"Parenting the Addict Child" Finds a New Home

Photo by John Gilhooley

Shortly after publication of the Weekly's story on Laguna Beach's Leyla Fatima, who hosts the radio program Parenting the Addict Child, her station KLSX 97.1 FM switched from its "FM Talk" format to Top 40 music. That was curious because Fatima talked at the time of big plans to expand her nine-month-old show and its audience, although she did coyly mention that she wasn't necessarily saying her future rested at CBS-owned KLSX.

Part One of her forthcoming world domination begins at 2 p.m. Sunday when Parenting the Addict Child relaunches on Clear Channel-owned 1150 AM-KTLK ("The New Mainstream"). Just as before, Fatima will spend the next two hours relating her experiences raising two drug- and alcohol-addicted boys, taking listener calls and mixing it up when anyone gets abusive. Mom says her boys, now 18 and 21, approve of her openly discussing her horrifying experiences.

Parenting the Addict Child, which actually spun off an Orange County Register advice column Fatima penned for about a year, started as an internet broadcast in January 2008 before landing at KLSX the following May. In October it expanded beyond the Los Angeles market to Chicago, Dallas and San Francisco. Fatima's goal is to take it nationwide. A fool would bet against her.