December 6, 2023 • 33 mins
Ken’s last show! A very special message for Ken from a former California governor. Another special message for Ken. A longtime friend of Ken’s comes on the show to wish him well in his retirement. A montage from the old days of John and Ken.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Caf I Am six forty. You're listening to the John
and Ken Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome mar Antonio Villa Ragosa.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Oh come on, come on, let's go.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
You know I want fantastic, but I want it, you know,
But I'll tell you.
Speaker 5 (00:41):
Can you feel that?
Speaker 4 (00:42):
You know?
Speaker 6 (00:44):
You know?
Speaker 7 (00:47):
I like the.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Perfect song for the final John and Ken Show, John
Cobel Ken Champau canf I Am six forty live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio App.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I one of my very fond memories is Tony Vallar.
I tell you I'll cherish the years he was mayor,
and you said the same thing because Garcetti followed him. Yeah,
but he provided so much material for us to good
years as mayor. Valar's years were were terrible, but they
shine in comparison to Garceta.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
That's the thing. Look where we're going.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I know we didn't have the homeless and the crime
during the Via Grocie years, right.
Speaker 5 (01:27):
So I was going over.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
The governors today too that have been in charge of
California since I've been on the air here at KFI,
and I was thinking that's also gone Downhill.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah, we came in during the time of Pete Wilson.
Pete Wilson then the best of the lot since we
were here, right, you know, we have a special guest
who recorded a message for you, and I wanted to
start the show with it. So if you're ready, I
don't want to do anything today. I look, you want
me to sing songs, I'll sing songs. I can do
(01:56):
that for three hours.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
I don't want to work. I want to bang on
the drum all day.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, that's what you're gonna be singing. That is environment
so on Thursday afternoon, and you know, sitting on your
back deck. No, I've arranged for my own guest this
hour because yours are not impressing me as much.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
So all right, well maybe you like this one. All right,
roll it, Eric. This is Gray Davis. Now.
Speaker 6 (02:20):
I know some of you may be wondering why I'm
calling to wish Ken well. Well, I do wish him well,
but I'm calling primarily to make sure he's actually retiring.
And John, if you're listening when the time is right,
I'm happy to wish you farewell. Now. I know you
guys advertise yourselves as equal opportunity critics.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
I never really believe that.
Speaker 6 (02:44):
But shortly after I left office, I think four days
has passed, and you were criticizing poor Arnold.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
He just got there.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
I can't remember exactly what you were criticizing him for,
but at the very end you said, even great Davis
would not have done that, and I thought to myself,
maybe these guys really do criticize everybody.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Wow, how did you get that one? He never came
on the show.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I know if he had come on the show and
showed that sense of humor, he would not have gotten recalled.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
Maybe. Uh, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
He haunted me after that recall. I kept running into
him on flights up to the Bay Area. I'm like,
oh my god, du it's Great Davis. And I think
twice three times that happened.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
Did you on my trips? Did you? I did not know.
I did not You didn't introduce yourself.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
This was not long after the recall, so I didn't
know what I would get if I did.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
That, right, I'm quite like a Bengal tiger. Yeah, that guy.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I'm Ken, Johnny Ken's show. We had a lot to
do with your demise.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
Thanks, but look good day. It looks like the wounds
have healed. He was thinking, yes, so what did you
reach out to? Like his Uh, I don't know what
he does have a staff anymore.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Ray pulled this off. It just he Ray sent me
the message last night, the recording, and I just I
couldn't believe you were shocked.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
Yeah, I heard that.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
I reached out to a bunch of people who who
I thought would and Grey Davis did it.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
I gotta give him credit. Yeah, he said, oh, yeah, sir.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Well, like we were always said, he's kind of a
strange wildcard in some respects boring with his turkey sandwiches
and what was it broccoli or broccoli? I think steam
broccoli and turkey, right right, or steam in turkey and broccoli.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
It's weird that you were you were going to play
that because I was just talking about the governors and
we don't prepare no, no, sorry, you pulled out one.
Our plan was to surprise you with that to open
the show, and then you I mentioned the governor, the governors.
I was thinking about the mayors of LA and the governors,
and of course a lot of our show has been
kicking politicians butts around. Yeah, for all these years. That's
a big element which I never saw coming for people
(04:44):
who don't know. I got into radio because I loved
pop music in the nineteen sixties and seventies and into
the eighties. That's all I did is listen to the
top forty and pop music in Casey's countdowns, and I
wanted to.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Be a DJ. But you know, life has a way, right, And.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
When you and I first got teamed up, yeah, we
were playing some songs, but we talked a lot. And
then talk radio was coming down the pike as a
very popular format, and we just kind of rode that
wave as it took off from the late eighties into
the nineties. But this is not what you played to
do with your life. Not well, no, not as far
as radio.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
I was a kid. I always wanted to be in radio.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, but I didn't really have a concept of this
kind of format. You know, it did the sixties and seventies.
We didn't exist, It did not exist. I had no
idea that we were going to end up doing this.
In fact, it didn't exist at the time we started
doing it right right, right, you know, And I don't
know how particularly well, I guess you could say, because
We're in Atlantic City, which is a cesspool of corruption
(05:44):
for years between the mob and just the bad political leaders, right,
and that's kind of how we latched onto our first.
You know, let's go after the elected people, right with
the city council there, the mayor. Yeah, Donald Trump was
the good guy in that era in Atlantic.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
He was right, he was, he was kind of the
good guy.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
And then we moved over to another station in Trenton,
which covered big area of New York, New Jersey and
even Pennsylvania. And did that governor there, you know, Jim
Floria was an idiot too, So this kind of gathered
steam on its own based on just the corrupt inect
politician before us. And then we got the Gray Davis
and that was a nice message, well kind of, although
(06:24):
there's a tone to it. You're right, it's like John,
when you're ready to retire, I'll be glad to because.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
I want you out. I'll be happy and shovel on
your grave. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
We just had the twentieth anniversary of the recall not
too long ago. Yes, I was.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
I was repick on Schwarzenegger within a week.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Maybe we did, I don't know. That's that's Davis's memory.
He said there's four days.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
He said four days there. Even Gray Davis wouldn't do that.
I know.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I remember getting frustrated with him more into two thousand
and five when they had those special measures they put
on the ballot. He wasn't campaigning and it sounded like
he was just bending with the wind. That I remember better,
But I don't remember days after we took office.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
But it's always possible.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
So if you haven't heard because you weren't paying attention,
Today is Ken's last day. I am going to take
a few days off and then I'm going to do
the show solo starting Tuesday, December twelfth, and then Ken
goes to his rest home and we to tell you
what we guess No, it's you have a rest home
(07:25):
for me.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
Huh oh yeah, yeah, well in Bidenville.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, it's going to be weird because it'll seem like
a few days off too, just like you're doing.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I don't know what I think it's going to be
next year before I really realize, Oh, that's.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Right, I'm done with this. Yeah, after the holiday, because
we're rolling into the holidays and all that stuff, you
don't really think.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
About that and we usually took a lot of time
off at the end of the year, at the end
of the year, right, so yeah, it'll be it'll be again.
The reason it's today, Wednesday, December sixth, is because this
is the end of the real ratings period for radio.
