JOHN AND KEN

'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 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.^[1] The program is the most listened to afternoon drive radio program in the Southern California market.

Contents

Political and social activism

Format

Social policy positions

Not respectors of partisan politics

References

External links

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, signing a bill that would give drivers' licenses to illegal aliens, 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 Schwarzenegger 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.^[2] 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.[1][2]
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.^[3] 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. [3]
The duo was named one of the 100 most influential people in Southern California by the ''Los Angeles Times'' in 2006. [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 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, who was expelled from that show on the fifth anniversary of 9/11. In addition, Kobylt tends to be more expressive of issues going on in his personal life, while Chiampou generally avoids initating the topic.
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).
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, traffic, 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]?"

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, such as "Gumby" for former Gov. Gray Davis.

Not respectors of partisan politics

The hosts eschew any party labels, or loyalties, but could be considered populist. They frequently lean toward conservative, especially with regard 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. They are libertarian in other aspects, such as being pro-choice, supporting gays in the military,^[4] 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.
In the 2006 elections in California, they endorsed six Republicans and one Democrat in statewide races.[5]

References

1. KFI AM 640 Show Schedule
2. Dreier race illustrates cautionary tale on immigration policy
3. Sam Rubin, KTLA Gadfly (audio/wmx)
4. Shuster, Fred. "LIFTING OF MILITARY'S GAY BAN DOMINATES RADIO AIR WAVES."
Daily News of Los Angeles, February 2, 1993. Page L19

External links

★ Heroes of Talk Radio ~ The Unofficial John and Ken Show Fan Site and Forum

★ The John and Ken Show (Official site)

★ John and Ken Blog at KFI AM-640

★ KFI AM-640 Live Online Radio (audio/asf)

★ Alternate feed from Cable Radio Network

★ Michael Jackson Trial Coverage

★ Cheers, jeers at immigration town hall meeting (contentious meeting featuring John and Ken, DHS Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson, and Congressman Darrell Issa discussing immigration sweeps in Temecula,CA)

★ "(Hutchinson) slammed for stopping illegals sweeps" (discusses John and Ken's campaign in favor of those immigration sweeps and includes link to a 22-minute interview John Kobylt conducted with Asa Hutchinson)