This KFI related website is dedicated to telling the totally true story of John Ziegler's experience at KFI radio in Los Angeles. John realizes that the creation of this KFI website probably ends any chance that he will ever again hit the highest levels of talk radio as he did at KFI and may very well end his talk radio career totally. But he is at peace with that potential consequence because he feels there are certain truths (like those about KFI, John Kobylt, and Bill Handel) that are worth the risk to tell, especially when you are really the only person in the world in a position to do so. This website is devoted to one of those truths. Specifically, that the talk radio industry (and particularly KFI) is dominated by freaks, fakes, frauds and phonies like John Kobylt who tend to make crack whores seem respectable and reputable by comparison.
On this website you read and hear compelling and exclusive evidence that:
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Written by John Ziegler
I began working full-time as a talk show host at KFI in early January of 2004. Originally, I was hired to take over the 10 pm slot which has been held by George Noory's “Coast to Coast,” which had been getting great ratings. The day before I began, radio legend Art Bell called me out on the Sunday night national broadcast of “Coast to Coast” and predicted that I would fail. After going through the customary growing pains of dramatically altering the programming, in less than a year the ratings were as strong as they have ever been in the history of that time slot.
This story will focus on what really happened at KFI, what I learned there, and what listeners to that station (as well as talk radio in general) should know about what KFI is really all about. In early 2005, I was promoted to the 7 pm position. The day before I took over the slot, local legend Phil Hendrie used me as a derogatory character in his final segment on KFI. The remainder of my time at KFI was a rollercoaster ride that included many great shows and incredible highs (huge cover story in Atlantic Monthly, writing “The Death of Free Speech,” “breaking” the John Kerry “stuck in Iraq” story, etc) as well as numerous mistakes on my part (too many to mention them all here) and even more devastating lows. This story will focus on what really happened at KFI, what I learned there, and what listeners to that station (as well as talk radio in general) should know about what KFI is really all about.
I thought that I had been originally hired by Robin Bertolucci (who took over as Program Director at KFI after most of the current programming had already been set) so that the station would have some more hours of local coverage and someone could fill in regularly for Bill Handel and John & Ken. I was also supposedly being groomed for future stardom (Robin bet me $100 I would be filling in for Rush Limbaugh before I left KFI, a bet I took and won because I knew I wasn't nearly boring enough to fill in for Rush), but it turned out that I was hired as more of an ego trip for the boss.
Since Bill Handel and John & Ken were well established before she was there, it became obvious that she wanted something she could tinker with. Because she hired me after the disaster in Louisville and since I was supposedly lucky to just have the gig, I guess she figured she could take out all of her frustrations on me and I would have no choice but to accept it. For the most part I did, but we frequently clashed as I desperately tried to make heads or tails out of her incomprehensible and inconsistent edicts on what she wanted the show to be.
One of the most frustrating aspects of the job was that the better (more memorable) a show I did, the more likelihood there was that I would get in trouble for having done it.One of the most frustrating aspects of the job was that the better (more memorable) a show I did, the more likelihood there was that I would get in trouble for having done it. At my time at KFI, I received by far the most positive reaction from listeners for these shows: Tookie Williams' execution coverage, the Barbara Boxer, Maxine Waters, and OJ Simpson confrontations, and my fighting a traffic ticket in court and winning. Those were also the shows for which I got in the most trouble with Robin. I quickly learned that she was so clueless about what was good radio that I adopted a saying with the show's staff that, “This show is so good that Robin will hate it.”
Quite simply I was being held to a different standard than John & Ken who seemingly could do exactly the same thing (and often did) on the air and get only praise. At one point, Robin actually admitted this reality. This drove me crazy because I had no idea what was expected of me and what the rules were. It was also extremely demoralizing to have the best shows I did cause me to get chewed out almost every time.
Despite these troubles there were some truly great moments. In the Spring of 2006 the station and my time slot both had their best ratings period ever and for the first time in its history KFI was the #1 radio station in all of Los Angeles. Such accomplishments in most lines of work would mean that you would feel secure in your position for at least a year or two. In radio it apparently buys you about a month or two.
On September 11th 2006, in just a few short minutes, my situation shifted from difficult but bearable and still promising, to a virtual death march.
Ever since I had moved to the 7 pm slot I had been doing two “teases” a day (at 5:30pm and 6:50 pm) on the John & Ken Show. I had also filled in for them for almost three full years at that point. Sometimes the promos would cause John Kobylt and me to go after each other on issues where we disagreed. I would always give John the heads up during the prior commercial that I was going to give it to him so that he was not caught off guard, and while things often got contentious, we were ALWAYS totally cool when things ended both on and off the air.
What could happen when you didn't give John Kobylt proper warning became apparent when, in the fall of 2005, Michael Graham was filling in for me from a studio in Boston and took John on during the 6:50 pm tease without notice.
On September 11th 2006, John was going solo for his 6th straight day because Ken was on vacation. It was the 5th anniversary of 9/11 and the President gave an address to the nation in which he referenced the Iraq war. When John came back on the air after the speech he attacked the President and the war in a way that was totally over the top, especially considering that it was the 5th anniversary of that fateful day and the fact that he was once in favor of the Iraq War.
In fact, John had been a huge supporter of the war when it began and when it was popular. In fact, in 2003 John & Ken held a “Virtual March on Hollywood” to combat Hollywood's opposition to the Iraq war. Kobylt was quoted as saying, “They think anybody who supports a war against Iraq is some stupid, redneck half-wit who's got no teeth, no shoes, no brain. They don't consider that most of the people would rather have a peaceful world, that we're fighting this war or we're gonna fight this war because of the terrorist attack.
On the day that Saddam Hussien was captured, John & Ken even came into work on a weekend to host the Premiere Radio's national coverage of the event and took a virtual victory lap on the radio.
Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and Lou Dobbs have been very successful in fooling people into thinking that they are “nonpartisan” and beholden to neither the right nor the left.Since then John & Ken had dramatically flip-flopped on the war in a way that was obviously designed to take advantage of the drop in popularity of both the war and the President while creating the impression that they are “independent” thinkers and not right-wing “Kool Aid” drinkers like all the other radio talk show hosts. This trick has become very popular among commentators in recent years. Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and Lou Dobbs have been very successful in fooling people into thinking that they are “nonpartisan” and beholden to neither the right nor the left. The reality is that that they (much like Governor “Benedict” Arnold's “postpartisan” nonsense in California) are faking it and simply sticking their finger in the wind from issue to issue because they know that appearing to be in the “middle” will be good for ratings.
This type of duplicity had always enraged me, but I knew that John & Ken were just entertainers who said whatever they thought would be best for their ratings on that particular day, regardless of the truth and with no consideration of the notion of consistency or credibility. While I would have much preferred that they admit this reality, I was willing to put up with their fraud because, at the time, I wanted to keep my job. In short, I simply didn't have the guts to get fired partly because in many ways things were going pretty well. Also, to that point John & Ken, while they liked to poke fun at me on the air, had been really pretty darn good to me personally. I was also grateful for the opportunity to promote my show during drive time where the audience is obviously much larger.
This time (on September 11th , 2006) when I went in to the studio for the 6:50 pm tease I was so irritated with what John was doing on 9/11 (and because he was alone with Ken gone) that I decided to ask him a respectful but pointed question about what he was saying on the air. During the commercial break, I asked him, “John, sincerely, as a professional, I would really like to know; are you taking this (new) position on the Iraq War because you really believe it or because you think it is best for ratings?”