Speaker 5 (07:55):
But I just picked that Nielsen ratings.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Right there you go, and you're that's the only thing
you weren't going to work And it doesn't matter. December
is off of the write off, right, Dimber music is played,
people are distracted examly, it doesn't become really worth but
too heavily involved on the show today we have three
three montages to play, which will take you roughly the
(08:19):
first twenty years of the show.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
And I thought there was I was thinking.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
About that yesterday or the other day. There's like nothing
from the last ten years.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
What happened? Did we stink?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
No, it's just a lot of it's the same. I
didn't think there was any point in going over COVID
Trump clips and COVID clips and homeless clips. We're still living.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
With all that.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Okay, this is the stuff a lot of people will
have forgotten about, or maybe we're never remembered. They weren't
listening back then. They weren't even old enough to listen
back then. So for those of you on the older side,
you will remember a lot of these clips, and for
those of you on the younger side, this is what
we used to do back in the nineties and two thousands.
(09:00):
We also have a number of recorded guests to wish
you farewell, and we're going to try to squeeze all
this in. It could be some walk in people here
in the building might walk in, Is that right?
Speaker 5 (09:11):
Yeah? It could be.
Speaker 7 (09:12):
Well, and I want I would like to, Uh, I
would like to say goodbye to Ken too on the air.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
Yeah. Have you been doing that for like weeks?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
No, she asked, specially it's the longest goodbye if she can.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
That's about it, yes, right, pictures always with you and them?
Speaker 7 (09:28):
Yeah, exactly. Well, you know it's always about remember.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
This at the end of the John and Ken Show,
The John and Kennon DeBras Shore.
Speaker 7 (09:35):
I know, but I'm part of you, right, So I just.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
Wanted to You're a part of me. You can sing
that song. You're a part of me.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
See you get John to sing then you know we're on.
But I hope to, I mean, honestly, and you're gonna
hear the news updates. I mean, there's been some terrific,
horrible news today with more mass shootings at un l
v and Nevada and also down in Texas.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Uh oh. And I also want to.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
To say that the because you know, this is a
pretty big story too today, that the number for the
ghoul pool for Norman Lear. Yes, yeah, let me just
pull it up here is twenty three, twenty three, and
Norman Lear is one hundred and one years old. And
of course that's getting a lot of attention today because
(10:22):
he was involved in so many famous sitcoms and The
Night Go.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
It was weird about that too.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
He didn't really take off as far as his career
in his notoriety. He was forty nine years old when
All in the Family debuted. Yeah, he used forty nine
already so well. In the nineteen fifties, he used to
write for variety shows, right comedy shows, but he didn't
have his own production company producing his own shows his
vision until yeah, nineteen seventy one All in the Foot
(10:47):
Oh and Ray added this, we now have at least
two people who went three for three in the goholpool
of twenty twenty three, because both people picked Tony Bennett,
Bob Barker.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
And Norman Lear. Look at that. Yeah, they picked the
old So I got it. So they're in the winter circle.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
All Right, we come back, We'll play a farewell message
and we'll cover the news of the day, and then
later in the hour we're going to play the one
montage from the nineteen nineties to amuse you Johnny Ken
Show KFI.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Here's another farewell message.
Speaker 8 (11:28):
Hey Ken, it's Gary, you know, one of the fun
bunnies from the Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
Listen.
Speaker 8 (11:35):
Huge congratulations on finally pulling the plug on this radio thing.
You have been consistently one of the anomalies in this
place or any radio station, someone who I think truly
cares about other people. You always had a great ability
to ask what was going on in other people's lives.
And amazingly, every place I've worked since I started in
(11:55):
radio and Sacramento in ninety eight. Nineteen ninety eight, that
is it carries some version of the John and Ken
syndicated show.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
It was in Sacramento. I moved to Seattle, and that was.
Speaker 8 (12:05):
I followed you there basically, and I realize that Shannon
and I have a lot of work to do to
come even close to matching the success that you've had
with John. So congratulations on the retirement, enjoy the travel,
and most importantly, enjoy the quiet.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
Well that's very nice.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Gary Hoffman dary Aufen from the Ya we played Shannon yesterday.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
So Gary and Shannon shining again.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Yes, you got it. There you go, you mad tort connection.
I have Yeah, a lot of interest in everyone else's life.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
Did you do right? Everything should be nice today. Let's
be nice, even if you have to make stuff up right?
Oh my god? No, all right. I just sent you
all a picture of Johnny Ken from nineteen ninety three.
So cute.
Speaker 7 (12:49):
Oh my gosh, you guys look so adorable.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
So young, Yeah, so young.
Speaker 7 (12:55):
Oh my gosh, Ken, You know you look wow what actor?
You look like an actor? But I'm trying to figure
out who.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
But I'm trying to figure out is what happened to
my hand? I don't remember that injury. You see you
have a bandage there. Yeah, I don't I don't remember that. Yeah,
I broke my hand, but it was years before that
playing softball one time they got ran into my right hand.
I think it was my left hand action heeler, but
I don't remember what that was. So, but that was
Jack's Bicycles. I know that because it's got that date
(13:23):
on the back of June of nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
I remember that. Yeah, and was one of.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, one of our first big appearances is KF. I
used to do a big event there with Jack's Bicycles
in Orange County. I don't remember what city, do you remember,
John or Washington Beach? I think Huntington Beach. Okay, yeah,
I don't know if that's still there. Yeah, yeah, And
I don't even know how I got this picture. Obviously
it's like an old yeah, obviously it's before digital. It's
like an old Polaroid camera or something like that. I
had a copy of it lying around, so.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Oh, well, yeah, we got it. Dever, you got to
post this online?
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, I'm posting it right, Okay, all right, the posters
are at work. One note from the news which is
certainly worth bringing up because he's an idiot and I
will not miss him unless you're gonna play me a
Gavin Newsom message later, are you no?
Speaker 5 (14:06):
Okay? Sure, I don't getting great Davis, that was pretty big. Yeah,
I know.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
I don't know if we can top that. Schwarzenegger coming on,
I don't know. Oh that's an I don't know, and
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
Okay, okay, Well you said no right away to new them.
He's in the Bahamas.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
We actually tried, and I think he would do it,
but he's shooting a movie in the Bahamas or something,
or he's being detained there.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
I don't know. We're trying to get him between scenes.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah, he's shooting a movie. So, oh my god, you
know what movie schedules are like. Newsomb can't canceled the
in person annual holiday tree lighting at the Capitol. They
postponed it a day and they moved it online, which
means it's going to be tonight.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
It'll be streamed. Isn't that often?
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Because he's running from the Palestinian protesters. Those are his voters.
They are, yeah, clearly, and he's afraid them. And so
what he did is he penalized all the Christians and
everybody else who wanted to celebrate the lighting of the
Christmas tree. How come everybody else lost out that tradition
(15:11):
has been going on in sacrament ninety two. It would
be the ninety second annual tree lighting. Yeah, since the
nineteen thirties, so since the nineteen thirties, and Gavin Newsom
cancels it because of some terrorist protesters.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
If you are protesting for the Palestinians, you are supporting
Hamas at this point, you are.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
They showed up anyway.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Two hundred people ended up at the capitol anyway, despite
the cancelation of the in person ceremony. So they did come.
They knew they were coming, and he thought it would
be disruptive. Really spirits of them.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
So they win. So two Hundredah, that's how I felt too.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
So two hundred crazy people get to cancel Christmas for
everybody else. Boy, that that's wrong, he said, for the
safety and security of members and guests. How about you
create safety and security. How about it's your job to
make it secure so that all the all the citizens
who pay taxes here, let them celebrate their holiday.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
Can you imagine canceling?
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Uh you could list the groups if we canceled their
holidays or their special days, right, But but Christian people
celebrating Christmas, the hell with them?
Speaker 5 (16:24):
That that is one of his worst decisions. You can't
give in because this is what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
They're going to go to any big public event and
and protests, and if you start cancing, the events are
gonna feel like they won. All right, we sent everybody
back inside. No Christmas tree public lighting ceremony, so we
can't enjoy a Christmas tree being lit up because there
are too many crazy people supporting a terrorist group.
