Keith Murphy and Andy Fales will no longer be hosting together at KXnO in Des Moines, the duo announced, concurrent with other changes taking place at the iHeartMedia-owned station. The duo had hosted the Murph and Andy early afternoon program together for the last 15 years and will end their run on the air later in the month. Both hosts also work together at WHO-TV in Des Moines where Murphy is the sports director and anchor and Fales is a weekend anchor. The radio program will continue through the end of June before it officially signs off on KXnO.
“We have decided to take a step back, improve quality of life [and] do a little bit less,” Murphy said in an interview on WHO-TV Des Moines. “I worked six days a week for more than 15 years.”
Murphy and Fales previously canceled five episodes of their program in 2020 out of protest regarding other layoffs that had taken place at KXnO. Concurrent with listener support, the station reversed course and brought back afflicted staff and programs. Both hosts acknowledged that the program involves a heavy workload that goes beyond showing up to the studio and discussing sports without any preparation. Yet the program has included discussion that spans beyond sports only over the years as well.
“This was going to be a show that was not going to just be about sports,” Fales said. “It was going to be just stuff from our lives and things that we found funny about the world outside, and we’ve kind of always billed it that way, and I think that’s kind of helped us stand out through the years and be a little bit different, and it’s also kind of kept us fresh.”
Murphy concurred with that point, explaining that within their friend groups, the discussion involves a variety of different topics but always comes back to sports. Fales expressed that they will miss having the two-hour window to sit down and talk face to face, something that he regarded as a privilege to have had over the years. While the radio show will no longer air at the end of June though, the duo aspires to do something more scaled down in the future.
“Not in a studio; not five days a week, but like a podcast or something where we continue to do something together, but not with the same time commitment, not with the same grind,” Murphy said. “I hope someday to do the podcast [and] join Andy sometime when he’s working really hard and I’m like on a beach, but I still can sit there [and] FaceTime him as a special guest or something like that.”
