LONG JOHN NEBEL: Radio Talk King, Master Salesman, and Magnificent Charlatan

Long John Nebel is the Manhattan night radio talkathon master who loves flying saucers, psychics and ideas from outer and inner space. A cynic who spends thousands of hours jawing with others so that he doesn't have to think about himself, when alone he's locked into brooding moods and suicidal fugues. Just before his recent second marriage, Nebel was told that he has cancer -- now he wants ""all the time I can buy"" -- a pungent remark for a guy who has been selling time for nineteen years (he's now 62). In fact, Long John (he's 6'4"") dropped out of school in eighth grade to pursue a life of door-to-door selling, carnival hawking and street peddling. Now he's king of the talkies, his show sells more books than any other on the air, he rides in a limousine, washes his own socks and underwear. Not a witty biography but you'll find yourself baggyeyed at 4:00 a.m. and still reading.