New talk-host Graham is in driver's seat at WTKK-FM

Next year, Boston will have a Veterans' Day parade. Michael Graham, the hawkish new afternoon talk show host on WTKK-FM (96.9) whose hiring was announced Monday by the station's parent company, Greater Media, has made such a parade his first cause.

''I don't care if I have to go out myself and hire bums and hookers and give them flags," says Graham, filling in intermittently for several weeks in what had been Jay Severin's 3-7 p.m drive-time slot. ''We need it for ourselves. The veterans don't need it, they get it. We need it to remind us of what we ask these people to do, that we have an America worth fighting for."

Repeating, during a phone conversation, a promise he made on air, Graham says: ''I'll get the permits, I'll sign the paperwork, and raise the money. I don't care."

Hitting the ground running, Graham sounds happy to have a cause, not to mention a job. According to the Washington Post, he lost his gig at Washington, D.C., station WMAL-AM in July after repeatedly referring to Islam as ''a terrorist organization." Although known for his decidedly conservative, pro-Iraq war views, he says here in Boston his show won't be primarily about politics. ''I'll be surprised if six months from now people think about [this shift] as a political show," says the former GOP political consultant. ''I like to talk about what everyone's talking about -- sometimes that's the war in Iraq, sometimes it's [controversial football star] Terrell Owens."

In his first week, Graham focused on the bombings in Jordan, as well as the Veterans' Day campaign, and seemed to be fitting right in with Severin's regular audience. A South Carolina native, with radio experience in there, Virginia, and Washington, he claims to be unfazed by the legendary New England reserve. He credits six years doing stand-up comedy with making him comfortable before an audience. If anything, he says, he finds the conversation here more open than elsewhere in the country.

''The people are intelligent, verbal, and they love conversation," he says. ''They crack on me as hard as I crack on them. What I love about Massachusetts, particularly Boston, is you hang out in a bar, and you realize that what you hear is more interesting than what you hear on the radio. That's what I want to be talking about."

Graham avoids comparisons with his popular predecessor, claiming not to be familiar with Severin's show, which begins syndication next year. Graham's mission is to help ''people overcome that sense of powerlessness, of riding life, not driving it," he says.

Boston, of course, has long been home to talk-radio activists -- some might call them reactionaries -- notably the late Jerry Williams, who successfully campaigned to have the state's mandatory seat-belt law repealed.

''My experience, maybe it's because I spent time in politics, is that people opt out and feel they can't make a significant difference," he says. ''Maybe the ground is more fertile here in Boston, and if so that's fantastic."

Back on air: Gary LaPierre resumed his morning drive-time shift at WBZ-AM (1030) this week. He'd been out since Sept. 29 due to bypass surgery. . . . Also back behind the mike: recently terminated WAAF-FM (107.3) afternoon jock Paul Marshall was hired by WBCN-FM (104.1). . . . Still on air: Don Imus has renewed his contract for three more years with WTKK. . . . Starting tomorrow, Comcast digital cable users will be able to see archived in-studio video of Howard Stern as a premium service. ''Howard Stern On Demand" offers the first of what are planned monthly packages offering approximately 40 hours of video, including uncensored versions of in-studio exploits that aired on Stern's E! television show.