Forget the Ideology--Radio’s a Business

Claudia Puig’s article on KFI’s success (“KFI: Turn On, Tune In, Turn Right,” Calendar, May 20) suggests that KFI’s management uses some sort of conservative litmus test before hiring talk-show hosts. The article implies that because of Rush Limbaugh’s success, KFI has stumbled on a frightening, dark secret: Only conservative hosts will attract an audience on talk radio.

Boy, if it were only that easy. Just hire a half-dozen loud, conservative men, open up the microphone and let ‘em rip. Before long, you’ve got huge profits. It makes you wonder why everyone in radio isn’t doing that. Why, there should be wall-to-wall conservatism blasting from every frequency on the dial. We’ve got at least five soft-rock stations in town, don’t we?

Frankly, we at KFI had a good laugh at Puig’s piece. Now, here’s a lesson in Radio 101: Radio is a hard, cold, numbers-driven business. Nothing more. A talk host must draw a large audience, and that audience must be sold to advertisers to make the company money. Do that in Los Angeles, and they pay you very well. If you don’t, you’re gone--fact. Just like in television, just like in the movies. You either produce a salable audience or you don’t. Millions of dollars in advertising revenue are at stake.

Gee, I wish I could stick around for the next 30 years just broadcasting ideology out of the party handbook. It would make my life much easier. And I love a conspiracy theory as much as the next guy. It would be wonderful to have a “conservative media” theory to balance the “liberal media” claptrap that’s always bandied about. It does make the pulse race to think about media executives plotting to turn KFI’s 50,000-watt radio signal into a beacon of pro-right propaganda. But that’s not the way the business works.

Puig lumped my partner Ken Chiampou and me in with the rest of KFI’s so-called conservative lineup (we’re not conservative, but that’s beside the point). She might be shocked to find out the secret criteria KFI uses in its hiring process.

KFI hired us because they think Ken and I are funny, controversial, intelligent and--get ready--because we made a boatload of money for the owners of our previous station.

Our political beliefs never came up. When we meet with our program director, David Hall, it’s never about our politics. Same with our general manager, Howard Neal. I don’t know what their politics are. Hell, I don’t even know the names of many people in management, because the parent company is based in Atlanta.

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Obviously, Limbaugh and Daryl Gates are conservative. And many in their audience find their political views to be the most appealing part of their show. But if conservatism alone is the way to be successful in broadcasting, then whatever happened to Morton Downey, Wally George and George Putnam?

Entertainment is the main purpose of talk radio. You’re dead without a strong sense of showmanship. If you’re going to keep someone hooked, you better have more than conservative politics going for you, because there are 85 alternatives on the L.A. radio dial. Politics can be used as a major source of material for entertainment, but a host’s specific political label cannot be used as the sole attraction. Otherwise, the show will fail--and many have.

Finally, if KFI’s managers were truly obsessed with promoting conservatism, and if they believed conservatism was the only way to draw an audience, wouldn’t they then change KFI’s slogan to “More Conservative Talk Radio?” But they won’t. The phrase is “More Stimulating Talk Radio.” Because it’s the stimulation that draws the audience.

The executives here at KFI make far too much money and the company itself is way too profitable for them to risk screwing it up by promoting an ideology. It’s bad for business, and like everything else in life, that’s all radio is--a business.