Kfi Radio Station

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."

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 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.

Having raced through a monologue on the roots of sexual harassment and opined on the origins of . . . Now what was that again? Oh yeah, short-term memory loss . . . radio talk-show host Bill Handel closed a recent show by struggling to keep a straight face as he discussed luncheon meats with the author of a book titled "Spam: A Biography." This is what the station calls more stimulating talk radio? Well, yes and no.

A pair of American neo-Nazis accompanying KFI morning personality Bill Handel to Germany earlier this week were refused entry and deported upon arrival in Munich, where Handel broadcast his morning show about the Holocaust. Handel and other station officials arrived in Munich Tuesday and went on to broadcast in Poland today from Auschwitz, where Handel's grandparents were killed.

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 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.

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."

"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 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."

The California Republican Party has filed a complaint with the state Fair Political Practices Commission because KFI-AM (640) has not offered the party equal time following talk-show host Bill Press' election as state Democratic Party chairman in April. Republican Chairman Tirso del Junco said Monday that the commission has initiated an investigation into his party's complaint.

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.