Who would ever have thought calling your boss an a-hole would earn his approval and cement you in your new position as a news anchor? Michelle Kube had no problem doing that when she started working for Bill Handel.
“I was 21 at the time when I started working with Bill. He was old enough to be my dad,” said Kube. “While getting to know you, Bill needles you about this and that. He said something to me I didn’t like and I called him an a-hole.”
This wasn’t on the air, but it was still very effective. After that incident, Kube imagined Handle figured she’d do just fine.
“It gave me the chance to show Bill what I was made of,” Kube said. “We kind of developed our relationship from there. I was from Long Island, and I never took any crap from anybody.”
Yeah, Bill. Do you hear that?
Kube has been at KFI 30 years, and spent 25 working directly with Handel. She’s the executive producer for KFI which entails working with all shows, hiring and training new employees, bringing in interns, and working on special events.
“I can’t say enough about the support of my boss, Robin Bertolucci,” Kube said. “And the incredible crew I work with at KFI.”
Kube started work for KFI-AM 640 as an intern, then was hired as a screener for The Bill Handel Show.
“While screening that show, I produced for some of the weekend shows part-time to increase my knowledge of talk radio and the biz. When I started at 20 hours a week, I was commuting an hour to work each way, every day.”
In high school, she started working at Wet Seal, at one time a very popular clothing outlet in California. Kube worked as a manager and cashier.
“It was an institution in Southern California,” she said. “If I remember correctly they started with a single store on the beach. Mostly sold bathing suits.”
Kube worked at Wet Seal for a total of seven years.
“When I was a senior in high school, toward the end I only had a couple of classes,” she said. “I also worked at Forever 21, always around young girls’ clothing. The best thing was I got a 30 percent discount.”
Kube’s family moved from Long Island to California when she was 15 years old.
“I went to Fullerton College and earned an associate’s degree in Radio and television,” Kube explained. “This was right out of high school and I wasn’t ready to go to a university. Originally, I thought I’d go to Cal State Fullerton. They didn’t have a great TV program. Fullerton had a great TV and radio program. They taught me how to work in all aspects of the business. I did some directing, producing, and switching cameras. When you took these classes you had to do everything.”
Kube credits that experience with an understanding of what a future in broadcasting would entail. How to work in the business. She ran cameras for Fullerton baseball games and had a lot of fun. She created some commercials and took her turn as a producer.
“When I started in radio, it was harder for a woman,” she explained. “It was still kind of a boys’ club. Today, women are tough and learned to survive. We began to toss it back at the hosts.”
Remember the Handel exchange?
She initially wanted to go into television but couldn’t find an internship. Her uncle is a TV and film editor and that interested Kube.
“I was about to drop a broadcasting class that required an internship because I couldn’t find one at a TV station or studio. My instructor told me not to drop it, ‘just get a radio internship’, he said, ‘they’ll take anybody’.”
She went to KFI for that internship because her father listened to the station, she got the internship and after interning for several semesters, she got a part-time job. Kube had intended to make retail a career but eventually fell into the whole radio thing.
Through the years Kube said she’s learned a lot about Bill Handel, other than the fact he likes to rib new employees.
“If you look at our career trajectory, I started as a phone screener/assistant producer,” Kube said. “A year into my being there, his producer went on maternity leave, and they just threw me into it. There was extra money involved.”
The producer came back for a month, then decided she wanted to stay home and raise her daughter so I applied for the job.”
It was a crossroads for Kube. She was getting close to graduating from Fullerton College and considering a transfer to Cal State Fullerton, when KFI offered her the job of morning show producer.
“I went home and asked my parents’ advice,” she said. “They told me that they couldn’t make that decision for me, that I had to make it for myself. So, I decided to take a leap and go for the job. The confidence my parents instilled in me set me up for a great career.”
When she started working with Handel, he asked her for a story she thought the show could cover.
“I learned early on not to back down from Bill or anybody,” she said. “If you wanted him to talk about a topic, you had to be ready to defend it. After I picked my first few stories, he asked me to pitch three or four the next day. He must have felt we had a possible working relationship.”
Kube said at the time if that topic blew up the phones, it was a success.
When they did blow up, she said it built her confidence to fight for topics.
