Party Like It's 2008?

Sometimes I like to say, "the more things change, the more they get back to the way they were before". That applies to talk radio in the Los Angeles market.

Today, local talk radio station KABC* AM 790 is looking more like 2008 than it has since... 2008. That is because Doug McIntyre is back on morning drive and Larry Elder is back on afternoon drive.

I was happy when I heard the new schedule. I like T-Rae, McIntyre's new co-host. I will miss her as the news anchor during John & Ken on KFI, but then I will probably be listening to Larry Elder more than J&K, so it kind of evens out.

I'm so glad Larry has been moved from the 9am-noon slot. I would listen to him when Dennis Prager was a repeat or had a guest host, which meant I didn't hear him much. Now I'll be able to listen to Limbaugh as my back-up to Prager.

While I will likely pick Elder over John & Ken, I will still want to know what J&K are talking about since I like their analysis of local and state government, and criminal defense attorneys and their clients. But if I have to, I can podcast them (not that I have much time to listen). So when Elder is on break I will check out J&K. The drawback to Elder being in the 3-6pm slot is that I'll hear less of Frank Pastore on KKLA 99.5 FM. When J&K were on break or talking about something I didn't care about, I would listen to Pastore.

Getting back to the 5am-9am show... I'm glad there will be a real alternative to that "baby-seller" Bill Handel, who has the time slot at T-Rae's previous station. I've been listening to Handel more as a default, and while there is much I enjoy about Handel's show, I often enjoy his show more when he has fill-in hosts. Usually, with the shows I listen to regularly, I don't listen to fill-in hosts. The exception is when Rush Limbaugh has Walter E. William filling in – I will choose Williams over just about anything else. But Williams guest hosts about once a year, as he just did during the holiday break.

Speaking of the holiday break, with Dr. Laura running "best of", I didn't need to listen to those podcasts, and some of the other shows to which I listen were running repeats or had guest hosts at least part of the last few weeks, so I was able to catch up somewhat on the Bible Answer Man podcasts and a more specialized podcast I won't name for the sake of my semi-anonymity.

As far as the Los Angeles area radio market weekday schedule, this is how things are looking for me...

5-9am Bill Handel on KFI and McIntyre/T-Rae on KABC

9am-Noon Dennis Prager on Townhall.com or KRLA, with Rush Limbaugh on KFI as a backup.

Noon-3pm Michael Medved on Townhall.com or KRLA, with Sean Hannity on KABC as a backup.

3pm-7pm Larry Elder on KABC (until 6), John&Ken on KFI as a backup, and Frank Pastore 4pm-7pm as a backup.

If Tom Leykis comes back to terrestrial radio in April or later, I'll be interested to see where and when, and how I'll end up actually reacting with my listening habits.


*Don't let the call letters "KABC" fool you. KABC used to be an ABC radio station, and still carries ABC Network news, but after Disney bought ABC, eventually Disney spun off some of their radio ownings to Citadel, which then went bankrupt, and now the Citadel stuff ended up with Cumulus. But I'm guessing the call lettes "KCUM" are either taken or not allowed by the FCC, for reasons any 13-year-old boy can tell you if you don't find it readily apparent. Anyway, KABC AM is not to be confused with local ABC owned-and-operated KABC-TV Channel 7.