They May Be Done Talking : Television: Growing protest over the content of talk shows is causing some station managers to demand changes.

There was no shortage of words about daytime talk shows Monday on KTTV-TV Channel 11 during a heavily promoted segment of the Fox station’s “Good Day L.A.”

Host Steve Edwards presided over a discussion about the furor regarding the daytime talkfests launched Oct. 26 by influential political figures who claim the shows debase American culture and cause harm to children with their confrontational rhetoric and their emphasis on sexual and deviant-behavior subjects.

Participating in the discussion were Gabrielle Carteris, whose freshman talk show airs on Channel 11; therapist Marilyn Kagan, who hosts a talk show on KCAL-TV Channel 9; and W.D. Corbin, general manager of the CBS affiliate KHSL-TV in Chico, who was so angered by the content of “Jenny Jones” that he yanked the show off the air.

None of the participants were shy about expressing their views on the controversy during the 10-minute morning segment.

But when a Times reporter attempted to ask Jim Burke, general manager of Channel 11, about his reaction to the controversy, and whether there had been advertiser or viewer fallout on any of the talk shows airing on his station, he refused to comment.

Burke isn’t the only local television executive giving the silent treatment to the talk-show issue.

Of the six general managers of local television stations airing shows branded as offensive by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) and the advocacy group Empower America, only three agreed to publicly confront the talk-show subject.

Two of them--Carole Black of KNBC-TV Channel 4 and Rick Feldman of KCOP-TV Channel 13--said they have grave concerns about the programs and have been discussing changes with producers and syndicators.

“I think many of them have gone too far, and the criticism they are receiving now is, in many cases, quite justified,” said Black, whose station airs “Sally Jessy Raphael,” targeted by the talk-show critics as being among the most tasteless, and “Donahue.”

“The ratings on our two shows have gone down during the past year and a half, and I have talked with them and said they should change their direction,” Black said. “How they will respond, I don’t know. But if their direction does not change, we will not have them on next season.”

Lieberman and William J. Bennett, the nation’s former education secretary and current co-director of Empower America, are pressuring the shows to get rid of what they called tawdry subjects and titillating segments that they said celebrate immoral behavior.

The coalition last week sent letters to corporations that own some of the shows, urging them to develop standards of decency for the programs. And Procter & Gamble Co. confirmed it has pulled advertising from several of the talk shows--although it said it did so prior to the current controversy.

Despite the growing protests KTTV’s Burke, Bill Applegate, general manager of KCBS-TV Channel 2, and David Woodcock, general manager of KCAL, did not respond to inquiries from The Times. KCBS airs the new show “Carnie” and “Geraldo,” while KCAL broadcasts “Maury Povich” and “Jerry Springer.”

Greg Nathanson, general manager of KTLA-TV Channel 5, said that his station had only recently brought back “Charles Perez” following its continuous coverage of the O.J. Simpson murder trial, and did not have enough information to comment. (KABC-TV Channel 7’s only talk show is “Oprah Winfrey,” which was praised by Bennett and Lieberman for not falling into the exploitative category of other talkfests.)

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Although KCOP’s Feldman said he had personal concerns about the content of the shows, he felt the issue had been blown out of proportion.

“Like everything else in America, there is definitely some truth to the comments being made,” said Feldman, whose station airs “Ricki Lake,” “Richard Bey,” “Jenny Jones,” “Tempestt,” “Danny!” and “Montel Williams.”

“But there are hypocrites on both sides,” Feldman added. “Instead of talking about the subtleties and nuances of everything, the two sides are just yelling at each other. For there to be this big hue and cry about how these shows are bringing down the value of America is out of proportion and just not true.”

He also said he felt the opposition to the talk shows was cyclical and based in large part on generational differences between older and younger audiences. “It wasn’t too long ago that these shows were seen as terrific,” he said. “Now the pendulum has swung too far the other way. Now there’s no doubt that the bounds of good taste have been crossed more than people would like. Now everything will calm down again.”

Both Black and Feldman said they had not experienced an advertiser or viewer backlash directly related to the 3-week-old controversy. But they said audiences had been gradually declining and advertiser support eroding before the attack by Bennett and Lieberman.

One talk-show industry source said that “there are lots of discussions going on” between station managers across the country and the talk-show syndicators, with the stations “expressing concerns” but the distributors not wanting to appear to be bowing to pressure by making changes.

“What really started it was not Bill Bennett but Procter & Gamble’s announcement in October that they were re-evaluating advertising in some talk shows,” the source said.

The general manager of the NBC affiliate in Colorado Springs, Colo., said that he had received nothing but praise from members of his community for threatening to take the Maury Povich, Jenny Jones and Carnie Wilson talk shows off the air if they do not make changes by the end of the year.

“I’ve been surprised by the reaction. We had more than 100 phone calls--all but one of them positive--the day we announced our decision,” said John Gilbert, general manager of KOAA-TV.

He added: “This stuff is just awful--I fail to see any redeeming social value in showing teen-aged prostitutes. I finally decided, ‘Enough is enough,’ no matter what rating we were getting.”

* Times staff writer Jane Hall contributed to this story.