The New Year brings a tweaked lineup to iHeartMedia talk KFI Los Angeles (640) with longtime afternoon hosts John Kobylt and Ken Champou moving to 1pm-4pm and evening host Tim Conway, Jr. segueing to afternoons (4-7pm).
The revamped lineup also has morning host Bill Handel shortening his program to 6-9am, followed by Gary Hoffman and Shannon Farren, who move up an hour and will now be heard from 9am-1pm. Relocating into evenings (7-10pm) is “Later, with Mo’Kelly” hosted by Morris O’Kelly.
PD Robin Bertolucci tells Inside Radio the changes are aimed to deliver more variety to KFI listeners.
“It's a fun tweak because we're just making space so we have more variety,” she said. “And we found that three hours is a sweet spot for the shows… We're excited about it.”
Outside of Hoffman and Farren, all programs are now three hours long.
O’Kelly, who has been with the station since 2011, serving as a producer, weekend, and fill-in host, also hosts “Mo’Kelly’s 2-Minute Warning” on iHeart’s Black Information Network.
“Talk radio can be musical, joyful, comical, and insightful; all at the same time,” he said in announcing the new KFI show via his website. “We’ve been devaluing the medium by believing otherwise and audiences deserve to have it all.”
Tawala Sharp, who will serve as Executive Producer of the new night show, adds “Taking our inspirations from variety talk show greats like Carson, Leno and Arsenio (Hall), ‘Later, with Mo’Kelly’ is bringing late-night television to the radio and changing the landscape of the news/talk format.”