Speaker 5 (16:48):
Right, Well, that's that's a good day in America. Huh.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
What a coward he is? What a simpering, simpering weasel, coward, coward.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
I can't even speak when we come back. Well, I've
arranged for a guest. How about that?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I see, this is someone who's known me longer than anybody,
including you, anybody. I shouldn't say anybody. My family's known
me longer than anybody. But we're talking about fifty years.
Speaker 9 (17:14):
How's that?
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Wow? Yeah, high school?
Speaker 1 (17:16):
He calling from the home too, he's a You can
ask him does he have phone privileges? I do keep
in touch with them, and I don't think that's the case,
but you could certainly ask him about the home.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Well, I don't want to embarrasshim because he is sort
of retired.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Well, we'll explain that, all right, Johnny Ken k IF
I AM six forty live everywhere iHeartRadio app and.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI
AM six.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
Forty Ken's last day.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
We're on the radio tal four and if you missed
the show, I want to hear the entire Felaware Farewell.
It'll be on the It'll be the podcast John and
Ken on demand on the iHeart app. Farewell Fairware Fair Felwell.
You want to hear the entire Fairware fairweare. I would
make a lot of speeches today. Hey, I really am,
So here's the first one.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
Goodbye.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I keep him short, That's what I like to do.
You did most of the talking during these thirty five
years anyway, And I was like, I'm SI. I always
have to wait for just a little gap.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
He breathed, so I get a chance to say something.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Look, I won't say a word today.
Speaker 5 (18:22):
Is that right? Is gonna ask?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Right?
Speaker 5 (18:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (18:24):
All right?
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Uh So I'm hearing from people from my life obviously
that I reached out to and told him that I
was ending it on December sixth. One of them left
me a voicemail this morning, and the reason I'm putting
him on the air. Well, other than that he's a
longtime friend. I don't think he's ever been on the
show either. Is that he he? The voicemail transcripts as follows.
(18:45):
My Google question today is to find out how do
I get on the John and Ken Show on Ken's
last day.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
So your wish is our command.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Right, all you have to do is ask. Now you
have to do his ask. Our producer got him on.
Let's talk to one of my longest friends. His name
is George Sunstrom.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
George, good afternoon, Welcome there you go, you're on.
Speaker 9 (19:09):
Thank you. Thanks. It's amazing on your Fairway show today
that I got a chance to be on.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
Well, all right, this is your moment. What do you
have to say?
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Since you googled and you were searching hard to get
on the show, this is your moment.
Speaker 9 (19:23):
Well, I'm sitting around this morning doing nothing. I figured,
you know, I could give you a call at home,
or I could try to surprise you. But I couldn't
find a phone number. So I called you at home
and told you what I did. I googled out to
try to get on the show.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
So you and Ken were friends in high school?
Speaker 9 (19:42):
Yeah, We actually met in junior high or high. We
both tried out for the junior high basketball team. He
was a tall guy who could shoot from the outside
but couldn't defend on the inside. And I was a
small guy who could shoot on the inside but got
my shot blocked by the big guys who were inside.
We both got cut.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
So, uh, between the two of you, you might have
been a player. This must be an alternate enough first,
but I'm enjoying this.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
So, so what was he like in junior high?
Speaker 9 (20:15):
You know? Well, I would say that Ken and I
were both just kind of studious. We were good students,
were we We were smart enough to be in the
classes with the smart kids, but not as smart as them.
We were athletic, but not as athletic as the jocks,
so we didn't fit in the jock circle. We certainly
(20:36):
weren't in the popular crowd. So we kind of gravitated
to each other through a number of our friends, who
you know, we hung out together during high school and
junior high and high school and and that kind of
fit into our own little niche there. Yeah, and then
you know, became good friends through high school, and I've
managed to stay in touch all through the years. Kenn
(20:59):
is godfather to my youngest child. Yes, and he comes
from a great family. We were all very blessed that
each of our parents, of our friends, our circle of
friends accepted us, welcomed us into their homes at any time.
So we were kind of boring as teenagers. We didn't
(21:22):
go out and get in trouble.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
No trouble. Tell him what we did on many a night.
Speaker 9 (21:29):
Well, so I did think about this.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Hard. We played cards. We played cards constantly.
Speaker 9 (21:37):
We did play cards. But the other thing we did
that we had more fun doing was there were psychiatric
hospitals in two psychiatric hospitals within about twenty minutes of
where we lived, and at that time was just they
were just beginning to outpatient the patients from the psychiatric
hospitals and the eventual draw down and remove and elimination
(22:00):
of those And there was a I guess, for lack
of a better term, a halfway house in the neighborhood
in our town, bayed Shore, where we grew up, and
we'd harass these people. You know today it's not acceptable,
but then, but we would go and harass these people.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
This is the story you're going to tell.
Speaker 9 (22:23):
Well, which is one of them.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
I should have put me with your sister on dang it,
I made a mistake.
Speaker 9 (22:29):
Because it leads to your career in broadcast.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Oh all right, if you want to put it that way,
that's the only reason you could work with me.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
So Ken would.
Speaker 9 (22:40):
So we would go out and kind of harass them,
have fun with it. But Ken also in the days
of cassette recorders. Sorry folks who don't know what that is,
but he had a cassette recorder with a microphone, and
he would go out and interview them. Now, some of
them were sharp and understood where they were and how
they lived and every thing, and some of them thought
(23:01):
they were still living in the forties and the fifties
when they were young. And those made for priceless recordings.
I don't think he has them anymore.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
But if I could ever get a hold of those,
well that was yeah. But that was the work of
our friend Lewis.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
He did that. But I was there, you were right.
I was there too. I asked questions, But Lewis.
Speaker 9 (23:23):
You were asking the questions. You were the one who
was asking you were you were the front man at
that point.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
So this was his early broadcasting career interviewing.
Speaker 9 (23:33):
And and I did. I do want to say, you
know Ken, and I know he's talked about it is
he was. He went to school for accounting. He was
a successful accountant, worked for a major firm in New
York City, traveled the country, was very happy, but then
made the decision to make the change to go to broadcasting.
(23:53):
And the commitment that he made to go to and
I don't know if it's the right place. The Cannadic
School of Broadcasting one of the broadcast schools where he
would actually go to work during the day, work his
full time job, and then go to school at night
to uh take a little job in Elmira where he
ran into somebody he knows for thirty six plus years now,
that's right.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Yeah, but don't forget it could have been the George
and Ken show. I wanted you to get into radio two. Yeah,
you had you know, it started a family very young,
so you had a lot of commitments.
Speaker 9 (24:25):
You had the success interview that's time to change change,
change things around, But it did.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
You had a lot of commitments.
Speaker 9 (24:34):
But you know, I was always impressed by his willingness
to make that big change and his commitment to it
and obviously you and you know, both you and John
getting together in really in Atlantic City, even though I
know you met in Almira, you know, and your success
here on the East Coast and then translating that out
(24:54):
to your success on the West coast just you know,
just tremendous. And you know, thirty six years. I retired
recently after thirty five years with the company I worked with,
uh So I know what it is in today's marketplace
where people say, if you're there more than two years,
you're a knucklehead. But to be somewhere and to do
something at such a high level for such a long
(25:16):
time is doesn't happen very much anymore. And I'm very
impressed with both of you, even though John, I've never
officially met.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
You, but I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and would love
to have more of them. Well yeah, but I want
you to know he helped move me John from Elmira
to Atlantic City. Yes, and then we ran right to
the casinos after that and put a whole quarter in. See,
we're very exciting to play.
