Minimal sports and close to no politics. KFI AM-640’s Tim Conway Jr. has a better approach to getting the audience’s attention.
“We concentrate on local (expletives),” the evening host quipped. “And in Los Angeles, there’s never, ever, ever a shortage of that crew.”
Growing up, Conway loved hearing legendary radio casters Vin Scully and Bob Miller. “[They] are the two reasons I really wanted to do this,” he recalled. “But I wasn’t good enough or committed enough to do sports, because you have to read all the time.”
Conway added, “You have to know all the players, and I didn’t want that kind of commitment in life.”
Covering politics can also be a pretty big commitment. “We don’t really do much politics anymore because everybody’s so entrenched. Everybody’s in one camp or the other, and there’s no way you can convince them to get out.”
So, jeering at local nuisances stuck. Luckily for Conway, the City of Angels has no shortage of demons trying to dismantle it. “The high-speed chases, the people breaking into your car, people stealing, people robbing, the fires,” the evening host said. “We do some sports as well, but not a lot. It’s basically keeping an eye on — and focusing on — the people that make life miserable in LA.”
After ranking #5 on Barrett Media’s Top 20 Major Market News/Talk Afternoon Shows, Conway and the team at KFI decided to move his show back to his nightside home.
“The program director wanted more local politics, more national politics during the day, and I just didn’t want to do that,” Conway admitted. “I love the audience at night, 6 to 10 p.m. That’s where I started at KLSX and did it for 12 years, and then I was at KFI doing that for 10 or 11 years [before] they moved me to the afternoon.”
Another reason Conway is excited about his evening timeslot: “I think [this audience is] the funniest audience in the world. I really enjoy being back.” He added, “This audience is able to relax a little, take the edge off, and I just think that night owls — guys and women who are up at night — are under a little more pressure than morning people, and that pressure equates to comedy.”
The return of his evening timeslot might bring back one of his most beloved segments, “What the Hell Did Jesse Jackson Say?” For those not familiar with the segment, Conway elaborated, “We’d play Jesse Jackson clips, and then we’d give away prizes if you could identify what he said.”
He added, “We even had Jesse on one night, and I said, ‘Hey, Jesse, it’s Conway from LA. Can I play you a clip? Can you tell me what you’re saying?’ And I think he was a little confused, and he said, ‘Yeah, sure, go ahead.’ We played the clip, and I said, ‘What are you saying here?’ And he goes, ‘I have no idea.'”
When Jackson got sick, Conway determined it was not appropriate to continue the segment. Conway noted, “The day that I went back to evenings, 6 to 10 p.m., is the exact same day he died.” Listeners might see a return of the beloved segment.
But one of the most meaningful moments from his show came when he was on KFI working nightside, 10 to 15 years ago. “This kid, Jack Chavez, called us up, and I always say at the end of the conversation [with a kid], ‘You got 30 seconds here. Tell me why you have the best mom or dad in the world.'”
Chavez’s answer still gets Conway choked up to this day. “[This kid Jack Chavez] said, ‘Well, my dad and I used to listen to talk radio together, and then he passed away. Now my mom takes care of me, and she puts a roof over my head and feeds me.'”
Conway remarked, “To hear a kid at 10 years old say he thanks his mom for feeding him just killed me. I know I sound like an emotional wreck, but it wiped me out.”
Conway knew this Chavez was special and wanted to help out. So Conway, along with his audience, raised money for Chavez and his mom to go to Disney.
“We put together a GoFundMe, hoping to raise $5,000 and send him to Disney World. So we did that on a Tuesday.” Conway recalled, “By Thursday morning, we had raised over $75,000 for this kid.”
Chavez has been a recurring caller for Conway and the team. “He and his mom still call once a year to thank us. He’s gone through junior high and high school. He’s going off to college. And he’s just a really great, sweet kid. That’s like the number one call we’ve ever gotten.”
This is why Tim Conway Jr. believes he has “the best audience in the world. The KFI audience is the best audience in the world.”
He also noted that having a great audience is one of the key ingredients to a great show. “When you’re driving, nobody gets home by five o’clock in LA. Nobody gets home by six. Everybody’s in the car still,” Conway affirmed. “When you’re driving alone in your car, we’re the other passenger.”
For those looking to follow in Conway’s footsteps, he said, “I’ve been on the radio for almost 30 years, and I know less about it now than when I got in.”
“Things change so quickly with the internet,” Conway said. “The only real advice that I have is not just for radio — it’s for anything. Enthusiasm. You’ve got to be enthusiastic.”
He continued, “All the energy and all the money goes to all the actors and all the directors and the politicians and the athletes who are enthusiastic.” Conway asserted, “That’s my big lesson to everybody. Enthusiasm, enthusiasm, enthusiasm. As long as you have that, everything else is a piece of cake.”
He offered up another golden nugget of success. “The key to staying in radio for a very, very long period of time — I learned from Rick Dees on the second day I was on the radio. He said, ‘Hey, congratulations on the job. Can I give you a piece of advice?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Warm up to the salespeople and always treat them right. It’s the hardest job in radio, being a salesperson — calling up a company and saying, hey, will you spend some money on my show and gamble that it’s going to work?'”
Conway added, “So if I were going into radio, I would say to anybody: just be friends with all the salespeople and become friends with all of the advertisers — all the people who send money to the station — because you’re going to need them.”
“Radio used to be a ratings business — who’s up, who’s down, and you get paid accordingly. But now I’ve seen a shift in the last 30 years where the people who run the radio companies have just one question, and it’s how much money do you bring in?”
Conway further affirmed, “They don’t care what the rating is. They don’t care how many hours you’re on. They want to know how much money you bring into the station. And I’ve noticed that for the last 10 years or so, if you bring enough in, you get to hang out. But if you don’t, you’re gone.”
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Krystina Alarcon Carroll contributes features and columns for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