“Bill taught me not to take things too seriously,” Kube said. “That what we were doing was not brain surgery. We were entertaining and informing people on the radio. That’s important to understand in so many ways. You’re not saving somebody’s life unless you’re involved with an Amber Alert or breaking public safety news like earthquakes or storms.”
Kube recalled when Bill Handel started working for KFI, the station was still the ugly stepsister to KABC.
KFI was considered the rebel radio station, Kube said.
“We’d try anything. We’d cut through all the BS and give you what you needed to know. Not so much concerned with being prim and proper. That was the type of radio that catapulted Bill to being a legend.”
Kube said it was also the O.J. trial that helped get KFI on the map.
“It was what people were paying attention to,” she said. “The station took off after that. We were still relatively unknown, and nobody saw us coming. That taught us to never forget where we came from and to always be looking in the rearview mirror so no one could sneak up on us.”
Kube’s husband. Tim Kelly, was part of Handel’s show, doing bits and parody songs on daily stories.
“I think society is too sensitive to do that type of stuff now,” Kube said. “I think it was a different way to cover stories. O.J. made for some great parodies. We presented a one-minute recap of the O.J. story every day. Every single day. A quick recap of what happened that day. It was called Orenthal’s Hope. A one-minute break.”
Kube said the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal gave them a lot of parodies and songs.
“My husband is the funniest, most brilliant man I know. He’s since left radio, but he’s happy for my career.”
Tim Kelly’s humor is what immediately attracted Kube to her future husband.
“We were friends for many, many years. It was after he left the station when we started dating. He taught me how to look at life, but not too seriously. You’ve got to stop. Laugh a bit.”
Kube said she would say he knew all the useless facts in the world. He’ll screw with me by telling me a story that is convincing and real, only for me to be so convinced it was real that when I looked it up just to be sure I would find out it was total B.S.”
Kube said radio is still the most intimate medium we have.
“For instance, take the story on the abortion pill,” she said. “Bill was talking about it, and as a lawyer, he can explain the legal side in a way that’s easy and understandable, but he can also explain how the issue would affect California overall. Not just the usual take on abortion. Also, we recently discussed how ‘Satan’ is more popular than ever in pop culture, so we had a lot of fun with that.”
When the family first moved to California from New York, Kube said the school systems in New York were far ahead of where she needed to be at her grade level in California.
“Moving to California was a culture shock,” she said. “I had a very close group of friends, and we went bowling and had movie nights. I’ll see a couple of those friends now and again, not as often as I’d like.”
A passion for Kube and KFI is helping others. For those familiar with the KFI listening area, you probably know the KFI PastaThon is in its 13th year of raising funds, along with pasta and sauce, for the nonprofit organization Caterina’s Club, Chef Bruno Serrato’s charity, named after his mother. The organization feeds more than 25,000 kids every week.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is our work with Caterina’s Club,” Kube said. “The mission is to provide warm meals, affordable housing assistance, and job training to homeless and low-income families throughout Southern California.”
Kube said the Club is supported by a vision where they are creating a modicum of consistency in these children’s lives through something as simple yet meaningful as a nightly dinner.
Serato’s overarching vision started as preventing children in motels from going to bed hungry.
“He’s turned that into feeding 25,000 children a week. He works with a tiny staff to feed kids in 100 locations in 30 cities in Southern California,” Kube said. “We partnered with him in 2010. I’ve been down there over the years at different locations. We do a live broadcast every year. Listeners come down and donate.”
Kube said it makes life better for so many people. She said kids he was feeding 10 years ago are now coming back to volunteer to feed other kids.
“It’s an event that makes you thankful for the power of radio to bring people together. To see the community support us and this charity in a huge way for the last 12 years is incredible. People may say to me, ‘I love to hate Bill Handel,’ but I love the Pasta-Thon.’”
Jim Cryns writes features for Barrett News Media. He has spent time in radio as a reporter for WTMJ, and has served as an author and former writer for the Milwaukee Brewers. To touch base or pick up a copy of his new book: Talk To Me – Profiles on News Talkers and Media Leaders From Top 50 Markets, log on to Amazon or shoot Jim an email at jimcryns3_zhd@indeedemail.com.
