Before Michael Martini's radio show had even debuted, the phone lines at WPBR in West Palm Beach were lighting up with angry callers. Dick Farrell, a conservative talk show host at the station, has fielded numerous irate calls about the Michael Martini Hour, a gay-themed show that premiered June 19 and airs every Thursday from 6 to 7pm. Bobby Naklicki and Wayne Filowitz, who host the WB Show, which follows Farrell's slot, said they have also received numerous negative calls as well as some positive ones about Martini's show.The lightning rod was a promo that Martini taped for the show early last week. "A two-year-old is abandoned in a fire station, and yet Florida still bans same-sex adoption," Martini says in the promo. "Join me for this week's guests..WPBR, all gay all the time [pause] .Well, okay, just Thursdays from 6 to 7."Not surprisingly, the promo aroused the ire of many anti-gay conservatives living in Palm Beach County, which is the base listening area for the show. But Martini doesn't sound perturbed in the least; in fact, he seems downright delighted. "Basically the hatemongers came out and started to show their colors," he says. "The show isn't even on the air yet, and already they're protesting. Thank you. They just put the show on the map."For Martini, who has toured the country as a stand-up comedian in recent years, the provocative promo was routine. In fact, the stage name "Martini" seems to fit him perfectly. The Florida native is the first to admit that his stand-up style is meant to stir controversy and shake the foundations of people's beliefs and prejudices.He performed for five months last year at the Crown and Anchor, a club in Provincetown, Massachusetts. One of his favorite shticks is to walk up to a straight couple in the audience and ask the man, "How long have you been straight? Do you think it's just a phase you're going through?" He'll then poke fun at himself: "You probably noticed I'm gay because of my San Francisco accent."Martini studied theater at Emerson College in Boston. Local residents got a taste of his stand-up comedy skills at the Stonewall Street Festival June 22, where he emceed and perform a 10- to 15-minute standup routine. "My passion has always been stand-up comedy, and I feel we can use humor to bring about change and highlight social intolerance" he says.But there is also a serious side to Martini, and he's getting a chance to show it on his new radio show, while still playing the role of provocateur that he perfected as a comic. His first show dove right into the fray with a discussion of Florida's gay adoption ban. His guests included Paul Cates, an attorney with the ACLU who is representing Steve Lofton and Roger Crouteau in a high-profile Florida gay adoption case. Crouteau was also a guest on the show, along with Kim Mills, education director of the Human Rights Campaign and head of Family Net Project.Martini has worked some high profile jobs in the past and knows how to effect change. He has served as an Assistant Director of Retail Marketing for the United Nations(UNICEF), Marketing Director for Intel Corporation and has been a Marketing Manager for Hallmark Cards out of Kansa City, MO and also helped build and design Prodigy Internet's Home Shopping Network. However it is the social change that makes Martini tick. "If I change one person's mind about the issues, I've done my job," he says.In the coming weeks, Martini plans to tackle other hot-button issues, such as the Texas sodomy case, as well as the lighter side of gay life. "Good talk radio makes you angry enough to call into the station, but we also want to entertain," he says. "We'll have on entertainers, drag queens. We'll use humor to highlight serious issues. I don't want to be the Rush Limbaugh for the other side. We're going to be fair and let people voice their opinions."
