Kfi Radio Station

When comedian Stephanie Miller arrived in town about a year and a half ago only to get a call from talk radio station KFI, she was more than a little underwhelmed. "I never thought about doing talk radio," Miller said. "To me talk radio was like old gray-haired guys talking about the budget."

For a dozen years, Tim Conway Jr. played host on weeknights at the former talk station KLSX-FM (97.1) -- the outlet where he and colleagues including Howard Stern, Tom Leykis and Adam Carolla held court with lifestyle observations and ribald humor. But this week Conway takes over nights at KFI-AM (640), the conservative news-talk powerhouse that's always near the top of Los Angeles-Orange County ratings -- and he says he feels more at home. "It was a little more loose over there" at KLSX, said Conway, 46. "I actually enjoy the politics, the calls."

For a dozen years, Tim Conway Jr. played host on weeknights at the former talk station KLSX-FM (97.1) -- the outlet where he and colleagues including Howard Stern, Tom Leykis and Adam Carolla held court with lifestyle observations and ribald humor. But this week Conway takes over nights at KFI-AM (640), the conservative news-talk powerhouse that's always near the top of Los Angeles-Orange County ratings -- and he says he feels more at home. "It was a little more loose over there" at KLSX, said Conway, 46. "I actually enjoy the politics, the calls."

KFI radio's evening drive-time kings have been casting about for culprits in the state budget mess. They started with, duh, illegal immigrants and those overfed state workers. Naturally, they've slapped around lazy legislators and the lying governor. I'm a little disappointed at John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, though.

The subject on the "John & Ken Show" on a recent afternoon is bad parenting. Hardly the sort of meat on which John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, the in-your-face afternoon-drive team on talk station KFI-AM (640), tend to feed. It's not hot, like the trial of O.J. Simpson, which they rode last fall to personal-best ratings. Nor is it wacky, like enumerating the byproducts of a cow, or grisly, like delineating the belongings of the late Jeffrey Dahmer that might be offered at auction.

The sudden firing of KFI-AM (640) personality Tom Leykis left both listeners and radio industry insiders stunned. Why would the station drop the market's top-rated afternoon talk-show host, seven months before his contract was up? With no advance announcement, Leykis was replaced Tuesday by former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates. Gates simply appeared on the air in Leykis' 3 p.m. slot, saying he knew listeners would be shocked but asking that they give him a chance.

KFI radio's evening drive-time kings have been casting about for culprits in the state budget mess. They started with, duh, illegal immigrants and those overfed state workers. Naturally, they've slapped around lazy legislators and the lying governor. I'm a little disappointed at John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, though.

The actual debut date of his morning show on KFI-AM (640) is lost to immediate memory but, lawyer that he is, Bill Handel in a flash offers that he signed his contract on July 16, 1993--several weeks after the plum 5-9 a.m. gig began.

Completing its two-year transformation from pop music to all-talk, KFI-AM (640) has raided a Sacramento radio station to recruit a new morning talk team and a new news director in an effort to compete head-to-head with Los Angeles' three current news/talk stations. Terri-Rae Elmer and David Grosby, the agricultural reporter and sportscaster, respectively, at all-news/talk KFBK-AM in the state's capital, will replace KFI morning veterans Gary Owens and Al Lohman in their 5 a.m. to 9 a.m.

The whirlwind of controversy that forced Daryl Gates to retire as Los Angeles police chief last year blew good fortune at KFI-AM (640). The station hired Gates as an afternoon host in September and this week saw itself crowned the top-rated talk-radio outlet in town, overtaking KABC-AM (790) for the first time since converting to an all-gab format in 1989.

"The John Ziegler Show" aired for the final time on Tuesday night on KFI-AM (640) and its firebrand host said his three-hour, five-nights-a-week broadcast had become a grind. "I have always had a love-hate relationship with talk radio," Ziegler told The Times. "At its best, it's a fantastic medium. At its worst it can drain your lifeblood. And I have had the lifeblood drained out of me for a period of time. It's time for me to move on from KFI's perspective and mine."

Two KFI-AM (640) hosts will fill in for the station's popular morning man Bill Handel while he serves a one-week suspension for an expletive-filled outburst during Jamie White's show on sister station KYSR-FM (98.7) last Friday. Clear Channel Radio, which owns both radio stations, said Thursday that Gary Hoffman, who is already part of Handel's morning crew, and Wayne Resnick, one of the station's weekend hosts, will sit in for Handel next week.

It seemed like a slam-dunk when the Los Angeles City Council made a near-unanimous decision to pay black firefighter Tennie Pierce $2.7 million to settle a racial harassment lawsuit that claimed he had been tricked into eating dog food by station mates, then taunted for months. But almost immediately, other voices in Los Angeles demanded to be heard.

Bill Handel's small personal office in Burbank doesn't have a window, but he still revels in the view. His desk faces what the KFI-AM (640) morning drive-time host calls his "wall of hate" -- a jumbo-sized bulletin board writhing with red-faced and flaming letters that essentially wish he'd go straight to a very hot, uncomfortable place.

A popular Los Angeles radio station Wednesday disputed the Schwarzenegger administration's claim that the campaign of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides improperly obtained audiotapes of the governor bantering with staff. On Monday's John Ziegler talk show on KFI-AM (640), a former producer for the show said that he had many times accessed the same trove of audiotapes without a password and without hacking.

Who said AM radio is dead? On the strength of its news and talk format, KFI-AM (640) vaulted into a tie for first place in the local radio ratings this spring -- marking the first time in almost two decades an AM station has claimed No. 1. Powered by morning drive-time host Bill Handel, whose humorous skewering of current events has apparently pulled in some of Howard Stern's former listeners, KFI's audience share jumped nearly a full percentage point from the last quarterly survey, averaging 4.

The caller's life was a soap opera. Her marriage had just collapsed. In an almost helpless voice, she was telling the late-night talk-show audience--20,000 listeners on KFI-AM radio--about her new man. "This guy," she began, "is what I always wanted my husband to be." But the words rang hollow. "Oh, God, " muttered the show's host, psychologist Laura Schlessinger, cringing at her studio microphone.

Voices of ignorance. . . . One of the shrillest and most obnoxious of late belongs to Jane Norris. It's been nearly a month since the two-hour stint on KFI-AM (640) in which she aggressively questioned--and even came close to attacking--KCBS Channel 2 news anchor Bree Walker's decision to have a child with her husband and co-anchor, Jim Lampley.

Community activists plan to hold a protest today against KFI-AM (640) for what they contend is the local station's race-baiting in airing a popular afternoon talk radio show that has turned the execution of former gang leader Stanley Tookie Williams into entertainment.

An Islamic rights group has filed a federal complaint against Los Angeles talk radio station KFI-AM (640) and the nation's largest radio chain over a skit which suggested that Iraqis want to kill Jews, marry camels, avoid bathing and meet Japanese schoolgirls in heaven.