For a long time, having a one-person morning show was thought of as giving up on the daypart. A solo host would immediately be labeled as the “more music” morning show. Expectations were that it might have a small audience but couldn’t compete with bigger, personality-driven shows.
Abe Kanan would beg to differ. He’s the solo host of the aptly named Abe Kanan Show mornings on Audacy Rock KRXQ (98 Rock)/Sacramento. “I do more content than most morning shows with five people,” Kanan says.
His success hosting a solo show comes from an unrelenting focus on the listener. According to Kanan, “We call it the listener’s show, and I feel like the biggest thing I do is customer service for the audience. I think it’s very important if you host a live radio show that you have good customer service, and the customers are your listeners.”
While it’s easy to say you should take care of the listener, Kanan takes the mission seriously. That can mean nearly anything, including helping a Journey ticket winner on sister station KSEG (96.9 the Eagle). “Even though I knew it was our sister station I still helped her find out how to get the tickets and walked her through downloading the Ticketmaster app. It took an hour and even though she didn’t listen before, now I have a listener for life.”
Creating Moments Listeners Remember
But it’s not just about helping individual listeners like the Journey woman. Or giving away pit passes to listeners on the lawn at big shows — which he’s done. He also uses his show to create memorable moments, like when he tapped into a legendary local story. Back in the early 2000s, a young child named John Adams set up a lemonade stand outside of Ozzfest. Unfortunately, there was no traffic backup that year. Even after a story on the local television news, the young man didn’t sell any lemonade.
Recently, when Ozzy died, the story resurfaced and Kanan set out to make things right. With help from listeners, he found Adams, who is now 33 and lives in Missouri. Kanan arranged to fly him back to town and do a lemonade sale. The money would go to a local child who needed a wheelchair-accessible van. “I worked with the Mayor of Roseville. We flew (Adams) in and had a huge lemonade sale and raised thousands of dollars.”
He also brought back one of the greatest fast-food promotions of all time: two Whoppers for two dollars. “I was talking on the radio about how every kid should get to experience 2 for $2 Whoppers. 15 minutes later I’m talking to the owner of a Burger King and they did it,” Kanan says. “I did a live broadcast from their store and they sold like 2,6000 Whoppers in four hours.”
That sort of attention-getting programming isn’t rare for Kanan. In fact, he firmly believes radio needs to take a lesson from the past if it’s going to survive. That means focusing on live radio. “I do a lot of things you can’t do if you’re voice tracking,” he says. “And I think that’s the future of radio if we can get back to it. More people doing live shows. It makes such a difference in the community.”
Learning From Mancow and Stern
And while Kanan is currently flying solo, he learned his craft as part of several multi-person morning shows. That includes working for Mancow Muller on Mancow’s Morning Madhouse at WKQX (Q101)/Chicago. He also hosted a four-person show that aired for several years on Sirius Radio’s Howard 101 channel. “Mancow and Howard Stern are the two people I always listened to when I was a kid and those are the people I got to work for when I started out.”
He says the greatest moment of his radio career was probably his first show on Stern’s channel. That’s when he heard the produced intro say, “Welcome to the world of Howard Stern. Up next the Abe Kanan show.”
That may have made his jaw drop. But Kanan is quick to say Mancow has had the most influence on how he approaches his show. “I’ve never met someone more talented than Mancow. He’s just so fast and the way he was able to run a show, his fingerprints are all over how I approach my show even though I do something completely different than what he did.”
All Fun, No Politics
One of the ways it’s different is Kanan’s hard-and-fast rule: none of the content on his show is serious. That means, unlike his mentor, he steers completely clear of politics. “My show is all about fun,” he says. “I won’t do anything political. I’ve been here for three years talking to listeners, and I have no idea how these people lean politically and I don’t care. That’s not the most interesting thing about a person anyway.”
Instead, Kanan enlists fans of the show to become part of his stable of correspondents. He explains that listeners can apply to be the show’s correspondent on any topic they want. Some of the most bizarre include two different IROC-Z correspondents and a frisky seniors correspondent. There are also ones for turkeys, surgical techs, tow truck drivers, potheads and Magic: The Gathering.
Being a correspondent, surprisingly, has little to do with reporting on your area of expertise. It’s actually about getting the word out. “These are all hard core listeners who are always promoting the show for me,” Kanan explains. “I have a list of hundreds more people who want to be correspondents and the way to become official is to keep spreading the word about the show.” In return for that work, there are perks to being an official member of the team. “We do an annual correspondents’ dinner where we celebrate these people.”
The Content
And Kanan feels that’s exactly the type of content that can’t be replicated by voice tracking or influencer-hosted shows. “Social media people are not radio people; it’s a completely different thing. Sure, they might have two million followers on TikTok, but those people aren’t coming over to the radio just because they like what you do online. I’m not saying someone like that can’t become a radio star, I’m saying you have to work with them to get there.” And since he’s passionate about the medium, Kanan is willing to be part of the solution. “We have to get back to live radio. I’ve even told (Audacy) to hire people for live night shows and I’ll work with them. I’ll help them.”
But for Kanan personally, being allowed to continue to fly solo and do his show is the most important thing. “I just prefer doing everything. I like answering calls and talking to listeners even if you don’t put them on the air because that’s another connection you’re creating.”
He feels the result of going alone is a creative radio show that sounds the way Kanan wants it to. “Usually when you come up with an idea you have to have meetings and get everyone’s input. Now when I come up with an idea I just do it and I think it works better for me that way.”
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