Speaker 9 (25:42):
We were not big gamblers. We liked card games, but
we didn't gamble.
Speaker 5 (25:45):
We didn't gamble we didn't drink, we didn't gamble.
Speaker 9 (25:48):
I think we I think we spent more time in
the bowling alley at the casino that and then the
casino before the drive home and his Camaro at the time,
which was a nightmare drive because it was snowing.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
That car didn't have much hand I remember the Camaro. Yeah, yeah,
you had that when we met. Now, didn't change the
oil and I blew the engine in your car. I've
done that too, You've done that, George. Thank you for
coming on.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
Yeah, buddy's pleasure.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Major wish come true. You wanted to be on the show,
my last show, you got it.
Speaker 9 (26:19):
You go, I finally got on the air. Well, I
just wanted to say congratulations, enjoy your retirement. I know
that eventually you'll have a lot of plans. I know
you love to travel, and hopefully we get to see
you a little bit more frequently here on the East
Coast and talk to you more than just a couple
of times a year. And John's success in your solo effort.
Speaker 5 (26:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 9 (26:38):
I hope you do well, and hopefully some point in
time in the future I get to meet you.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
I hope so too. Thanks George, all right, there you go.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
All right, my longtime friends George who reached out to
me today, I wanted to know how we could get
on my last.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
Show harassing psyche patients. You never told me this, you know,
why would I? Well, actually I have mentioned it kind of.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
They didn't tell the story the same way, but we
had the same experience as we had in California where
they started to release people from all the psychlistplas because
they were deemed to be horrible places. And they did
put him, as George said, like on a sort of
a halfway house, sort of hotel actually not far from
my home, and they began to wander the streets. They
go into the church, they'd stand around, So you did
man on the Street interviews. Yeah, it was my other
friend's idea, right, Lewis. It was his idea to actually
(27:22):
bring out a cassette recorder, and I forgot that.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
But towards is right.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
That did happen, all right, we got that's just great.
More coming up, couldn't be John and ken kf. I
am six forty. Well, I was preparing for the days
with you. Obviously when we come back, we're going to
play clips from the nineteen nineties. Stuff that many of
you probably have never heard, and maybe some of you
(27:46):
will remember Johnny Ken Show KFI.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI
Am six forty.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
We've got two more hours of Ken, and we have
a lot of stuff to play. Farewell messages montage clips
from a year's past.
Speaker 5 (28:06):
We're going to play one right now.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
This one has a couple of short things that we
played within the last few weeks, but the whole package
is from the nineteen nineties, especially in the first few
years when we ran into all kinds of natural disasters
and controversies. This montage, I'll just explain a little bit
so you know what you're listening to. Starts with our
first appearance on CAFI as a guest with Darryl Gates,
(28:32):
the controversial police chief from the Rodney King era. He
left his job as police chief and became a CAFI host,
and we then replaced him in that time slot back
in nineteen ninety two. You're going to hear some clips
from our first show, a number of callers who instantly criticizing,
they were just disgusted with us. A little clip on
(28:55):
the start of the three strikes movement and the Menendez
brothers and our hunger strike and then us up in
helicopters over the fires in Laguna Beach.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
So let's roll. We have a new team.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
There's come to KF five or more Stimulated Talk Radio
or John and Camp. You know what makes me nervous.
I'll be honest with you. They tell me you have
a gun here in the studio. Well, you see, you
haven't been on long enough to have threats against you.
I can't understand you have a little bodyguard strapped your
leg that jumps out in case it's Trump.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
Is this true?
Speaker 1 (29:26):
K F I am six forty more Stimulating Talk Radio
and welcome to the John and Ken Show.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
I'm John Cobout my partner Ken Champeau. Yes, that would
be me.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
You know we've been asked probably one million, two hundred
thousand times over the past week.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
What do you sound like on here?
Speaker 1 (29:42):
What do you do?
Speaker 5 (29:43):
What are you gonna talk about?
Speaker 9 (29:44):
What?
Speaker 6 (29:44):
What?
Speaker 10 (29:45):
Did?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Shut up and listen, because because we don't know, we
don't know, we're gonna argue, we're gonna entertain.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
He goes back and forth between us, between the callers.
Speaker 10 (29:52):
You're not stimulating in any way.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
You haven't been stimulated there, oh my country thumping. You've
decided all this in twenty five minutes.
Speaker 10 (30:00):
Needs to get the character of an right away.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
You don't think we're intelligent, You don't think we have characters.
We haven't talked about it. Some people it takes more
to stimulate than others.
Speaker 6 (30:10):
You count like the two morning DJs that Howard Stern knockoffs.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
That actually is the worst thing that's been said. So
we're with on twenty eight minutes. This is an unbelievable
tough crowd, right, Okay.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
We have been following why Richard Allen Davis was allowed
to walk the streets to strangle Polycloss even though he
had twenty years worth of crimes and felonies on his record.
The three strikes You're out bill should be passed. Three
violenter serious felonies and you've got life in prisonment. And
then his brothers, as you know, hung jury and Garcetti
all along has complained he didn't have enough money during
(30:44):
the Menendez trial, so we organized the yard sale, sold
a live junk, raised four thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
Hundreds of people came.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
After Garcetti refused to take the money, John went on
a hunger strike, which began fifty one hours ago. We
also had a guy giving up his liver medication in
Long Beach.
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Did beget his numbers? We can check to see if
he still alive.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
We put in a call to him. He isn't answering
the phones. He's not answering his phone. He's not answering
what if he's lying on the floor reaching for the
medication and last each effort to save himself.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
It's gonna be How is that gonna look on the news.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
It's gonna be on Garcetti's head and yours.
Speaker 5 (31:13):
I didnt tell him to do it. You did a
Gandhi and prompted him to get into this.
Speaker 10 (31:16):
John Cobelet he Champeau are broadcasting in a helicopter over
the Pacific Ocean right now. Yeah. We are facing directly
and looking at the look on the beach and it's
completely overcast with spoke, huge flames extending from near the
beach inland. There's nothing left. There's just a few shards
of timber. The air is south smelling. It's accurate. It
makes your eyes burn in my mouth and throat or trying.
(31:39):
And there's helicopters all over the place. They're like mechanical
vultures floating through the air.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
There you go, How does sit that? You're right, the nineties,
that was all in the first couple of years we
were here. That was this place was insane.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (31:55):
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
They'll always be proud of three strikes. I mean yeah,
and you know they've been trying it. Well, they've ripping
that apart for all these decades, I know, but it's
still standing. It's a big reason there were low crime
rates for a while, that's right. And Governor Wilson signed it.
I remember the day we had him on the show. Yeah,
and he signed the bill. It also passed a second
time I think as a referendum, right, And you don't
(32:19):
know how many people aren't dead because that passed, you see, right,
you know how many people were not victims. I think
sadly this year Mike Reynolds, who was behind that movement
to get that passed to just he died, I believe
this year. Mike Reynolds remember him, Yes, so many? Yeah.
Of course Mark klass Poly's father too, was a big
part of that. There's a documentary out there somewhere of
(32:41):
the passage of three strikes because I know we were
in it and they interviewed. Maybe he could find it
on YouTube somewhere. Oh and of course The Times thinks
it's like Prop thirteen. It's the scourge of California, right, Yeah.
Prop thirteen and three strikes have really hurt the yeah,
compared to everything else's But it's from Sacramentos. Violent felons
are in prison and that upsets all those little weasels.
