Will There Be a Tom Leykis Cliffhanger? - UPDATED

As has happened in some years past, at least as recently as 2014, Tom Leykis, who evaluates his business goals on a calendar year basis, is warning his listeners that his live audio call-in show will end at the turn of the year unless the finances are favorable. Extremely transparent in comparison to so many other entertainers, he's insisting that unless he has 1,900 subscribers by the end of the year (and it is important to note the shows at the end of the year will be repeats due to the holidays), this version of his show, which started in early 2012, will end, with a final live show in early January to say goodbye. And as Leykis says, his word is his bond. As of this writing, he has nearly 1,800 subscribers. Unless the pace of subscriptions and renewals picks up, his live shows this year will end without it being clear if the goal will be met.

If you're not familiar with Leykis' business, you should be. And you should care what happens with it.


A longtime veteran of success in corporation-owned, terrestrial broadcast AM/FM radio, Leykis is one of the most talented talk show hosts still working, extremely adept at monologues, fielding callers, and guest interviews. However, with the terrestrial radio industry being technologically disrupted and the gigantic companies who own so many stations burdened with enormous debts mostly unwilling to pay to retain the best talent, Leykis created his own small company. That company offers live (then subsequently repeated) online streaming appointment content and subscription podcast packaging of the same content. He's been able to do this at a better profit-to-debt ratio than the big radio companies. His live audio stream can be accessed by anyone with a smart phone, networked tablet, or laptop or desktop with a network connection via his app or his website. What's more, while I have serious disagreements with him, Leykis is a much-needed male voice in media, unfettered by feminized & activist-weary program directors who must answer to corporate shareholders.

If Leykis' model endures, then radio refugees, both on-air talent and listeners, might have a path to follow as their industry crashes, burns, and is possibly reborn in different forms. That model is a live, appointment, call-in talk show for three or more hours per weekday, followed by repeats until the next live show. This show is partially supported by advertising, but far less than you'll find on radio. Subscriptions, allowing on-demand access and downloads of the show's archive, is another major source of the revenue that supports the show. Leykis also hosts live events and dinners, sells his custom, branded wines (apparently of serious quality, rather than some gimmick or someone else's product with a name slapped on it), takes flat-out donations, and uses Amazon linking to raise revenue, as well as a couple of other means.

While Leykis doesn't have a transmitter, he does have a studio to pay for, a small staff that has to be paid, bandwidth costs, and other expenses. He hasn't been taking a significant salary himself, putting the revenues back into the business. He has investments that provide him with enough money to live his life, which he made easier on himself by spending little on women and convincing the women who conceived children with him to have those children slaughtered via abortion. He refuses, though, to lose money on an annual basis to keep the show going.

It takes listeners, callers, and a mix of subscribers and advertisers to keep the show and the business going. There have been times in the past that Leykis has refused to start the show until there were enough listeners (thanks to technology, he can see exactly how many devices are streaming the show). People can listen for free. While they will hear the advertisements, they also take up bandwidth, so Leykis calls people who listen, but don't subscribe (or otherwise contribute revenue) "freeloaders". The problem with putting the show behind a paywall is that it would mean less value for advertisers and it would make it even less likely someone would stumble across the show by accident. (When on AM/FM radio, it was common for someone who'd done so to call in with anger or shock, and that was highly entertaining.) So for the time being, Leykis tweets out the need for subscribers and he'll talk about the need when a caller brings it up.

Leykis has done one-off simulcasts on terrestrial radio, has rented billboard space, and has tried some other things to get word out about how to find his show now.

So why is there a problem this year?

Part of the reason is apparently that, like so many other things, partisan politics have interfered. Leykis, who says he's an independent/libertarian, has been a consistent critic of candidate and President Trump and his supporters, often indulging and repeating some of the Democrats' and Left's most vicious attacks. He does this on social media as well as his show. This is apparently turning off some past or potential subscribers.

