John Ziegler signs off of KFI

“The John Ziegler Show” aired for the final time on Tuesday night on KFI-AM (640) and its firebrand host said his three-hour, five-nights-a-week broadcast had become a grind. “I have always had a love-hate relationship with talk radio,” Ziegler told The Times. “At its best, it’s a fantastic medium. At its worst it can drain your lifeblood. And I have had the lifeblood drained out of me for a period of time. It’s time for me to move on from KFI’s perspective and mine.”

KFI program director Robin Bertolucci said the slot would be filled with “some familiar voices and some fresh ones as we make the decision about where to go” with that 7 p.m. weekday slot. As for Ziegler, she said: “We wish him all the very best.”

Ziegler came to KFI in early 2004 and a year later he replaced Phil Hendrie in the weekday evening slot. He gained notoriety for pouncing early on the “stuck in Iraq” comment by John Kerry, which undermined the Democrat’s presidential bid, and his penchant for confrontational interviews.

Ziegler was suspended two days last year after an on-air argument with John Kobylt of “The John and Ken Show.”

Ziegler said Tuesday that his detractors shouldn’t celebrate his departure from the nation’s top talk-radio station: “To those who think that they have won the war, I would say they haven’t seen the final battle yet.”

He added that his next project was a documentary on the Clintons and their record on terrorism.

-- Geoff Boucher