[custom_adv] A CBS staff announcer, whom King met by chance, suggested he go to Florida which was a growing media market with openings for inexperienced broadcasters. King went to Miami, and after initial setbacks, he gained his first job in radio. The manager of a small station, WAHR[20] (now WMBM) in Miami Beach, hired him to clean up and perform miscellaneous tasks. [custom_adv] When one of the station's announcers abruptly quit, King was put on the air. His first broadcast was on May 1, 1957, working as the disc jockey from 9 a.m. to noon. He also did two afternoon newscasts and a sportscast. He was paid $50 a week. [custom_adv] He acquired the name Larry King when the general manager claimed that Zeiger was too difficult to remember, so minutes before airtime, Larry chose the surname King, which he got from an advertisement in the Miami Herald for King's Wholesale Liquor. Within two years, he legally changed his name to Larry King. [custom_adv] The Larry King Show was broadcast live Monday through Friday from midnight to 5:30 a.m. Eastern Time. King would interview a guest for the first 90 minutes, with callers asking questions that continued the interview for another 90 minutes. At 3 a.m., the Open Phone America segment began, where he allowed callers to discuss any topic they pleased with him, until the end of the program, when he expressed his own political opinions. [custom_adv] Many stations in the western time zones carried the Open Phone America portion of the show live, followed by the guest interview on tape delay. [custom_adv] Some of King's regular callers used pseudonyms or were given nicknames by King, such as "The Numbers Guy",[39] "The Chair", "The Portland Laugher","The Miami Derelict", and "The Scandal Scooper". [custom_adv] The show was successful, starting with relatively few affiliates and eventually growing to more than 500. King hosted the show until stepping down in 1994. King occasionally entertained the audience by telling amusing stories from his youth or early broadcasting career. [custom_adv] For its final year, the show was moved to afternoons. After King stepped down, Mutual gave the afternoon slot to David Brenner and Mutual's affiliates were given the option of carrying the audio of King's new CNN evening television program. After Westwood One dissolved Mutual in 1999, the radio simulcast of the CNN show continued until December 31, 2009. [custom_adv] On January 30, 1978, King went national on a nightly Mutual Broadcasting System coast-to-coast broadcast, inheriting the talk show slot that had begun with Herb Jepko in 1975, then followed by "Long John" Nebel in 1977, until his illness and death the following year. King's Mutual show rapidly developed a devoted audience.