Leykis even took a look at some of the MGTOW activity online, which would seem to fit well with his Leykis 101 and Money Monday hours, but he concluded that the MGTOW community has 1) stolen his ideas, and 2) aligned itself with Trump and/or Alt-Righters and/or White Nationalists and thus Leykis has distanced himself from MGTOW after apparently posting some free advertising in one or more forum. For what it is worth, I see MGTOW as politically unaffiliated. I agree with much of MGTOW content but I reject racism in any form, and racism is NOT something inherent to MGTOW.

What might be related is his parting ways with a major advertiser, attorney Adam Sacks. As far as I know, Leykis and Sacks have both declined to explain why they parted ways or who made the decision, but it is easy to see that Sacks, who discussed family (divorce, child custody and support, etc.) and criminal law (DUI, domestic violence, etc.) on the show, has serious political disagreements with Leykis. Sacks was a major advertiser on the show, doing a live "bonus hour" once per week (those hours have since been scrubbed from the subscriber archive), running ads during the show throughout the week, and appearing at live events. Leykis has admitted that "losing an advertiser" has had a significant impact on the finances of the show.


Sometimes  the political stuff seems downright petty. Lately, Leykis has been tweeting and retweeting stuff to bash Papa John's pizza, after the company's founder/CEO said that the NFL players taking a knee during the National Anthem and thus turning off viewers has hurt business. Some of the stuff Leykis has been retweeting is stuff he seems to disagree with, based on things he's  said on his show, but all that matters is punishing Papa John's, apparently. It's kind of strange, really, and  off-putting.

Which leads me to why I don't subscribe.

I just can't get over his enthusiastic endorsement of elective abortion, including telling guys how to get a woman who claims to be pregnant by them to get an abortion. Leykis himself proudly talks about his own children being aborted. He's never wanted children but because of a phobia about doctors (he once spent an entire hour explaining an incident he could have described in two minutes), he hasn't gotten a vasectomy, a simple procedure he's encouraged other men to get. A visit to a hypnotherapist could address that phobia in one session, but here we are.

I also can't listen to the show when he does a Racism Hour. While honest talk about race issues can be refreshing, I believe Leykis' show, and not just limited to the occasional Racism Hour, ends up fomenting racism and self-defeating, victicrat mentalities (which is a shame, because he usually helps people overcome self-defeating thinking). But if you want to listen so you can hear how his voice changes when talking with African Americans about race issues, it can be entertaining, I guess.

So that's why I don't subscribe. But I do listen, for many reasons. I'd think Leykis would understand why someone would do that, especially given his encouragement for boycotting Papa John's based on perceived political aligment.

Leykis does have a book in the works that should be coming out soon. If his show continues, the book should help him attract more listeners, callers, and subscribers. I'd also think still having the show would, in turn, help book sales.

Will The Tom Leykis Show continue as a live, free, call-in show, being an example of how audio talk shows can continue as the big radio companies collapse? Or will Leykis ride off into the sunset? Or will he become a podcaster? Or will something else happen?

We'll have to wait and see. If you want to subscribe, you can.

UPDATE December 18, 2017: Given how the pace of subscription sign-ups/renewals picked up soon after I published this on 12/4, and the fact that Leykis subsequently stopped using show time to hound people to sign up, it seems clear to me that Leykis reached his goal before his last scheduled live show for 2017 on Thursday, December 14. After that show, there was the "subscriber-only" holiday party, at which he was supposed to make an announcement. He must have also instructed those present to refrain from revealing the announcement on social media, in order to get people to listen live to his next scheduled live show on Tuesday, January 2, 2018 (and, more importantly, to keep people purchasing subscriptions in case they were needed to reach the goal).

I'm fairly confident that on January 2, 2018, Leykis will triumphantly announce the goal was reached and surpassed and he'll point out that his company is in better financial shape than the large radio corporations, and thus the show will be around for another calendar year.