John and Ken

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John Kobylt (left) and Ken Chiampou (right)

John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, known professionally as John and Ken and to Spanish-language rivals as Juan y Ken, are American talk radio hosts of a four-hour radio show, The John and Ken Show. Their show airs weekdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on KFI AM-640 in Los Angeles County, California. The program is the most listened to afternoon drive radio program in the Southern California market.

The weekday program is simulcast nationwide on the Cable Radio Network, on CRN4.

1 History
2 Political and social activism
3 Format
4 Social policy positions
5 Not respectors of partisan politics
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

John Kobylt, a native of Saddle Brook, New Jersey, came into the radio business as a sportswriter, after dropping out of Seton Hall University. Ken Chiampou, a native of Brentwood, New York, was an accountant. Both 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. They met and eventually were teamed up together while working at a radio station in Atlantic City, New Jersey later in that same decade. One of John and Ken's earliest bits was while they hosted mornings at 103.7 WMGM. They started a food drive for rival 95.1 WAYV morning DJ, Russ Monroe after he was fired only a week before Christmas. After calling WAYV live on the air to see if they'd like to donate, they were hung up on.

In 1990, the duo was offered afternoon drive on the then brand new, New Jersey 101.5 (WKXW-FM) in the state capitol of Trenton, New Jersey. John and Ken gained national notoriety for heavily criticizing then New Jersey governor Jim Florio for passing the largest state tax hike in United States history immediately after taking office. The show is credited in-part for the inspiration of Hands Across New Jersey, a group concerned about high taxation, after a listener named John Budzash called up the show and said there's an old saying "everybody complains about the weather but no one does anything about it" Kobylt asked what he proposed to do and Budzash said "a demonstration" Budzash proposed a demonstration of people holding hands from Belmar NJ to Trenton with people holding hands, symbolically cutting NJ in half in a show of voter power and anger over the tax hikes. In a short 9 days after calling John and Ken Budzash formed Hands Across New Jersey and held the largest rally ever in NJ in front of the Statehouse. The statehouse site was chosen after a caller to the John and Ken show pointed out that it was illegal for pedestrians to be on the interstate.

John and Ken both attended the Rally and spoke passionately about Hands Across New Jersey and encouraging people to stand up and fight back for a better New Jersey. During their time in NJ they were known for their honest attitudes of 'Call em as we see em' John and Ken were also known to give people nick names. An example was when they appropriately dubbed Republican Assembly Speaker Chuck Haytiian, "Gas Bag" for his repeated lies and failure to fulfill any of his promises.

John and Ken also campaigned feverishly for the abolition of tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike citing that cutting much of the government waste could make continued maintenance funding of this highway possible. They also lobbied for the opening of HOV lanes to regular traffic.

In late 1992, Kobylt and Chiampou left NJ 101.5FM. The station attempted to clone the successful pair when they sought and found 2 people to take over the slot who had voices that sounded almost identical to John and Ken. They also left after a few years and the next 2 pairs of men hired for that time slot on WKXW amazingly also sounded like John and Ken. In fact the shows format and attitudes were nearly identical to the John and Ken Show.

They left 101.5fm in late 1992, to move to KFI to do 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. Some interviews are pre-recorded, especially those in the 6 p.m. hour, which are often rebroadcasts of interviews in the 3 p.m. hour.

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.

On March 4, 2006, John and Ken won the Radio & Records News/Talk Local Personality of the Year award, sharing the honor with KGO radio host Ronn Owens. Chiampou accepted the award on behalf of the pair and on stage thanked Antonio Villaraigosa, Stanley Tookie Williams, David Dreier, L.A. Archdiocese Roger Cardinal Mahony, Robert Blake, Michael D. Brown, and Armando Garcia for providing the material that made the program possible.

Kobylt is married to the former Deborah Zara and has three sons. Chiampou is single and has no children.

[edit] Political and social 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 was rejected by the FEC on March 17, 2006. 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.

John and Ken often do various stunts in regards to their topics. When Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said to a group of Hispanics "We [Hispanics] clean your toilets", the duo urged their listeners to send toilet brushes to the mayor's office, of which thousands were received. ^[4] Other jokes include taking Cardinal Roger Mahony's words of, "So Disappointed," whenever the duo are talking about illegal immigration. Almost one year later, on May 1, 2006, during the protests coinciding with the Great American Boycott, KTTV reporter Tony Valdez told Kobylt and Chiampou that their ancestors killed Mexicans and expressing support for reconquista sentiments. Kobylt responded that "there has to be a statute of limitations on past history", and later discovered that much of Valdez's statements were factually incorrect. Some listeners then called for Valdez's firing, which was countered by Latino activists calling for Valdez to stay. However, Kobylt and Chiampou have specifically stated that they do not support calls for Valdez to be fired. [5]

The duo was named one of the 100 most influential people in Southern California by the Los Angeles Times in 2006. [6]

[edit] 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 acts more like a "straight man" 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. In addition, recently newscaster Terri Rae Elmer has participated in the show more, although not to the same extent as the other KFI local hosts, Bill Handel and John Ziegler.

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. Also, KFI news reporters come on the show and expand on stories aired in the newscasts. The 5 p.m. hour is the most listened to hour of the show and is sometimes 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. In addition to politics and high profile trials, bizarre news stories are often discussed to fill out the hour. 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).

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. Call screening is short with little tolerance for questions, cliches, unfocused wandering, and off-topic discussion. [7] [8]

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 or do freeform rants. However, it is common for an entire show to pass without a call taken.

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 p.m. 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.

John and Ken have been active during the David Westerfield trial. One notable quote by John was: "Hey, Westerfield, are you in there? Did you kill Danielle [Van Dam]?"

[edit] Social policy positions

Their other favorite topic is policy 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, who are the meat of most talk radio shows, are blasted as spokesholes, a portmanteau of spokesman and asshole. They try to promote their own pop culture labels and images (e.g. referring to Michael Chertoff of the Department of Homeland Security as "The Skull"), and offer dozens of other uncomplimentary names for public figures.

[edit] Not respectors of partisan politics

The hosts eschew any party labels, or loyalties, but could be considered populist. They frequently lean toward conservative, especially in regards to illegal immigration and crime. They support strong sentences for child molesters and murderers, the death penalty, Megan's Law, Jessica's Law, and oppose driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. On the other hand, they are libertarian in other aspects, such as being pro-choice, supporting gays in the military, ^[1] opposing the influence of the Religious Right on American politics, opposing the Iraq War, opposing funds for public transportation, and opposing tax increases. "Big government" positions they take include further construction of freeways, funding for embryonic stem cell research, an enhanced federal role in emergency preparedness for FEMA, increased federal law enforcement on the border. They tend to be moderate to liberal on the use of marijuana.

Kobylt got angry at fellow KFI host John Ziegler after Ziegler claimed in an on air crossover that Kobylt had "his head up his ass about Iraq". Ziegler was suspended for the remarks, and Kobylt and Ziegler no longer appear live to cross promote each other's shows. [9]

In the 2006 elections in California, they endorsed six Republicans and one Democrat in statewide races.[10]