A LITTLE DANNY WILL DO YA; GROWN-UP BONADUCE TAKES FINAL LOOK BACK AT PARTRIDGES.

Byline: Fred Shuster Staff Writer

Danny Bonaduce sounds almost giddy.

It's a familiar feeling from the local radio personality who's still probably best-known as impish Danny Partridge, the red-haired, freckled kid from ABC's '70s sitcom ``The Partridge Family.''

Bonaduce, paired since Sept. 15 with Jamie White as co-host of the 5-to-9 a.m. weekday program on Burbank adult contemporary station KYSR-FM (98.7) - Star 98 - has just been chosen to do commercial voice-over work for TV's UPN network, situated just downstairs from his radio gig.

Bonaduce, who grew up in Woodland Hills, is plainly on top of the world.

``I couldn't be happier,'' he says. ``My whole family is here in Los Angeles. The weather is great. The radio show is doing well. And now this happens.''

In truth, the jury is still out on ``The Jamie & Danny Show.'' After a radio career that took him around the country, Bonaduce bounced to Los Angeles to replace White's former co-hosts, Frosty Stillwell and Frank Kramer, White's broadcast partners since 1994.

``I think we've hit it off,'' Bonaduce says about his on-air chemistry with the frequently raunchy White. ``I wouldn't say it was a gamble. I mean, I'm a professional. I do what management says to do. They said come to Los Angeles and go on the air with Jamie and talk about whatever comes up. It's funny - I feel like I'm the sensible one in the relationship.''

Adds Ken Christensen, vice president and general manager of Star: ``Danny is a great complement to Jamie. He's high-energy, enthusiastic and funny, and has a history of ratings success in the other markets he was in. The pairing was obvious since he was under contract to our company, his New York station had changed formats, and he wanted to return to L.A.''

Bonaduce says he doesn't particularly enjoy talking up his former fame as precocious Danny Partridge. But this past week, it came up often on Star because ABC's ``Come On, Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story,'' a behind-the-freckles look at the '70s sitcom and its stars, is airing at 9 tonight on KABC (Channel 7).

Bonaduce was a consultant on the film, which uses newcomers and veteran performers to portray the actors who played TV's fatherless family of six and their traveling pop group, but admits he penned a first draft when he and a pal pitched it to Fox in 1994.

The telefilm reveals how the pressures of instant success when the show hit the airwaves Sept. 25, 1970, and its abrupt cancellation on Aug. 31, 1974 - Bonaduce's 15th birthday - forever changed the stars of the series. ``The Partridge Family'' also featured Oscar winner Shirley Jones and her real-life stepson, David Cassidy, who became a '70s teen idol and pinup.

Bonaduce's problems have been well-documented. The youngest of four children, he landed his first commercial at age 4 and at 7 scored a spot in an episode of ``The Ghost and Mrs. Muir'' that his dad wrote.

Bonaduce says he began smoking pot on the ``Partridge'' set at the age of 13 and lost his virginity to one of Cassidy's castoffs soon after. Shortly before the series wrapped, Bonaduce's parents divorced, and he rented an apartment, enrolling at a private high school in Encino where he was introduced to LSD and cocaine.

Although he landed a few small TV parts, Bonaduce realized he had hit bottom in 1988 when his mom tracked him down in a dingy motel room on Sunset Boulevard, where he weighed just 112 pounds and was subsisting on a diet of freebase and orange juice. He told the story in a recent anti-drug message taped for Fox's ``America's Most Wanted'' and repeated on the radio show.

By then, he'd already been arrested for cocaine possession in West Hollywood but would face another drug charge and, most famously, an arrest for punching a transvestite prostitute in Phoenix during the next three years before he cleaned up for good.

``I was one of those people whose motto was: `If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing!'' he said.

Free of drugs for almost 10 years, Bonaduce now lives in the Hollywood Hills with his wife, Gretchen, whom he married eight years ago, and their 4-year-old daughter, Isabella.

Bonaduce scored his first radio job at WEXG-FM in Philadelphia in 1988, next moving to Phoenix, then back to Philadelphia and Chicago, Detroit and New York before starting at Star two months ago.

Los Angeles, he admits, is the toughest radio market in the nation.

``In New York, there was Howard Stern, but I was doing an adult contemporary show, talking about raising a child and stuff like that,'' Bonaduce said. ``Here, you've got Rick Dees, Mark and Brian, Kevin and Bean, Stern again . . . that's a lot of talent on the air in the morning. But I think Jamie and I have a good shot.''

Bonaduce says he doesn't have the slightest idea why ``The Partridge Family'' continues to fascinate. Hit songs like ``I Think I Love You'' and ``Come On, Get Happy,'' the family's cherished psychedelic bus and their crushed velvet costumes have attained iconic status.

``We didn't have any idea what we were doing,'' Bonaduce said. ``We didn't know this thing would live on as long as it has. We were just trying to get through the day, you know?''

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Photo: (1--2) Woodland Hills native Danny Bonaduce, now a weekday co-host on KYSR-FM - and inset, as impish Danny Partridge - has also landed a job doing commercial voice-over work for TV's UPN network.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News