TUNE IN, TURN ON, TAKE CARE

(When this LA Weekly article was written, Inner Vision was a late night program. Currently it is broadcast live every Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM.)

Around 11 tonight or maybe next Thursday night while you listen to the neighborhood winding down, while you water your plants or make lunch for Friday, flip on the radio and tune into Michael Benner. His calming wisdom seems to fit in just fine with whatever you're doing this hour of the day.

Broadcasting every week for five years from L.A.'s tree-huggin' KPFK 90.7 FM, Mr. Benner comes through as a champion of consciousness and compassion every time.

He's a certified hypnotherapist with a degree in television and radio and a voice halfway between the Smucker's jam spokesman and Jerry Garcia — a combo that makes it hard not to listen. But if this kind of stuff gives you the heebie-jeebies, just tune in for truisms like, "Laughter is a loving effervescence."

The show is part self-help, part political and everything else in between; mostly because Michael Benner is never condescending or self-important (à la Dr. Laura), and he has actual conversations with his callers. You know, the real variety, when people stop to think and include pockets of silence and "ums" and drift off on tangents. (Thanks to public radio there are no pesky traffic reports, either.)

Plus, you'll get writing tips, poetry and prose readings and, of course, his signature sign-off at the stroke of twelve: "Be gentle, love life and take care of each other."

Currently heard Fridays, 1:00 PM, 90.7-FM, KPFK.

— Wendy Gilmartin