Jerry Springer will have a sidekick when his local talk show debuts at 9 a.m. Monday on Cincinnati's new liberal talk radio station being launched by Clear Channel.

He is Jene Galvin, teacher, writer, longtime worker for the Democratic Party, former talk host on WDBZ-AM (1230) and a 35-year buddy of Springer's. "We started hanging out in 1970 along with our wives," Galvin said about working with Springer. "I'm excited on a personal level; our chemistry is pretty good."

Starting Monday, what is now WSAI-AM (1530) will drop its oldies format picking up the frequency's historical call letters of WCKY-AM (The WSAI letters will go back to 1360, which is now known as the "Sports Animal/Homer").

The new liberal talker will be known as "1530 WCKY: The Revolution in Talk Radio."

The Springer/Galvin show will be the only local component on the station, which will air a heavy dose of programming from Air America, the national liberal talk radio network that came on the air last April, including Al Franken (noon-3 p.m.) and Randi Rhodes (6-10 p.m.).

The station will anchor its afternoon drive with Ed Schultz, perhaps the hottest liberal talk show in the country. His North Dakota-based brand of heartland populism is getting even more attention this week since he debuts on a Washington, D.C., station with his barely year-old syndicated show.

Galvin, who played a wonderfully flaming liberal talk host on WDBZ in the evenings a couple years ago, says Springer will be the star of this show. But he admits to being thrilled that a full-time liberal radio talk format is a dream come true for this market.

"It's great for what we think is the 40 percent of this town that think the way Springer and I think," he said.

The new role as Springer sidekick will cause Jene to leave, "Those Stupid Galvins," the long running radio show he has co-hosted on 10 p.m. Sundays on WVXU-FM with brother Jerry.

Said Jerry, a former columnist for The Post, "I'll somehow manage to continue without him"

-- Rick Bird, The Post