Those of a certain age (those who have an AARP card in their wallet) or fans of the Golden Age of Radio, recall the "feud" between Jack Benny and Fred Allen.
Simply put, the "feud" was manufactured by Benny and Allen and the network they worked for to boost ratings. The idea was that people who occasionally tuned in either Benny's or Allen's shows would tune in every week to hear what crack or slam one man would make against the other. Magazines published photos of Benny and Allen facing off with clinched fists as if they were going to go to the mat with the "feud." It was a clever gag and it worked, and it was all in good fun.
This week the opening salvo of a real feud between a former radio host and a radio station, and specifically a talk radio team, was fired and it isn't in good fun. It's an example of what much of talk radio has become and all of the principals in the matter are looking pretty muddy and thin skinned and self serving.
The radio station is question is KFI 640 AM in Los Angeles: www.kfi640.com . The angry former talk radio host and former employee of KFI is John Ziegler: www.johnziegler.com . The two particular objects of his wrath are John Kobylt and Ken Champeau: www.johnandkenshow.com . Ziegler's slam against the radio station and the hosts is here: www.therealkfi.com - The Real KFI
In a nutshell, Ziegler worked for KFI as an evening talk show host for several years. Your faithful correspondent listened to his program occasionally and found it occasionally interesting, but was put off by Ziegler's stridency and constant references to his life and personal problems. One was never sure whether the program was about current affairs or John Ziegler's life. Ziegler and KFI parted ways in late 2007. It was evident before Ziegler left KFI's employ that there was stress between Ziegler and John and Ken.
Your faithful correspondent has also listened to the John and Ken Show and considers it one of the talk shows that is akin to professional wrestling. In other words, little of what either host says can be taken as the host's true feelings or opinions. It's all about ratings for them and they do a good job of pulling the number. That's their real job and they do it well.
Without going into Ziegler's claims against KFI and Kobylt and Champeau, let it be known that this writer is willing to take Ziegler's charges at face value. BUT, to be honest, Ziegler sounds like a child whose lollipop has been knocked out of his hand and into the dirt by the neighborhood bully and instead of slugging the little brat on sight goes home and cries to Mommy. In other words, instead of fighting back when the fighting was good, he complains about being mistreated and/or shunned.
The management of KFI may be jerks. Most management is. Kobylt and Champeau are probably thin skinned self servers. But 90% of the American population works under such conditions. There are two things to be done. Quit. Or grit one's teeth and fight back as well as possible. Instead Ziegler hides behind the skirts of his former news woman, Leah Brandon, as an excuse not to give the fig to those who "abused" him. And he waits until such a time that he cannot be fired to level his blast.
Ziegler's screed may be true, but he sounds like he wants some cheese with that whine. The thing that makes Ziegler's pity party distasteful is the mentioning of family members not involved in the feud, the claim that someone as gay who has not said that he is gay, and the scattershot approach to his problem. Ziegler is one of those people one occasionally runs across who seems not to have any sense of discretion in his attacks or comments. Everything is public with him. The sign of a man of his time.
We here at the Manor call for a pox on both houses. We don't like whiners and we don't like fakes. This story is full of both. One can only hope that like in the old (politically incorrect) story of Little Black Sambo these tigers (in actuality yakking termites) keep chasing one another around the tree until they turn into butter.
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