All right, then we'll be right back. John and Ken
(33:02):
kf I AM six forty. We're live everywhere the iHeartRadio app. Hey,
you've been listening to the John and Ken Show. You
can always hear us live on KFI AM six forty
one pm to four pm every Monday through Friday, and
of course anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Caf I Am six forty. You're listening to the John
and Ken Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome mar Antonio Villa Ragosa.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Oh come on, come on, let's go.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
You know I want fantastic, but I want it, you know,
But I'll tell you.
Speaker 5 (00:41):
Can you feel that?
Speaker 4 (00:42):
You know?
Speaker 6 (00:44):
You know?
Speaker 7 (00:47):
I like the.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Perfect song for the final John and Ken Show, John
Cobel Ken Champau canf I Am six forty live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio App.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I one of my very fond memories is Tony Vallar.
I tell you I'll cherish the years he was mayor,
and you said the same thing because Garcetti followed him. Yeah,
but he provided so much material for us to good
years as mayor. Valar's years were were terrible, but they
shine in comparison to Garceta.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
That's the thing. Look where we're going.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I know we didn't have the homeless and the crime
during the Via Grocie years, right.
Speaker 5 (01:27):
So I was going over.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
The governors today too that have been in charge of
California since I've been on the air here at KFI,
and I was thinking that's also gone Downhill.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah, we came in during the time of Pete Wilson.
Pete Wilson then the best of the lot since we
were here, right, you know, we have a special guest
who recorded a message for you, and I wanted to
start the show with it. So if you're ready, I
don't want to do anything today. I look, you want
me to sing songs, I'll sing songs. I can do
(01:56):
that for three hours.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
I don't want to work. I want to bang on
the drum all day.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, that's what you're gonna be singing. That is environment
so on Thursday afternoon, and you know, sitting on your
back deck. No, I've arranged for my own guest this
hour because yours are not impressing me as much.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
So all right, well maybe you like this one. All right,
roll it, Eric. This is Gray Davis. Now.
Speaker 6 (02:20):
I know some of you may be wondering why I'm
calling to wish Ken well. Well, I do wish him well,
but I'm calling primarily to make sure he's actually retiring.
And John, if you're listening when the time is right,
I'm happy to wish you farewell. Now. I know you
guys advertise yourselves as equal opportunity critics.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
I never really believe that.
Speaker 6 (02:44):
But shortly after I left office, I think four days
has passed, and you were criticizing poor Arnold.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
He just got there.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
I can't remember exactly what you were criticizing him for,
but at the very end you said, even great Davis
would not have done that, and I thought to myself,
maybe these guys really do criticize everybody.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Wow, how did you get that one? He never came
on the show.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I know if he had come on the show and
showed that sense of humor, he would not have gotten recalled.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
Maybe. Uh, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
He haunted me after that recall. I kept running into
him on flights up to the Bay Area. I'm like,
oh my god, du it's Great Davis. And I think
twice three times that happened.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
Did you on my trips? Did you? I did not know.
I did not You didn't introduce yourself.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
This was not long after the recall, so I didn't
know what I would get if I did.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
That, right, I'm quite like a Bengal tiger. Yeah, that guy.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I'm Ken, Johnny Ken's show. We had a lot to
do with your demise.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
Thanks, but look good day. It looks like the wounds
have healed. He was thinking, yes, so what did you
reach out to? Like his Uh, I don't know what
he does have a staff anymore.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Ray pulled this off. It just he Ray sent me
the message last night, the recording, and I just I
couldn't believe you were shocked.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
Yeah, I heard that.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
I reached out to a bunch of people who who
I thought would and Grey Davis did it.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
I gotta give him credit. Yeah, he said, oh, yeah, sir.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Well, like we were always said, he's kind of a
strange wildcard in some respects boring with his turkey sandwiches
and what was it broccoli or broccoli? I think steam
broccoli and turkey, right right, or steam in turkey and broccoli.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
It's weird that you were you were going to play
that because I was just talking about the governors and
we don't prepare no, no, sorry, you pulled out one.
Our plan was to surprise you with that to open
the show, and then you I mentioned the governor, the governors.
I was thinking about the mayors of LA and the governors,
and of course a lot of our show has been
kicking politicians butts around. Yeah, for all these years. That's
a big element which I never saw coming for people
(04:44):
who don't know. I got into radio because I loved
pop music in the nineteen sixties and seventies and into
the eighties. That's all I did is listen to the
top forty and pop music in Casey's countdowns, and I
wanted to.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Be a DJ. But you know, life has a way, right, And.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
When you and I first got teamed up, yeah, we
were playing some songs, but we talked a lot. And
then talk radio was coming down the pike as a
very popular format, and we just kind of rode that
wave as it took off from the late eighties into
the nineties. But this is not what you played to
do with your life. Not well, no, not as far
as radio.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
I was a kid. I always wanted to be in radio.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, but I didn't really have a concept of this
kind of format. You know, it did the sixties and seventies.
We didn't exist, It did not exist. I had no
idea that we were going to end up doing this.
In fact, it didn't exist at the time we started
doing it right right, right, you know, And I don't
know how particularly well, I guess you could say, because
We're in Atlantic City, which is a cesspool of corruption
(05:44):
for years between the mob and just the bad political leaders, right,
and that's kind of how we latched onto our first.
You know, let's go after the elected people, right with
the city council there, the mayor. Yeah, Donald Trump was
the good guy in that era in Atlantic.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
He was right, he was, he was kind of the
good guy.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
And then we moved over to another station in Trenton,
which covered big area of New York, New Jersey and
even Pennsylvania. And did that governor there, you know, Jim
Floria was an idiot too, So this kind of gathered
steam on its own based on just the corrupt inect
politician before us. And then we got the Gray Davis
and that was a nice message, well kind of, although
(06:24):
there's a tone to it. You're right, it's like John,
when you're ready to retire, I'll be glad to because.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
I want you out. I'll be happy and shovel on
your grave. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
We just had the twentieth anniversary of the recall not
too long ago. Yes, I was.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
I was repick on Schwarzenegger within a week.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Maybe we did, I don't know. That's that's Davis's memory.
He said there's four days.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
He said four days there. Even Gray Davis wouldn't do that.
I know.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I remember getting frustrated with him more into two thousand
and five when they had those special measures they put
on the ballot. He wasn't campaigning and it sounded like
he was just bending with the wind. That I remember better,
But I don't remember days after we took office.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
But it's always possible.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
So if you haven't heard because you weren't paying attention,
Today is Ken's last day. I am going to take
a few days off and then I'm going to do
the show solo starting Tuesday, December twelfth, and then Ken
goes to his rest home and we to tell you
what we guess No, it's you have a rest home
(07:25):
for me.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
Huh oh yeah, yeah, well in Bidenville.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, it's going to be weird because it'll seem like
a few days off too, just like you're doing.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I don't know what I think it's going to be
next year before I really realize, Oh, that's.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Right, I'm done with this. Yeah, after the holiday, because
we're rolling into the holidays and all that stuff, you
don't really think.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
About that and we usually took a lot of time
off at the end of the year, at the end
of the year, right, so yeah, it'll be it'll be again.
The reason it's today, Wednesday, December sixth, is because this
is the end of the real ratings period for radio.
Speaker 5 (07:55):
But I just picked that Nielsen ratings.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Right there you go, and you're that's the only thing
you weren't going to work And it doesn't matter. December
is off of the write off, right, Dimber music is played,
people are distracted examly, it doesn't become really worth but
too heavily involved on the show today we have three
three montages to play, which will take you roughly the
(08:19):
first twenty years of the show.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
And I thought there was I was thinking.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
About that yesterday or the other day. There's like nothing
from the last ten years.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
What happened? Did we stink?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
No, it's just a lot of it's the same. I
didn't think there was any point in going over COVID
Trump clips and COVID clips and homeless clips. We're still living.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
With all that.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Okay, this is the stuff a lot of people will
have forgotten about, or maybe we're never remembered. They weren't
listening back then. They weren't even old enough to listen
back then. So for those of you on the older side,
you will remember a lot of these clips, and for
those of you on the younger side, this is what
we used to do back in the nineties and two thousands.
