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Welcome Nutballs and
Mental Patients to the UNOFFICIAL John and Ken Show fan
website! |
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How did a mild mannered accountant and a college dropout become the HEROES of talk radio?
Where did they come from? What did they do before their present show?
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"History of the HEROES" highlights some of their more
memorable exploits. John Kobylt, originally from New Jersey, was a sportswriter and editor for the Passaic-Clifton Herald-News (now the North Jersey Herald and News). He moved to New York in 1985. He spent a year in a New York college, but never graduated. John claims to have never even seen his college grades!
After graduating from the State University of New York at Buffalo, Ken Chiampou became an accountant, working as a controller at a health company. Only Ken himself is sure why he got into radio - the introverted talk show host rarely reveals details about his personal life.
(Other than that he owns a big screen TV and he drives a BMW that he got a "great" deal on!)
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John and Ken worked both individually and as a team at WOND - AM in Atlantic City, New Jersey. They worked the morning drive for a year at WMGM - FM in Atlantic City as well. In just 3 months, The John & Ken Show raised the morning ratings by 65%, eventually becoming the number one show in the market. Their big break came at WKXW "New Jersey 101.5" FM in Trenton, New Jersey. Their afternoon shows caused notable events, such as incurring the wrath of the New Jersey Turnpike tollbooth collector's union. As a result, they were identified as "disgruntled former tollbooth operators."
On another occasion they were responsible for inciting a taxpayer revolt which included a protest march on New Jersey state capitol building. Always a hit with their stations' management, (John Kobylt referred to one of his former station managers "a deranged mental patient") the show moved west to Los Angeles in 1992.
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Their show debuted on KFI - AM 640, replacing the former LAPD Chief of Police, Darryl Gates.
(Who had replaced the recently fired Tom Leykis) True to form, THE JOHN AND KEN SHOW proceeded to arouse the ire of special interest groups and educators everywhere! At first, John and Ken were unfamiliar with the Los Angeles area and made humorous gaffes about different locales in the area, but they quickly adapted to their new surroundings.
They frequently spotlighted contemporary events like the 1994-95 O.J. Simpson trial, and the 1995 Menendez brothers murder trial. Their innovative responses to these events such as their series of programs titled "Hour of O.J.", and their "Fry the Menendi" barbecue earned them fame and eventually made them the most popular afternoon talk show in Southern California with a weekly listening audience of over 700,000 people.
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Syndication around the country followed. The John and Ken show returned to the East Coast at various radio stations, and they began to change their format slightly to appeal to a national audience. Local issues to the Los Angeles area went by the wayside in favor of broader topics. However, popular topics such as "Hour of Rage" and the "Customer Service Desk" continued to appear regularly.
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The show grew until it was syndicated in over 110 radio stations nationwide. Unfortunately, it didn't last. In what was described as a "contract dispute," their show abruptly disappeared from KFI Los Angeles on March 19, 1999. The collapse of syndication soon followed, with the 110 stations dropping the show soon after. A month after their show disappeared from the airwaves, Talk Radio 790 KABC announced that John and Ken would be hosting a new morning show beginning July 1, 1999.
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JOHN AND KEN triumphantly returned to the airwaves on July 1, 1999 at
their new home, Talk Radio 790 KABC,
after an intensive advertising campaign. The most notable highlight of
their advertising was hiring a mobile billboard to follow KFI morning host
Bill Handel from his home to work! Their debut show was held at the House of Blues in Hollywood, with music from the Hawaiian rock band "The Hula Monsters" and appearances by many other KABC
personalities.
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They delivered blistering commentaries about "Siegfried and Roy" (the boys that
took over their former time slot at the "Misguided Station") and their contract battles with their former employers. The Los Angeles City Council proclaimed July 1, 1999 as "John and Ken Day." They took calls from many loyal nutballs and mental patients welcoming them back.
Unfortunately, the party didn't last. The morning show format and loss of their former drive time audience elicited a ratings decline that began soon after their return to the airwaves. Promotions and personal appearances were tried at various locations, but apparently their particular style of banter and presentation were not a ratings winner in the morning. Their show began foundering, and rumors of their demise from Talk Radio 790 began cropping up as early as May 2000. With the departure of Program Director Drew
"Purple" Hayes, their biggest booster, cancellation became a virtual certainty. This finally occurred on October 20, 2000 at the end of their broadcast.
Program Director Erik Braverman stated: "We're disappointed that the John & Ken show did not work on KABC. They are two talented individuals who were just in the wrong environment on Talk Radio 790. The type of program that listeners expect of KABC in morning drive is not the type of show that John & Ken do best. We wish them well in the future."
Their 5-9 AM slot was taken over by the ill-fated (and boring
as hell) "Dave and Amy Show." |
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After presumably eating a lot of crow for their exploits
and commentary against KFI while at KABC, John and Ken returned to the airwaves May 2, 2001 once
again at their former home of KFI AM 640. They appeared to be somewhat subdued about their
misadventures at "the mouse managed station" but bounced back true to form!
They immediately pissed off Spanish language newspapers and TV stations and the Hispanic population in Southern California
by offering cheese to lazy illegal immigrants who had failed
to meet a two year amnesty deadline. They
followed up with a trip to Modesto to find the "real killer" (Scott
Peterson) of Laci Peterson, and just barely managed to return home after
incurring the wrath of the media, local Modestoids and their fine police
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The HEROES went on to move to the forefront of the 2003
battle to topple California Governor "Lowbeam" Davis with their "save
California" campaign of appearances.
Governor Lowbeam's ill-conceived attempt to hand out
drivers licenses to illegal aliens to save his floundering career proved to
be easy material for the HEROES. With their trusty bullhorn, they succeeded
in fanning the flames of outrage of enough voters to aid in giving the
hapless governor an early retirement.
The HEROES gave equal time to the "lesser known"
gubernatorial candidates that otherwise would have never been heard at all.
John Kobylt's "stopwatch of death" was a handy tool in limiting the speeches
and ranting, however.
No sooner had the dust settled from the 2003
California recall election than the historic supermarket strike of 2003/2004
began. John and Ken managed to obtain a secret copy of the union's proposed
contract and posted it on their website for all to see, and then used it to
fight the distortions and lies preached by union thugs and their overlords.
The "disgruntled banana scanners" sang "we shall overcome" but ran into the
block wall of the HEROES OF TALK RADIO! Using the contract and cold, hard
logic, John and Ken made union spokes-holes look like fools and liars on the
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In March 2004, John and Ken were instrumental in getting
an $800,000 per year "house of sex perverts" shuttered in the fine city of
Phelan. They attracted a large crowd at their personal appearance in a town
John Koblyt had never heard of before. Even before the microphones were
turned on in Phelan the state decided to turn tail and "rethink" their
decision rather than face the wrath of the HEROES OF TALK RADIO.
Gary
Condit, Robert Blake, the 91 Freeway, David Westerfield, Osama Bin Laden,
Gil Cedillo, Saddam Hussein, the Trevor Law Group, Cruz Bustamante, carpool lanes, 101 and 710 Freeway NIMBYs,
and Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn have also been recent targets of opportunity.
On Fridays, catch KEN'S MOVIE REVIEW, an insightful and
sometimes very humorous look
at current movies. He rates them on a scale of 1 to 10, and has amusing ways
of describing the finer points of the movie.
Tune in today and see what's new! |
email us | | email john and ken
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