Kevin Ryder, better known as the former co-host of the morning show “Kevin & Bean”, found a new job on a rival radio station in Southern California after leaving KROQ last spring.
Ryder will join KLOS host Doug “Sluggo” Roberts for the new “Kevin & Sluggo” program that will air during the week during the afternoon shift. The new show, which he announced Tuesday during 95.5 KLOS ‘”The Heidi and Frank Show”, will air from 3 pm to 7 pm in the Pacific. It opens on Thursday at the SoCal rock station and is being described as “Maxim meets Rolling Stone meets ESPN meets Comedy Central”.
The new show follows Ryder’s announcement in March that KROQ’s parent company Entercom fired him unceremoniously and the entire “Kevin in the Morning With Allie & Jensen” team after he was on the radio station for over 30 years. (His former morning co-host Gene “Bean” Baxter retired from the station the previous year and moved to London.) KROQ co-hosts in the afternoon, Ted Stryker and Kevin Klein, were appointed as morning presenters soon after.
“I’m happy that KLOS lowered its standards just enough for me to slip,” Ryder said in a statement to The Times. “Everyone at the station, starting with Heidi and Frank in the morning, is having fun and loves the music that is playing. I am happy to work in the afternoon with my longtime friend Sluggo, because one of us needs to be able to speak enough English. In addition, I need my beauty sleep to stay on top of the modeling game. I look forward to reconnecting with listeners and having fun on the air in LA again! “
According to Variety, Roberts was one of the first people to call Ryder after being released from KROQ.
Ryder and Roberts, also known as Sluggo and Doug, the Slug, have known each other for more than three decades. They also previously worked at KROQ. Roberts and Ryder also performed at Phoenix’s 40 KZZP in the 1980s: Roberts led the board while Ryder and Gene “Bean” Baxter performed the “Saturday Night Party Patrol”.
Roberts joined KLOS in the summer of 2019 as an assistant program director and music director.
The new show will be in addition to “Good news! With Kevin and Mike ”, the daily Ryder talk show was launched last month with Mike Catherwood. He will continue to produce this show on weekdays, both as a video on YouTube and as a podcast, Variety said.
The Meruelo Group, which also owns the Los Angeles market radio stations KPWR-FM 105.9 “Power 106,” 93.5 KDAY and Riverside / San Bernardino 93.5 KDEY-FM, welcomed Ryder, a National Association. of Broadcasters and Radio Hall of Fame honored, and his legion of loyal fans on Tuesday in messages on the KLOS website.
“We are doubling in ‘live and local’ with one of the best in our trade,” said Otto Padron, president and CEO of Meruelo Media, in the statement. “Bringing Kevin Ryder on board was a no-brainer, as this is the kind of bold and disruptive movement that offers attractive voices and relevant content for our listeners who deserve it.”
“Great talent and content are kings. If we do not provide both, we will be irrelevant, ”added Keith Cunningham, program director at KLOS. “Kevin is very funny, an A-List creator, hall of famer, this market loves him, and adding him to the team and associating him with Sluggo completes what I consider to be the most powerful and fun airline in the whole southern California. “