(09:00):
We also have a number of recorded guests to wish
you farewell, and we're going to try to squeeze all
this in. It could be some walk in people here
in the building might walk in, Is that right?
Speaker 5 (09:11):
Yeah? It could be.
Speaker 7 (09:12):
Well, and I want I would like to, Uh, I
would like to say goodbye to Ken too on the air.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
Yeah. Have you been doing that for like weeks?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
No, she asked, specially it's the longest goodbye if she can.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
That's about it, yes, right, pictures always with you and them?
Speaker 7 (09:28):
Yeah, exactly. Well, you know it's always about remember.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
This at the end of the John and Ken Show,
The John and Kennon DeBras Shore.
Speaker 7 (09:35):
I know, but I'm part of you, right, So I just.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
Wanted to You're a part of me. You can sing
that song. You're a part of me.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
See you get John to sing then you know we're on.
But I hope to, I mean, honestly, and you're gonna
hear the news updates. I mean, there's been some terrific,
horrible news today with more mass shootings at un l
v and Nevada and also down in Texas.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Uh oh. And I also want to.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
To say that the because you know, this is a
pretty big story too today, that the number for the
ghoul pool for Norman Lear. Yes, yeah, let me just
pull it up here is twenty three, twenty three, and
Norman Lear is one hundred and one years old. And
of course that's getting a lot of attention today because
(10:22):
he was involved in so many famous sitcoms and The
Night Go.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
It was weird about that too.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
He didn't really take off as far as his career
in his notoriety. He was forty nine years old when
All in the Family debuted. Yeah, he used forty nine
already so well. In the nineteen fifties, he used to
write for variety shows, right comedy shows, but he didn't
have his own production company producing his own shows his
vision until yeah, nineteen seventy one All in the Foot
(10:47):
Oh and Ray added this, we now have at least
two people who went three for three in the goholpool
of twenty twenty three, because both people picked Tony Bennett,
Bob Barker.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
And Norman Lear. Look at that. Yeah, they picked the
old So I got it. So they're in the winter circle.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
All Right, we come back, We'll play a farewell message
and we'll cover the news of the day, and then
later in the hour we're going to play the one
montage from the nineteen nineties to amuse you Johnny Ken
Show KFI.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Here's another farewell message.
Speaker 8 (11:28):
Hey Ken, it's Gary, you know, one of the fun
bunnies from the Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
Listen.
Speaker 8 (11:35):
Huge congratulations on finally pulling the plug on this radio thing.
You have been consistently one of the anomalies in this
place or any radio station, someone who I think truly
cares about other people. You always had a great ability
to ask what was going on in other people's lives.
And amazingly, every place I've worked since I started in
(11:55):
radio and Sacramento in ninety eight. Nineteen ninety eight, that
is it carries some version of the John and Ken
syndicated show.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
It was in Sacramento. I moved to Seattle, and that was.
Speaker 8 (12:05):
I followed you there basically, and I realize that Shannon
and I have a lot of work to do to
come even close to matching the success that you've had
with John. So congratulations on the retirement, enjoy the travel,
and most importantly, enjoy the quiet.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
Well that's very nice.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Gary Hoffman dary Aufen from the Ya we played Shannon yesterday.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
So Gary and Shannon shining again.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Yes, you got it. There you go, you mad tort connection.
I have Yeah, a lot of interest in everyone else's life.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
Did you do right? Everything should be nice today. Let's
be nice, even if you have to make stuff up right?
Oh my god? No, all right. I just sent you
all a picture of Johnny Ken from nineteen ninety three.
So cute.
Speaker 7 (12:49):
Oh my gosh, you guys look so adorable.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
So young, Yeah, so young.
Speaker 7 (12:55):
Oh my gosh, Ken, You know you look wow what actor?
You look like an actor? But I'm trying to figure
out who.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
But I'm trying to figure out is what happened to
my hand? I don't remember that injury. You see you
have a bandage there. Yeah, I don't I don't remember that. Yeah,
I broke my hand, but it was years before that
playing softball one time they got ran into my right hand.
I think it was my left hand action heeler, but
I don't remember what that was. So, but that was
Jack's Bicycles. I know that because it's got that date
(13:23):
on the back of June of nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
I remember that. Yeah, and was one of.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, one of our first big appearances is KF. I
used to do a big event there with Jack's Bicycles
in Orange County. I don't remember what city, do you remember,
John or Washington Beach? I think Huntington Beach. Okay, yeah,
I don't know if that's still there. Yeah, yeah, And
I don't even know how I got this picture. Obviously
it's like an old yeah, obviously it's before digital. It's
like an old Polaroid camera or something like that. I
had a copy of it lying around, so.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Oh, well, yeah, we got it. Dever, you got to
post this online?
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, I'm posting it right, Okay, all right, the posters
are at work. One note from the news which is
certainly worth bringing up because he's an idiot and I
will not miss him unless you're gonna play me a
Gavin Newsom message later, are you no?
Speaker 5 (14:06):
Okay? Sure, I don't getting great Davis, that was pretty big. Yeah,
I know.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
I don't know if we can top that. Schwarzenegger coming on,
I don't know. Oh that's an I don't know, and
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
Okay, okay, Well you said no right away to new them.
He's in the Bahamas.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
We actually tried, and I think he would do it,
but he's shooting a movie in the Bahamas or something,
or he's being detained there.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
I don't know. We're trying to get him between scenes.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah, he's shooting a movie. So, oh my god, you
know what movie schedules are like. Newsomb can't canceled the
in person annual holiday tree lighting at the Capitol. They
postponed it a day and they moved it online, which
means it's going to be tonight.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
It'll be streamed. Isn't that often?
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Because he's running from the Palestinian protesters. Those are his voters.
They are, yeah, clearly, and he's afraid them. And so
what he did is he penalized all the Christians and
everybody else who wanted to celebrate the lighting of the
Christmas tree. How come everybody else lost out that tradition
(15:11):
has been going on in sacrament ninety two. It would
be the ninety second annual tree lighting. Yeah, since the
nineteen thirties, so since the nineteen thirties, and Gavin Newsom
cancels it because of some terrorist protesters.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
If you are protesting for the Palestinians, you are supporting
Hamas at this point, you are.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
They showed up anyway.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Two hundred people ended up at the capitol anyway, despite
the cancelation of the in person ceremony. So they did come.
They knew they were coming, and he thought it would
be disruptive. Really spirits of them.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
So they win. So two Hundredah, that's how I felt too.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
So two hundred crazy people get to cancel Christmas for
everybody else. Boy, that that's wrong, he said, for the
safety and security of members and guests. How about you
create safety and security. How about it's your job to
make it secure so that all the all the citizens
who pay taxes here, let them celebrate their holiday.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
Can you imagine canceling?
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Uh you could list the groups if we canceled their
holidays or their special days, right, But but Christian people
celebrating Christmas, the hell with them?
Speaker 5 (16:24):
That that is one of his worst decisions. You can't
give in because this is what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
They're going to go to any big public event and
and protests, and if you start cancing, the events are
gonna feel like they won. All right, we sent everybody
back inside. No Christmas tree public lighting ceremony, so we
can't enjoy a Christmas tree being lit up because there
are too many crazy people supporting a terrorist group.
