KFI Drops King After KMPC Promo

Larry King’s nationally syndicated radio show was abruptly dropped from KFI-AM because of the talk-show host’s on-air announcement last week that his Los Angeles listeners could soon hear him on a competing station.

Broadcasts of King’s three-hour radio show--which is part of the Mutual Broadcasting System network--will switch to KMPC-AM (710) on May 20. His final broadcast on KFI (640) was last Friday.

“When he started saying, ‘Listen up, Los Angeles: You can hear me soon on KMPC,’ we dropped him pretty quick,” said Bill Lewis, marketing and promotions manager at KFI. “We don’t generally promote hosts on other stations.”

Lewis said that executives at KFI had heard rumors that King was shopping around for another station that would broadcast his show at an earlier hour. King was heard from 1 to 4 a.m. on KFI and had long expressed displeasure over the slot. More than two years ago, the station had aired King’s show from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., but changed it to make way for more locally generated talk programming, Lewis said.

On KMPC, King will be heard weeknights from 8 to midnight. The show will be broadcast live from 8-11 p.m., then the first hour will be rerun from 11 p.m. to midnight, said KMPC program director Chuck Southcott.

Southcott said that King’s show would be delayed frequently during baseball season--which runs from April to October--due to the broadcast of Angels games and post-game talk shows.