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The John and Ken Show

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File:JohnandKen KFI.jpg
John Kobylt (left) and Ken Chiampou (right)

John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, known professionally as John and Ken, are American talk radio hosts of a four-hour radio show, The John and Ken Show. Their show airs weekdays from 3pm to 7pm, and Saturdays from 3pm to 5pm on KFI AM-640 in Los Angeles County, California.

History

John Kobylt came into the radio business as a sportswriter, after dropping out of Seton Hall University. Ken Chiampou was an accountant. They met in New Jersey and came to fame as hosts on New Jersey 101.5, advocating lower taxes, reduced tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike, and opening of HOV lanes to regular traffic.

Both also worked in the Elmira-Corning market in New York state in the late 1980s; Kobylt as a disc jockey at WENY and Chiampou at cross-town rival WELM.

In 1992, Kobylt and Chiampou moved to KFI to their afternoon drive time spot, replacing former Los Angeles Police Department chief Daryl Gates. The hosts began syndication in 1997, which displeased management at Cox Communications, the then owners of the station. On March 19, 1999, the John and Ken show was taken off the air at KFI, allegedly by a vice president in Atlanta due to the syndication issue. Officially, the spat was referred to as a "contract dispute".

Kobylt and Chiampou were replaced by Karel and Andrew, the first openly gay couple in weekday talk radio in the country. Kobylt and Chiampou publicly referred to them as "Siegfried and Roy", and constantly berated the quality of the show and the lowered ratings the new show had compared to their show. On July 1, 1999, The John and Ken show was reborn as a morning drive talk show on crosstown competitor KABC. The morning show was short-lived as they kept their afternoon show style and brought it to the mornings. Kobylt and Chiampou also had various stunts, one of which got them in trouble and forced them into attending diversity training, which they later said they resented taking, and disliked the Disney management toning down their banter. Due to low ratings and mutual dissatisfaction between the station and the hosts, KABC dropped the show on October 20, 2000.

The John and Ken show returned to KFI on May 2, 2001, and the hosts regaled listeners with the behind-the-scene problems at KABC before returning to their normal topics. Since then they have remained as a live and local program.

On January 14, 2006, a new version of the John and Ken show entitled John and Ken: Saturdays began. The show has been repeated on the weekend from time to time, however, J&K: Saturdays covers new material that was otherwise omitted during the week. The hosts do not actually show up to the studio live on Saturday but tape the Saturday edition during the week as time permits.

Kobylt is married to the former Deborah Zara and has three sons. Chiampou is characteristically more circumspect on the air about his personal life, but he has no children.

Political Activism

In 2003, Kobylt and Chiampou were instrumental in the recall of California Governor Gray Davis. Davis, who was derisively called Gumby on the show for his shifting positions on issues, was criticized on a daily basis for the state's budget deficit, giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, increasing the state's car tax, offering large concessions to state employee labor unions, and for creating the California electricity crisis. The hosts regularly had recall petition gatherers on the air and almost immediately threw their support to Arnold Schwarzenegger when he announced he would run for governor. On October 6, 2003, as part of the fallout from the Gropegate scandal, the hosts read information from the Los Angeles Superior Court, purporting that one of the key accusers against Schwarzenegger had a long criminal record. In fact, the information retrieved was about an individual who had nothing to do with the scandal, and the pointers to the information were provided by a Schwarzengger assistant. The hosts apologized on October 8, after the election.

In the run-up to the 2004 elections, their main issue was fighting what they saw as misguided policies of the federal and California state governments to encourage illegal immigration. John and Ken devised a "competition" that they dubbed Political Human Sacrifice, in which five Republican Representatives from California were grilled regarding their stance on illegal immigration. The "winner" would be the Representative whom the show's listeners saw as the worst on illegal immigration restriction; John and Ken would endorse his or her opponent in the general election and urge listeners to vote for the opponent. Political Human Sacrifice was conducted in a fashion similar to reality television series such as Survivor. U.S. Representative David Dreier won the nomination as the "victim" of the "sacrifice." John and Ken also designated a Democratic Congressman, Joe Baca, to be "sacrificed" in the general election. The comments about Dreier resulted in a complaint to the Federal Elections Commission being filed by the National Republican Congressional Committee, which as of September 30, 2005, has not resulted in any action taken. As it turned out, both Dreier and Baca won reelection, but this apparently has not deterred John and Ken from their activism on this issue. Dreier outspent his opponent by 30 to 1 and won with 54% of the vote versus 43% for his opponent, his lowest percentage in 24 years. [1] On the other hand, Baca appeared to have been unaffected as he garnered 66.4% of the vote in 2004, exactly the same percentage as his 2002 vote.[2][3]

