Traffic Report

I listen to KNX News Radio everyday on the way to work for traffic reports and the news. It's also usually on during the day in my office.

KNX was the first radio station in Hollywood and tonight at 11:05 p.m. it became the last station to leave Hollywood as it switched over to it's new headquarters in the Mid-Wilshire District.

In 1938 KNX moved to the gleaming new Columbia Square on Sunset Blvd. CBS legend William S. Paley personally oversaw the design of Columbia Square. It housed several radio studios, including one that could seat an audience of over a 1,000.

Radio greats including Jack Benny, Gene Autry, Art Linkletter and Red Skelton all broadcast their shows from Columbia Square.

And today, less than seventy years later the building broadcasts radio no more. It's said that several ghosts haunt the building. The elevators regularly stop on the fourth floor -- even though no one pushed the button. That's thought to be caused by the ghosts of the children who appeared on Art Linkletter's show, House Party, which broadcast from the fourth floor. We'll see if the ghosts follow to the new location.

I've been in the building three times. Once to meet with the KNX Editorial Board and twice to tape radio debates over a ballot proposition.

I knew a little about the history of the building, but I've enjoyed recently learning the role Columbia Square played in radio's heyday as the Grandest Palace of them all.

On the way to Dodger Stadium tonight I passed a bad accident on the north bound Harbor Freeway in downtown Los Angeles. An LAPD motorcycle officer went down -- he was laying on his back on the pavement in Lane 2 as I drove by. Shortly after I passed, photo above, a firetruck was driving the wrong way through traffic on the freeway to reach him. (Other officers had arrived on the scene by the time I passed.)

Celebrity Sightings: The cameramen at Dodger Stadium caught enough stars to cause a traffic jam of their own: Abilonia, State Senator Gil Cedillo, Mexican Singing Sensation Melinda, KABC Sportscaster Kurt Sandoval, Nancy Sinatra, Bill Maher, Red Buttons (I don't know if he ever got a dinner), and George Lopez.

In 10 innings, the Dodgers beat the Mets 7 to 6 on a walk-off Home Run by Catcher Dionner Navarro, who recently joined the Dodgers from AAA Las Vegas. It was his first ever Major League Home Run.