I joked this morning in a WBEN-AM radio interview about the legacy of broadcasting giant Larry King that I prepared for the questions in the King Way.

In other words, I didn’t prepare by doing any research at all before Susan Rose and John Zach asked me about King’s 50-year broadcasting career, which ends with his final CNN show tonight.

King was proud of his lack of preparation, which he believed enabled him to ask questions that the audience might also be wondering about.

Occasionally, it got King in trouble. Like the night he asked Jerry Seinfeld if his NBC classic show “Seinfeld” was canceled or if Jerry (and Larry David) just wanted to end it.

King may have been the only one in America who didn’t realize that NBC executives would have given Seinfeld their first born if Jerry and the gang had stayed on for another season.

His show wasn’t officially canceled, but there is no question that CNN wanted the 77-year-old King to leave when his departure was announced in June.

As former Bills Coach Marv Levy used to say, “once you’re thinking of retiring, you are already retired.”

The last King interview I watched recently was with actor Wesley Snipes and concerned his legal problems. Snipes didn’t look much like the action movie star I remembered and the painful interview seemed to last longer than even some of his worst movies.

Larry was Larry, meaning he was relatively gentle in his questions. So gentle I turned the show off.

This isn’t to say that King was a bad interviewer. He was the king of radio and cable TV in the kinder and gentler era and was able to get big name and powerful guests because they knew it was going to play like an hour-long commercial without too many – to borrow a phrase from Channel 2 – tough questions.

Now that we’re in the age of cable loudmouths Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly, King’s style looks like it came from another century.

King’s ratings have plummeted, but then so have CNN’s. In other words, the drop in viewership isn’t entirely his fault. Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker – whose show is King’s lead-in – have an audience that could fit inside Shea’s Buffalo.

But back to my WBEN interview. I was asked if I’ve ever interviewed King. This is the first time in recent memory that I really missed the Buffalo News (which I still love). Well, I missed the Buffalo News library anyway so I could find the answer. (This is an obvious pitch to former colleagues who may be able to get in the library and send me the answer).

I’ll use the Ronald Reagan defense. I don’t remember if I ever interviewed him but I suspect I have. After all, he’s a Brooklyn boy and I’m a Queens and Long Island kid. We both covered sports at some time, had a lot in common and he may have been the easiest interview a critic could get because he was talkative and engaging.

I also was asked on WBEN what I thought of his replacement, Piers Morgan of “America’s Got Talent” judging fame. He’s supposedly a great interviewer, but I’m not sure a Brit is the way to attract American talk show audiences or younger viewers. He wouldn’t have been my first choice. Or second choice.

Now back to my original joke. To be honest, I actually did a little research before the WBEN interview and I learned something.

Larry King was born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger and changed his name when he went on radio. According to one biography, he chose the name King a few minutes before he went on air after seeing an advertisement for King’s Wholesale Liquor.

So everybody go to your favorite liquor store, buy some champagne and give a toast tonight to Larry King for his long broadcasting career.

It is safe to say there won’t be anyone like Larry King on television anymore.

pergament@msn.com  

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