Kobylt and Chiampou engender animosity in some members of the news media due to their strong positions. On May 2, 2005, KTLA entertainment reporter Sam Rubin made comments alleging that Kobylt employed an illegal immigrant. Kobylt demanded that Rubin apologize on his program for making this allegation without any basis in fact, and later Kobylt's wife called in to berate Rubin for making the statements. Rubin later apologized and retracted the statements on the KTLA 5 Morning News, as well as on the John & Ken Show. [4]

Format

Unlike many other discussion shows with two hosts, the contrast between them is based more on their personalities than their opinions: John often is the "hotheaded" one given to angry rants based on everyday life, while Ken is the "level-headed" one who passively agrees and feeds John's anger. This can be seen when one host goes on vacation and the other hosts the show solo. Chiampou is more milquetoast while Kobylt is more easily enraged.

Some of their biggest pet peeves are deceitful politics, crime, and illegal immigration. Some of their most outrageous antics have taken place during high-profile criminal trials. Targets of their bombast have included O. J. Simpson, Scott Peterson, Robert Blake, and Michael Jackson. John Kobylt became nationally known when he stood in front of Scott Peterson's house with a bullhorn, demanding that Peterson give an interview. For several months the pair ran a 5 PM show called the "Tookie Must Die for Murdering Four Innocent People Hour," culminating on December 12, 2005, when they broadcast live outside of San Quentin Prison before the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams.

Their other favorite topic is politics. They will take on politicians who hide behind "doublespeak". For instance, when some California politicians told people in 2002 it would benefit everyone to raise gasoline taxes by $0.50 a gallon, John and Ken helped create a grassroots movement to block the proposal. They also support active enforcement of existing immigration law and cutting off jobs to illegal immigrants by supporting the Minutemen and the California Border Police. Spokespersons representing organizations or people they find displeasure in are often called spokesholes, a portmanteau of spokesman and asshole.

The hosts eschew any labels, but could be considered populist. They generally lean conservative, especially in regards to illegal immigration and crime. They support strong sentences for child molesters and murderers, the death penalty, Megan's Law, and oppose driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. On the other hand, they are libertarian in other aspects, such as supporting the rights of Michael Schiavo, being pro-choice, opposing the war in Iraq, supporting the elimination of public transportation, and opposing tax increases. "Big government" positions they take include increased construction of freeways, an enhanced federal role in emergency preparedness for FEMA, and increased federal law enforcement on the border. For years, John and Ken have been bashing State Senator Gil Cedillo, known for his bill to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

The show is generally broadcast directly from the studios of KFI, with guests usually appearing on the show via telephone. There are occasional remote broadcasts to the site of news or to various political rallies. The 5 PM hour is the most listened to hour of the show and is generally themed. The Political Human Sacrifice Hour, Hour of O.J., Michael Jackson Hour, and Tookie Must Die for Murdering Four Innocent People hour appeared in this time slot. The hosts do not take many calls during the show unless they specifically ask for calls, and the phone number is announced very rarely outside of the designated call-in topics. One regular segment that does accept significant caller participation is The Hour of Rage, where callers rant either about a topic selected by the host (i.e., the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams) or rant about any topic in general. Another feature of the show is Chiampou's Friday movie review, where he grades one movie released that week on a logarithmic scale (described as a "Richter scale" on the show).

References

  1. ^ "Dreier race illustrates cautionary tale on immigration policy". December 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  2. ^ "Sam Rubin, KTLA Gadfly (audio/wmx)". December 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
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