Every Saturday morning, Robin Kall of East Greenwich fills the airwaves with her love of books.

An avid reader, Kall is host of Rhode Island's only book group on the radio, called Reading with Robin. It airs every Saturday from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. on WHJJ (920 AM).

"It's for people who like to read," she said. "It's a show about books."

Switch on the show and chances are you'll find Kall and guests in a round-robin discussion. She rates books from one to 10 (10 is a winner), and she likes to be brutally honest.

In a recent show on Hans Maarten van den Brink's novel On the Water, about two young men in pre-World War II Amsterdam who compete as rowers, a lively discussion ensued. The story is told in flashback, and, according to the College Hill Bookstore's Mike Katz, "You realize what has happened to the city during the war. It has great prose. It's very moving and interesting."

"It made me seasick," Kall said. "It was a lot of water for me."

Kall gave the book a six. Her other guests rated it much higher. For example, Cate Monroe, co-owner and president of Moon Mountain Publishing, North Kingstown, gave it an 8 1/2. Author Peter Mandel talked about his fascination with the book.

SINCE THE SHOW STARTED
on Nov. 23, Kall, who lives with her husband and two children, Emily, 12, and David, 15, has begun her Saturdays at the WHJJ studios, where she greets guests at about 6:50 a.m. Her show opens with local announcements and national updates about the world of books.

Some weeks, she interviews an author; other weeks she has round robins. In March, Louise Moulton, community services coordinator for the Providence Public Library, discussed the Reading Across Rhode Island program, a statewide book club for ages 14 and up, whose first designated book was David Baldacci's Wish You Well. College Hill's Katz took charge of trivia questions. The caller who answered correctly walked away with an autographed copy of Wish You Well. (Baldacci appeared on the show March 22.)

A few weeks after the Station fire, Kall revamped her show to feature a medium, Suzanne Northrup, who wrote the inspirational Everything Happens for a Reason. During the show, the switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree with callers interested in Northrup's comforting prose and skills at talking to the departed.

"The e-mails were overwhelming," Kall said. She later joked that Katz suggested renaming that show "Readings with Robin."

Kall said she can gauge by the growing number of e-mails she receives that the show is catching on. Nursing a coffee at an East Side Starbucks after the show on van den Brink's On the Water, she said, "Everybody loves reading and books. It's infectious. You can cover any subject matter. There's a book on everything."

KALL'S ROAD TO RADIO
stretches back to 1999 when she called Imus in the Morning to spar with him over the worth of Danielle Steel's soapy romance novels, which Imus referred to as "crap" and not "real books." A few months later, she tried to sell Imus -- over the airwaves -- a hard-to-find Beanie Baby he wanted for his wife.

She asked a high price for the Beanie Baby. He joked about her extorting money from him, and her rejoinder about corruption being part of the lifestyle in Providence quickly became a radio bumper for the Imus show.

Soon Kall was an Imus regular, offering updates on Operation Plunder Dome. Then she began listening to John DePetro's poltically-oriented talk show, which comes on WHJJ after Imus. "I mustered up enough courage to call," she said. "I would only call if I was prepared with something to say. I did a lot of homework and had notes."

Interested in local politics, she became a fan when she found that Depetro's views on Plunder Dome matched hers. Their sharp senses of humor meshed as well.

In a telephone interview, DePetro said Kall stood out because she expressed her political opinion "with sophisticated humor. We were on the same page. She called in with interesting observations. She could get her point across succinctly and in a short period of time."

She was soon known as "Robin from Providence" to DePetro's listeners, and he and others around the station perceived Kall as a natural. "She's quick-witted and profoundly aware of what is going on around her," he said. "She had an interesting quality."

EVENTUALLY, WHJJ's
Hess receives many show proposals at WHJJ. He said that he evaluates them for interesting subject matter but that he considers the host most important. "Talk radio has become personality-driven," he said. "We are looking for quality, the nature of the callers and the quantity of callers."

Kall, he said, "presents the subject matter in an entertaining way. She makes the effort to get interesting guests. There's enthusiasm and passion for the subject and she gets a big response."

Weekend local radio shows end up on the air in many ways, he added. Some show hosts buy the time, and then sell their own advertisements. Others are paid by the station to act as hosts, and the station finds ads.

Kall's hour is a hybrid. She found sponsors: College Hill Bookstore, Moon Mountain Publishing and the insurance firm Egis Group. The station sells advertising for the show too.