Speaker 5 (16:48):
Right, Well, that's that's a good day in America. Huh.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
What a coward he is? What a simpering, simpering weasel, coward, coward.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
I can't even speak when we come back. Well, I've
arranged for a guest. How about that?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I see, this is someone who's known me longer than anybody,
including you, anybody. I shouldn't say anybody. My family's known
me longer than anybody. But we're talking about fifty years.
Speaker 9 (17:14):
How's that?
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Wow? Yeah, high school?
Speaker 1 (17:16):
He calling from the home too, he's a You can
ask him does he have phone privileges? I do keep
in touch with them, and I don't think that's the case,
but you could certainly ask him about the home.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Well, I don't want to embarrasshim because he is sort
of retired.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Well, we'll explain that, all right, Johnny Ken k IF
I AM six forty live everywhere iHeartRadio app and.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI
AM six.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
Forty Ken's last day.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
We're on the radio tal four and if you missed
the show, I want to hear the entire Felaware Farewell.
It'll be on the It'll be the podcast John and
Ken on demand on the iHeart app. Farewell Fairware Fair Felwell.
You want to hear the entire Fairware fairweare. I would
make a lot of speeches today. Hey, I really am,
So here's the first one.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
Goodbye.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I keep him short, That's what I like to do.
You did most of the talking during these thirty five
years anyway, And I was like, I'm SI. I always
have to wait for just a little gap.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
He breathed, so I get a chance to say something.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Look, I won't say a word today.
Speaker 5 (18:22):
Is that right? Is gonna ask?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Right?
Speaker 5 (18:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (18:24):
All right?
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Uh So I'm hearing from people from my life obviously
that I reached out to and told him that I
was ending it on December sixth. One of them left
me a voicemail this morning, and the reason I'm putting
him on the air. Well, other than that he's a
longtime friend. I don't think he's ever been on the
show either. Is that he he? The voicemail transcripts as follows.
(18:45):
My Google question today is to find out how do
I get on the John and Ken Show on Ken's
last day.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
So your wish is our command.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Right, all you have to do is ask. Now you
have to do his ask. Our producer got him on.
Let's talk to one of my longest friends. His name
is George Sunstrom.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
George, good afternoon, Welcome there you go, you're on.
Speaker 9 (19:09):
Thank you. Thanks. It's amazing on your Fairway show today
that I got a chance to be on.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
Well, all right, this is your moment. What do you
have to say?
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Since you googled and you were searching hard to get
on the show, this is your moment.
Speaker 9 (19:23):
Well, I'm sitting around this morning doing nothing. I figured,
you know, I could give you a call at home,
or I could try to surprise you. But I couldn't
find a phone number. So I called you at home
and told you what I did. I googled out to
try to get on the show.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
So you and Ken were friends in high school?
Speaker 9 (19:42):
Yeah, We actually met in junior high or high. We
both tried out for the junior high basketball team. He
was a tall guy who could shoot from the outside
but couldn't defend on the inside. And I was a
small guy who could shoot on the inside but got
my shot blocked by the big guys who were inside.
We both got cut.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
So, uh, between the two of you, you might have
been a player. This must be an alternate enough first,
but I'm enjoying this.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
So, so what was he like in junior high?
Speaker 9 (20:15):
You know? Well, I would say that Ken and I
were both just kind of studious. We were good students,
were we We were smart enough to be in the
classes with the smart kids, but not as smart as them.
We were athletic, but not as athletic as the jocks,
so we didn't fit in the jock circle. We certainly
(20:36):
weren't in the popular crowd. So we kind of gravitated
to each other through a number of our friends, who
you know, we hung out together during high school and
junior high and high school and and that kind of
fit into our own little niche there. Yeah, and then
you know, became good friends through high school, and I've
managed to stay in touch all through the years. Kenn
(20:59):
is godfather to my youngest child. Yes, and he comes
from a great family. We were all very blessed that
each of our parents, of our friends, our circle of
friends accepted us, welcomed us into their homes at any time.
So we were kind of boring as teenagers. We didn't
(21:22):
go out and get in trouble.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
No trouble. Tell him what we did on many a night.
Speaker 9 (21:29):
Well, so I did think about this.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Hard. We played cards. We played cards constantly.
Speaker 9 (21:37):
We did play cards. But the other thing we did
that we had more fun doing was there were psychiatric
hospitals in two psychiatric hospitals within about twenty minutes of
where we lived, and at that time was just they
were just beginning to outpatient the patients from the psychiatric
hospitals and the eventual draw down and remove and elimination
(22:00):
of those And there was a I guess, for lack
of a better term, a halfway house in the neighborhood
in our town, bayed Shore, where we grew up, and
we'd harass these people. You know today it's not acceptable,
but then, but we would go and harass these people.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
This is the story you're going to tell.
Speaker 9 (22:23):
Well, which is one of them.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
I should have put me with your sister on dang it,
I made a mistake.
Speaker 9 (22:29):
Because it leads to your career in broadcast.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Oh all right, if you want to put it that way,
that's the only reason you could work with me.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
So Ken would.
Speaker 9 (22:40):
So we would go out and kind of harass them,
have fun with it. But Ken also in the days
of cassette recorders. Sorry folks who don't know what that is,
but he had a cassette recorder with a microphone, and
he would go out and interview them. Now, some of
them were sharp and understood where they were and how
they lived and every thing, and some of them thought
(23:01):
they were still living in the forties and the fifties
when they were young. And those made for priceless recordings.
I don't think he has them anymore.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
But if I could ever get a hold of those,
well that was yeah. But that was the work of
our friend Lewis.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
He did that. But I was there, you were right.
I was there too. I asked questions, But Lewis.
Speaker 9 (23:23):
You were asking the questions. You were the one who
was asking you were you were the front man at
that point.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
So this was his early broadcasting career interviewing.
Speaker 9 (23:33):
And and I did. I do want to say, you
know Ken, and I know he's talked about it is
he was. He went to school for accounting. He was
a successful accountant, worked for a major firm in New
York City, traveled the country, was very happy, but then
made the decision to make the change to go to broadcasting.
(23:53):
And the commitment that he made to go to and
I don't know if it's the right place. The Cannadic
School of Broadcasting one of the broadcast schools where he
would actually go to work during the day, work his
full time job, and then go to school at night
to uh take a little job in Elmira where he
ran into somebody he knows for thirty six plus years now,
that's right.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Yeah, but don't forget it could have been the George
and Ken show. I wanted you to get into radio two. Yeah,
you had you know, it started a family very young,
so you had a lot of commitments.
Speaker 9 (24:25):
You had the success interview that's time to change change,
change things around, But it did.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
You had a lot of commitments.
Speaker 9 (24:34):
But you know, I was always impressed by his willingness
to make that big change and his commitment to it
and obviously you and you know, both you and John
getting together in really in Atlantic City, even though I
know you met in Almira, you know, and your success
here on the East Coast and then translating that out
(24:54):
to your success on the West coast just you know,
just tremendous. And you know, thirty six years. I retired
recently after thirty five years with the company I worked with,
uh So I know what it is in today's marketplace
where people say, if you're there more than two years,
you're a knucklehead. But to be somewhere and to do
something at such a high level for such a long
(25:16):
time is doesn't happen very much anymore. And I'm very
impressed with both of you, even though John, I've never
officially met.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
You, but I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and would love
to have more of them. Well yeah, but I want
you to know he helped move me John from Elmira
to Atlantic City. Yes, and then we ran right to
the casinos after that and put a whole quarter in. See,
we're very exciting to play.
Speaker 9 (25:42):
We were not big gamblers. We liked card games, but
we didn't gamble.
