Fall is upon us! The weather is cool and crisp, holidays will soon be upon us, and iHeart has started its annual purging of employees as it tries to become profitable.
There’s speculation that hundreds of employees are expected to ultimately be given walking papers nationwide. Locally, the first victims include KFI (640 AM) evening personality Morris W. O’Kelly — aka Mo’ Kelly, his producer Tawala Sharp, and station Image Director Clay Roe, along with Real 92.3 FM’s overnight personality Chuck Dizzle. All four had at least a decade with their stations; Roe was a 26-year veteran of KFI and the man behind the clever on-air imaging.
While the first reports alluded to ratings being the deciding factor at KFI, I don’t believe this to be the case. While KFI has dropped somewhat from its previous levels — September’s 2.9 share, itself most likely an outlier — is the lowest rating since at least 2019, but it is still good enough to tie for 14th overall in the Los Angeles metro Nielsens.
Rather, it appears that allowing the former programmer to resign, firing half the news department, and pulling back on advertising and marketing didn’t work the ratings magic they originally had hoped for. In my opinion, KFI has seemed rudderless since Robin Bertolucci left the programming spot last November. The current programmer Brian Long, meanwhile, is also in charge of KLAC (570 AM) and KEIB (1150 AM), but with no time, a limited budget, and a decimated news department, the result is what it is. I don’t blame him at all.
I did reach out to KFI and Long for comment, but was unable to connect by press time.
It must be noted that while iHeart Media has allowed KFI to falter, CEO Bob Pittman is sitting pretty with, according to InsideMusicMedia’s Jerry Del Colliano, “a publicly reported compensation (of) $12,948,720 total” in 2024.
To me, Pittman is the poster child for limiting CEO compensation. He has overseen a 46% reduction in staff over the last 10 years, according to Del Colliano, while failing to fix the revenue issues that have caused losses for the past 15 years. It’s hard to present purposeful, compelling programming under duress.
For his part, O’Kelly is keeping it positive, posting on Facebook, “All jobs end. It is not our lives or our health. Perspective is paramount. There is nothing to be sad about here. I’m genuinely excited for the future.”
He continued: “We have no apologies or regrets to offer. We talked to everyone politically, from Tucker Carlson to Pete Buttigieg, and ideologically in between. We profiled music guests from Danny Elfman to Diane Warren. Comedians, from Rob Schneider to George Wallace. Actors, from William Shatner to Danny Glover.
“We exposed Southern California to a different sounding type of talk radio where EVERYONE was welcome, regardless of beliefs, background, color, religion or lifestyle. We succeeded.”
O’Kelly, who appears as a correspondent and television analyst for NewsNation, CNN, OAN, CNN International, HLN, FOX 11 Los Angeles, NBC4, MSNBC and Spectrum News SoCal, C-SPAN, Good Morning America and others, told me that this is most definitely not the end of radio for him. “Radio is in my blood,” he said. “On to the next. And yes, there will be a next.”
What does the future hold for his slot? If I had to guess, I’d say syndicated programming or repeats of programming from earlier in the day. It won’t help the ratings, but it sure is cheap, as KABC (790 AM) found out on its way to irrelevance. Hopefully, I will be proven wrong; in the meantime, Chris Merrill was filling in during the evenings right after the layoffs last week.
Ravey vs. Fife
The details surrounding the removal of Ravey on Alt 98.7 FM’s morning “Woody Show” were always a mystery … one day she was there, the next she was gone, replaced by Gina Grad. But a recent post on Law.com may offer some insight.
“iHeartMedia and Jeff Fife were slapped with an employment lawsuit on Sept. 2 in California Superior Court for Los Angeles County,” it began. “The suit was brought by King Holmes Paterno & Soriano on behalf of radio personality Renae Ravey, who contends that Fife wanted to replace her with someone younger and who he found ‘more appealing.’ The plaintiff also argues that Fife publicly defamed her and disclosed constitutionally protected private employment information about her to falsely blame her for the firing and attack her competency on nationwide radio broadcasts.”
Fife is “Woody” on the top-rated syndicated show.
This is the first I heard of such allegations. The Woody Show is one of the more popular morning shows in town and is a primary reason for the success of the station.
This represents one side’s take on the situation, and we’ll follow up with more should there be further info.
I reached out to Fife, and he responded that he was not able to provide a comment.
Richard Wagoner is a San Pedro freelance columnist covering radio in Southern California. Email [email protected]
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