From Classics to the Court : KUSC Music Fans May Recognize Her Voice, but Today KNX-AM Commentator Gail Eichenthal Narrates the O.J. Simpson Trial

As an announcer on classical music radio, Gail Eichenthal was perhaps best known as the voice of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. For 14 years she hosted live national broadcasts ofconcerts on KUSC-FM (91.5), providing what she likes to refer to as “play-by-play” commentary for the musical and backstage goings-on.

These days she is doing play-by-play of another kind. And in a setting not nearly as highbrow.

Since late February, Eichenthal has been the anchor for KNX-AM’s gavel-to-gavel coverage of the O.J. Simpson murder trial (having replaced Patti Reising, who is on maternity leave). She sets the scene, describes the proceedings and interjects background and clarification of the legal maneuvering when necessary.

She says the jump from concert hall to courthouse is not as big as it might seem.

“I was in the hot seat during the Philharmonic broadcasts, so the idea of describing for people what’s going on in a physical setting they can’t see is not foreign for me,” Eichenthal said.

“There’s a ritual aspect to both a trial and a symphony concert. And even though surprises happen, it follows a basic architectural structure. It’s just that I’m describing murder weapons and evidence bags instead of oboes and conductors.”

Ever professional and unflappable, she is also not above commenting on the sartorial choices of the trial’s cast of characters (defense attorney Barry Scheck wore the same tie for days on end) and even indulges the audience in minor, but interesting visual details, such as when Brian (Kato) Kaelin applied balm to his chapped lips in the midst of testimony.

Though many still think of her as a classical music announcer, Eichenthal, 41, has been associated with KNX-AM (1070) since 1989, working as a news writer and reporter. Earlier this year, she won a Golden Mike award for a six-part report about plastic surgery among teens.

And she is quick to point out that hard news is her first love.

“This is what I’ve always wanted to do,” Eichenthal said. “During the years I was doing classical music, I was dreaming of news.”

Eichenthal got her start as a broadcaster in 1976, providing news reports for KPFK-FM (90.7) while also working as an intern at KUSC. The following year she became an on-air announcer at KUSC.

She considers anchoring the Simpson trial as a kind of return to her roots and also regards it as an opportunity to indulge a passion for murder-mysteries.

“I have been a voracious reader of murder-mysteries all my life,” Eichenthal said, “so the whole milieu of the trial is very familiar and of tremendous fascination to me.”

She clearly enjoys the proceedings and relishes her role. A listener might think that she is in the courtroom, but Eichenthal actually works out of the KNX studios in Hollywood, observing the events on television. She watches with intensity, taking notes constantly and even letting out an “aha!” when some key testimony is revealed. She keeps a legal dictionary close at hand.

In an effort to create a picture in the listener’s mind, Eichenthal chooses visual words to illustrate what is on the screen: a defense lawyer “poring over” legal documents, police officers shown on videotape as “striding toward” a truck.

“I narrated ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ in a school play when I was 11,” Eichenthal said. “That kind of narrative commentary seems to come to me fairly naturally.”

But what comes naturally must also be tempered. Knowing when to talk and when to keep silent is an ongoing challenge for her.

“Sometimes it’s very tricky,” she said. “I try desperately not to talk over them. . . . Initially, I talked too much in my attempt to describe the actual physical goings-on in the courtroom and clarify what was taking place. I’m trying to back off now and do only what is necessary to illuminate the proceedings. I think I’m more discerning now.”

Illuminating the court proceedings is not as straightforward an assignment as it sounds. It requires a keen ability to juggle tasks and an unflagging flexibility as coverage plans are proposed, shelved and re-proposed.

As Eichenthal describes what is going in court, she is constantly getting input from KNX managing editor Ronnie Bradford--alerting her to station breaks, asking her to write summaries of the proceedings for the next news break and informing her which legal experts are available for interviews, which she must then find time to conduct.

And what is possibly most agonizing for Eichenthal is deciding when to take commercial breaks. She often makes a decision to break when the trial is getting dull, but fears constantly that a critical development might happen during a commercial. So she monitors the trial extra closely at those times.

“If my eyes and ears stray for a second, I’m in big trouble,” she said.