Speaker 5 (25:45):
We didn't gamble we didn't drink, we didn't gamble.
Speaker 9 (25:48):
I think we I think we spent more time in
the bowling alley at the casino that and then the
casino before the drive home and his Camaro at the time,
which was a nightmare drive because it was snowing.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
That car didn't have much hand I remember the Camaro. Yeah, yeah,
you had that when we met. Now, didn't change the
oil and I blew the engine in your car. I've
done that too, You've done that, George. Thank you for
coming on.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
Yeah, buddy's pleasure.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Major wish come true. You wanted to be on the show,
my last show, you got it.
Speaker 9 (26:19):
You go, I finally got on the air. Well, I
just wanted to say congratulations, enjoy your retirement. I know
that eventually you'll have a lot of plans. I know
you love to travel, and hopefully we get to see
you a little bit more frequently here on the East
Coast and talk to you more than just a couple
of times a year. And John's success in your solo effort.
Speaker 5 (26:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 9 (26:38):
I hope you do well, and hopefully some point in
time in the future I get to meet you.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
I hope so too. Thanks George, all right, there you go.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
All right, my longtime friends George who reached out to
me today, I wanted to know how we could get
on my last.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
Show harassing psyche patients. You never told me this, you know,
why would I? Well, actually I have mentioned it kind of.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
They didn't tell the story the same way, but we
had the same experience as we had in California where
they started to release people from all the psychlistplas because
they were deemed to be horrible places. And they did
put him, as George said, like on a sort of
a halfway house, sort of hotel actually not far from
my home, and they began to wander the streets. They
go into the church, they'd stand around, So you did
man on the Street interviews. Yeah, it was my other
friend's idea, right, Lewis. It was his idea to actually
(27:22):
bring out a cassette recorder, and I forgot that.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
But towards is right.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
That did happen, all right, we got that's just great.
More coming up, couldn't be John and ken kf. I
am six forty. Well, I was preparing for the days
with you. Obviously when we come back, we're going to
play clips from the nineteen nineties. Stuff that many of
you probably have never heard, and maybe some of you
(27:46):
will remember Johnny Ken Show KFI.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI
Am six forty.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
We've got two more hours of Ken, and we have
a lot of stuff to play. Farewell messages montage clips
from a year's past.
Speaker 5 (28:06):
We're going to play one right now.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
This one has a couple of short things that we
played within the last few weeks, but the whole package
is from the nineteen nineties, especially in the first few
years when we ran into all kinds of natural disasters
and controversies. This montage, I'll just explain a little bit
so you know what you're listening to. Starts with our
first appearance on CAFI as a guest with Darryl Gates,
(28:32):
the controversial police chief from the Rodney King era. He
left his job as police chief and became a CAFI host,
and we then replaced him in that time slot back
in nineteen ninety two. You're going to hear some clips
from our first show, a number of callers who instantly criticizing,
they were just disgusted with us. A little clip on
(28:55):
the start of the three strikes movement and the Menendez
brothers and our hunger strike and then us up in
helicopters over the fires in Laguna Beach.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
So let's roll. We have a new team.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
There's come to KF five or more Stimulated Talk Radio
or John and Camp. You know what makes me nervous.
I'll be honest with you. They tell me you have
a gun here in the studio. Well, you see, you
haven't been on long enough to have threats against you.
I can't understand you have a little bodyguard strapped your
leg that jumps out in case it's Trump.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
Is this true?
Speaker 1 (29:26):
K F I am six forty more Stimulating Talk Radio
and welcome to the John and Ken Show.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
I'm John Cobout my partner Ken Champeau. Yes, that would
be me.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
You know we've been asked probably one million, two hundred
thousand times over the past week.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
What do you sound like on here?
Speaker 1 (29:42):
What do you do?
Speaker 5 (29:43):
What are you gonna talk about?
Speaker 9 (29:44):
What?
Speaker 6 (29:44):
What?
Speaker 10 (29:45):
Did?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Shut up and listen, because because we don't know, we
don't know, we're gonna argue, we're gonna entertain.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
He goes back and forth between us, between the callers.
Speaker 10 (29:52):
You're not stimulating in any way.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
You haven't been stimulated there, oh my country thumping. You've
decided all this in twenty five minutes.
Speaker 10 (30:00):
Needs to get the character of an right away.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
You don't think we're intelligent, You don't think we have characters.
We haven't talked about it. Some people it takes more
to stimulate than others.
Speaker 6 (30:10):
You count like the two morning DJs that Howard Stern knockoffs.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
That actually is the worst thing that's been said. So
we're with on twenty eight minutes. This is an unbelievable
tough crowd, right, Okay.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
We have been following why Richard Allen Davis was allowed
to walk the streets to strangle Polycloss even though he
had twenty years worth of crimes and felonies on his record.
The three strikes You're out bill should be passed. Three
violenter serious felonies and you've got life in prisonment. And
then his brothers, as you know, hung jury and Garcetti
all along has complained he didn't have enough money during
(30:44):
the Menendez trial, so we organized the yard sale, sold
a live junk, raised four thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
Hundreds of people came.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
After Garcetti refused to take the money, John went on
a hunger strike, which began fifty one hours ago. We
also had a guy giving up his liver medication in
Long Beach.
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Did beget his numbers? We can check to see if
he still alive.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
We put in a call to him. He isn't answering
the phones. He's not answering his phone. He's not answering
what if he's lying on the floor reaching for the
medication and last each effort to save himself.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
It's gonna be How is that gonna look on the news.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
It's gonna be on Garcetti's head and yours.
Speaker 5 (31:13):
I didnt tell him to do it. You did a
Gandhi and prompted him to get into this.
Speaker 10 (31:16):
John Cobelet he Champeau are broadcasting in a helicopter over
the Pacific Ocean right now. Yeah. We are facing directly
and looking at the look on the beach and it's
completely overcast with spoke, huge flames extending from near the
beach inland. There's nothing left. There's just a few shards
of timber. The air is south smelling. It's accurate. It
makes your eyes burn in my mouth and throat or trying.
(31:39):
And there's helicopters all over the place. They're like mechanical
vultures floating through the air.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
There you go, How does sit that? You're right, the nineties,
that was all in the first couple of years we
were here. That was this place was insane.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (31:55):
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
They'll always be proud of three strikes. I mean yeah,
and you know they've been trying it. Well, they've ripping
that apart for all these decades, I know, but it's
still standing. It's a big reason there were low crime
rates for a while, that's right. And Governor Wilson signed it.
I remember the day we had him on the show. Yeah,
and he signed the bill. It also passed a second
time I think as a referendum, right, And you don't
(32:19):
know how many people aren't dead because that passed, you see, right,
you know how many people were not victims. I think
sadly this year Mike Reynolds, who was behind that movement
to get that passed to just he died, I believe
this year. Mike Reynolds remember him, Yes, so many? Yeah.
Of course Mark klass Poly's father too, was a big
part of that. There's a documentary out there somewhere of
(32:41):
the passage of three strikes because I know we were
in it and they interviewed. Maybe he could find it
on YouTube somewhere. Oh and of course The Times thinks
it's like Prop thirteen. It's the scourge of California, right, Yeah.
Prop thirteen and three strikes have really hurt the yeah,
compared to everything else's But it's from Sacramentos. Violent felons
are in prison and that upsets all those little weasels.
All right, then we'll be right back. John and Ken
(33:02):
kf I AM six forty. We're live everywhere the iHeartRadio app. Hey,
you've been listening to the John and Ken Show. You
can always hear us live on KFI AM six forty
one pm to four pm every Monday through Friday, and
of course anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
The John Kobylt Show News
Host
John Kobylt
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