhays
Joy Gregory as Hypatia
Roger Rees as Lord Summerhays
W. Morgan Sheppard as Mr. Tarleton
Eric Stoltz as Johnny Tarleton
Victoria Tennant as Mrs. Tarleton
Serena Scott Thomas as Lina Szczepanowska
Tegan West as Joey Percival
Douglas Weston as Gunner/Julius Baker

Phil and Ted's Sexy Boomer Show, Tuesday, September 15 at 2:00 pm with guest filmmaker Jonathan Berman ("Commune," "Calling All Earthlings")

Donna Walker — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 18:50:00 +0000

About the Show

A voice for the fast-growing 50+ podcast audience while appealing to all ages, the show is produced by Radio Pictures, Inc., a Hollywood-based creative production company. More at sexyboomershow.com.

Hosts

Phil Proctor

An accomplished humorist, author, and actor, best known as a founding member of the groundbreaking comedy group The Firesign Theatre.

Ted Bonnitt

A writer, host, and producer of national entertainment podcasts, as well as radio, television, and film programming, including with members of The Firesign Theatre.

LA Theatre Works, Sunday, September 6 at 10:00 pm, Tennessee Williams' "The Rose Tattoo" Starring Mercedes Ruehl and Anthony LaPaglia

Donna Walker — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:50:00 +0000

One of the greatest of all American playwrights, Tennessee Williams wrote "the Rose Tattoo" in 1949

Anthony LaPaglia and Mercedes Ruehl reprise their roles from the second NY Revival in New York.second revival, which took place in 1995 from March 23 to April 30, running for 73 performances at the Circle in the Square Theatre. The original production starred Maureen Stapleton and Eli Wallach. It was adapted into a film in 1955 starring Anna Magnani who won an Oscar for her performance.

Recorded at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, in December 1999.

Directed by Richard Masur
Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast recording, starring:

Emily Bergl as Rosa
Marieclare Costello as Peppina and Bessie
Tim DeKay as Jack
Brent Hinkley as a Doctor and Salesman
Anthony LaPaglia as Alvaro
Carol Locatell as Guiseppina
Kate Mulligan as Estelle, Miss Yorke
Antonia Ray as Assunta
Peggy Roeder as The Strega
Mercedes Ruehl as Serafina
Vincent Schiavelli as Father DeLeo
Claudette Sutherland as Violetta and Flora

Stage Manager and Live Sound Effects: Jane Slater
Assistant Stage Manager: Cary Thompson
Radio production by Raymond Guarna

Phil and Ted's Sexy Boomer Show, Tuesday, Sept. 1 at 2:00 pm with radio icon and Hall of Fame inductee Shadoe Stevens

Donna Walker — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:35:00 +0000

About the Show

A voice for the fast-growing 50+ podcast audience while appealing to all ages, the show is produced by Radio Pictures, Inc., a Hollywood-based creative production company. More at sexyboomershow.com.

Hosts

Phil Proctor

An accomplished humorist, author, and actor, best known as a founding member of the groundbreaking comedy group The Firesign Theatre.

Ted Bonnitt

A writer, host, and producer of national entertainment podcasts, as well as radio, television, and film programming, including with members of The Firesign Theatre.

Remembering Bob Weir (1947–2026)

Arnella Barbara — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 08:00:00 +0000

🌹⚡️ For Bob ⚡️🌹

The music has shifted.

The air itself feels altered.

Beloved Bob Weir has left this physical plane, and the long strange trip will never feel the same again. Something essential — something living and breathing — has slipped beyond our reach, and we are standing here together, stunned, heartbroken, and forever changed.

Bob was not just a musician.

He was a frequency.

A compass in the dark.

A living bridge between chaos and communion.

The Grateful Dead was never only a band — it was a universe, a language, a way of surviving this world with your soul intact. And Bob Weir was one of its great storytellers, guiding us through winding roads where answers dissolved and truth lived in the asking.

Every chord he played felt like an invitation:

to wander,

to wonder,

to feel deeply,

to belong.

I was meant to have Bob on my show this spring.

We spoke with his PR team just weeks ago.

The thought that he was still out there — still moving, still creating, still shining — makes this loss cut impossibly deep. Plans were forming. Stories were waiting. And now, all that remains is gratitude tangled with grief.

From me — the Dark Star Gurl, host of Dark Star, Dead and Music — and from Deadheads everywhere:

We are shattered.

We are grieving.

And we know, in our bones, that we will never fully recover from this.

Bob’s music didn’t just accompany our lives — it held us.

It carried us through heartbreak, addiction, joy, rebellion, awakening.

It taught us how to stay soft in a hard world, how to keep dancing even when the night felt endless.

This is not just the loss of a man.

This is the loss of a living current of American soul.

A light that shaped generations.

A voice that told us we weren’t alone.

So tonight, let us all light a candle.

Watch the flame dance.

Let the smoke drift upward so Bob can see how deeply he is loved.

Tonight, the road stretches on without you, Bob —

but your songs are still moving through us.

Your spirit still hums in the static.

Your love still binds this family together.

We will keep listening.

We will keep dancing.

We will keep carrying the music forward — brokenhearted, but grateful beyond words.

Thank you for the road.

Thank you for the courage.

Thank you for the eternal invitation to belong.

This world will never be the same without you.

And because of you, neither will we.

Forever Grateful.

Forever Dead.

Forever Bob. 🌹⚡