It feels right somehow that when the end came for Kevin Ryder, host of the KROQ-FM 106.7 morning show for 30 years, the DJ would be escorted off the premises by security.
Ryder was half of “The Kevin & Bean Show” with Gene “Bean” Baxter for three decades, and since Baxter’s departure in November he’s been head of “The Kevin in the Morning Show with Allie & Jensen.” And while he might have joked around a lot on the air, there was always a sense that he spoke from the heart and told you his truth.
So when KROQ allowed Ryder to go on the air on Wednesday a day after the station unceremoniously dumped him and the rest of his team, well, they probably should have known what they were going to get.
Ryder criticized station management, claiming the station made it seem like he and other on-air personalities were lucky to have the cool jobs they did, and that they’d treated people who worked there poorly, citing the abrupt departures of on-air personalities such as Lisa May and Ralph Garman as examples.
By the time he was done — having talked on air about others leaving the station either “discarded like trash” or because they couldn’t stand the “toxic” environment — Ryder was tweeting that three security guards had arrived to escort him out of his radio home since 1989.
Put that down as the last memorable moment in a KROQ career filled with highlights for Ryder, Baxter, and such sidekicks as Allie Mac Kay and Jensen Karp, both of whom also lost their jobs at the station on Tuesday.
It got us thinking about some of the other things we’ll always remember — memorable bits or random moments — over the years. Here, in no particular order, are 12 that came to mind as we replayed the memories of all those years on the radio.
1) The murder hoax: It’s kind of a miracle that Kevin and Bean made it to three years, much less 30, given the trouble they found themselves in 1990 just months after they started at KROQ. During a segment called “Confess Your Crime,” the duo aired an alleged murder confession, which led to a 10-month investigation by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. When they finally confessed it was a hoax, they escaped with a slap on the wrist — six days of unpaid suspension and $12,000 in restitution to the sheriff’s department.
2) Bean’s kidney: Listeners were stunned — heck, even his coworkers were shocked — when Baxter announced in 2012 that he would donate one of his kidneys to Scott Mason, a longtime KROQ engineer whose kidneys had failed. Baxter, who was often teased on the show for his eccentricities, said it wasn’t really a big deal of a decision to make.“It was a math problem for me,” he told listeners on the air. “It was, ‘You have zero and I have two; well, why don’t I just give you one?’ And that just made sense to me.”
3) Kimmel and Carolla: The Kevin & Bean Show was never just Ryder and Baxter, but rotated through an ever-changing cast of sidekicks, some of which found bigger fame — and better hours — after leaving the morning show. Jimmy Kimmel had bounced around smaller stations before he landed a gig as Jimmy the Sports Guy for Kevin and Bean. When Kimmel was set to box another station personality as a KROQ stunt, comedian Adam Carolla volunteered to be his trainer, and that led to a role for Carolla on the morning show in the persona of Mr. Birchum, the cranky woodshop teacher.
Both Kimmel and Carolla went onto bigger things — first together as creators of “The Man Show,” and later for Kimmel the ABC late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and for Carolla, a career as a podcaster and author.
4) Talent scouting: “Psycho” Mike Catherwood followed Carolla as co-host of KROQ’s “Loveline” and parlayed that into work beyond the station including a season on ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars.” Comedian Brad Williams was a show favorite, and his exposure there — sometimes filling in as the host of the Show Biz Beat — helped build his career in Southern California and beyond.
5) The Poorman Incident: Speaking of “Loveline,” original co-host Jim “The Poorman” Trenton lost his job at the station during a prank war with Baxter and the morning show. Baxter had sent an assistant to sneak into Trenton’s home and wake him on his birthday. To retaliate, Trenton led an entourage of about 500 people to Baxter’s home at midnight. When Baxter complained to station management,Trenton lost his job.
6) Halls of fame: Ryder and Baxter are inductees in two different broadcasting halls of fame. In August 2019, the duo were inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. Four years earlier, they’d been similarly honored by the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
7) Bean takes a break: In the spring of 2018, Baxter left the morning show for what initially called simply a medical leave. He soon announced on social media that the leave was more specifically for his mental health, a topic he talked about openly and positively when he returned to the show months later.
8) The Armenian Comedian: Sam the Armenian Comedian, to give his full name, was one of many bit players on the Kevin & Bean Show over the years. One of the most memorable, too, in terms of not being funny, which was what made him very funny to the two hosts. When Baxter left for England in November 2019 Ryder joked that he was going to replace him with Sam, and carried through the bit to the debut of his new show on Jan. 2 on which he announced on his first day on air would be called The Kevin and Sam the Armenian Comedian Show, and brought Sam on to make the fake-out feel real.
9) Breakfasts with … : The Kevin & Bean Show often hosted exclusive events for listeners. Kevin & Bean’s Breakfast With series offered fans a chance to win tickets for intimate performances and conversations with big-name acts such as Green Day and Sting.
10) April Fools: Kevin and Bean also hosted April Foolishness for 11 years. The annual comedy show featured a different group of comedians each year and raised more than $1 million for various charities in that time.
11) Bean takes a dive: With most of KROQ’s on-air staff on stage at the Forum to introduce No Doubt at the 2014 Almost Acoustic Christmas Show, it was still easy to spot Baxter in the throng. He’s 6-feet-6-inches tall for one thing. And he was the only one to misjudge the edge of the stage and fall a good five or six feet to the floor of the arena as fans and colleagues alike gasped in surprise.
12) Boys collecting toys: The long-running Miss Double D-cember event, sort of a cheesecake beauty pageant crossed with stupid people tricks, wasn’t just for early morning drinkers to ogle scantily clad women. It was also the Kevin & Bean Show’s assist to the U.S. Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots drive.
