A Detrimental Partnership

Some things in your life, you do well. You know a lot about those things, maybe from experience, maybe from formal education and training, maybe from educating yourself. You do those things well and will likely be able to do those things well until you die or unless you get serious dementia.

Imagine if someone came into your life who clearly, objectively, provably, wasn't very good at doing one of those things, or at least nowhere near as good as you, yet you now were compelled to partner with them in the matter, meaning they would get to make a lot of the decisions, or you were expected to clear every significant decision with them.

This is what can happen when a man who has his financial act together marries.

The Passing Parade of Radio

Once upon a time, there were AM and FM radio, record/tape/CD players, and that was about it for your listening choices.

Now, thanks to satellite radio and smart phones (and tablets and laptops that can stream), there are endless choices for you: live streams, podcasts, audiobooks, etc. abound in addition to satellite radio and AM and FM radio.

It’s not just listeners who have more choices. So do advertisers.

This has unavoidably meant terrestrial radio (AM and FM) in general, talk radio included, have suffered.

Gone are the days “everyone” listened to one of a handful of morning shows and afternoon drive-time shows.

This is why there are fewer talk shows that have live callers on-air. This is why there’s more syndicated programming instead of local. This is why some stations have gone away entirely - not a format flip, but the frequency itself going silent. This is one reason why so many of your favorite radio personalities have been dismissed or have left. It doesn’t help that rock music is dying. You can find terrestrial radio stations playing the same 25 rock songs from the 1970s onward, but for how much longer? There are no new superstar iconic rock bands and the existing bands are literally dying out, retiring, or only touring to play their old hits, since touring can pay, new recordings not as much.

When Howard Stern left for satellite radio, I didn’t care enough to pay up. I had plenty of other choices to listen to in the morning for free. From what I understand, Stern now only does his show a few days per week, the weeks he actually does it, and (as his former employee John Melendez put it), has turned into the kind of host he used to goof on. If I wanted the present-day Stern’s take on things, I only have to read the New York Times.

Dr. Laura, who loathes any comparison to Stern, also left terrestrial radio for satellite radio. Now her, I followed, but it’s clear many people didn’t. To this day, she gets callers who rediscovered her because of getting a new vehicle with a temporary subscription to SiriusXM. How many never rediscovered her? I didn’t get satellite radio. I’ve been paying for the podcast version of her program. I’ve been contemplating dropping it, though.

In what has to be humiliating, Dr. Laura is currently having trouble selling out a theater for two performances of… a lecture? I don’t know. It’s supposedly what she’s learned. Maybe more people would go if she was going to be candid about her journey from her first marriage, to the days she was with Bill Balance, to shacking up with an older married father and having a child with him, to embracing Orthodox Judaism and then dropping it, to getting to the point of what she now preaches. 

That she’s obviously had trouble getting enough people to buy tickets for her live appearance in the market that’s always been her home market is revealing, considering she used to have bestselling books and the number 2 or 3 national radio program. Combine that with her dropping from five days per week to four and still filling some of the time with unannounced recordings of previously aired calls, and I have to wonder if she really is going to refuse to retire and be allowed to continue.

Dennis Prager has also reduced his show. In addition to being away for listener trips and Jewish holidays, he’s often traveling or in meetings during his show’s hours. But he dropped from 3 to 2 hours. He claimed it was so he could finish writing projects, but I have to wonder if his employer (Salem) asked him to take a pay cut and that was part of the reason. I also pay for the podcast version of his show and I almost never listen to the guest hosts.

Saddest of all to witness is Michael Medved. His employer, Salem, stood by him when he needed time away to battle throat cancer. I’m so glad they did and so glad he beat that. But his rejection of Trump during the 2016 election appears to be when things started to unravel for him. He had been one of their national hosts, but he was dumped and replaced with Sebastian Gorka, who worked for Trump.

Finally, about the start of 2024, he was dumped by his home station. As of now, I don’t think there’s a radio station he’s on. I haven’t found one listed on his website. Instead, he has a podcast. I used to subscribe to the podcast version of his radio show, but I wasn’t getting enough out of it relative to the time needed to listen, so I couldn’t justify the expense.

At least Larry Elder is back on Salem programming after taking time off to “run for” Governor of California and then for the Republican nomination for President. I write that as “run for” because, while I like the Sage, he had to have known he wasn’t actually going to win, so his candidacies had to have been about something other than his winning those elections. That’s fine; many people run for various reasons. But I’m glad he’s back on free radio.

All of the above are in their 70s. How much longer will they be doing radio? Who will replace them? Yes, there are newer, younger hosts, but will those hosts ever have the same influence these others once had? Will they actually broadcast on free radio?

Almost as old as the hosts listed above is Tom Leykis. Except for the occasional interview or filling in for a day, he hasn’t been on radio since early 2009, so that’s one reason he’s last in this post. He ended his live, self-owned Internet stream in late 2018, doing a podcast since. Then, this year, he retired himself. Not only did he announce the end to his podcast, but he shut down his entire operation, removing his archive. He cites insurance concerns, meaning a fear of getting sued over something he said, but I think he doesn’t want the hassle or expense of maintaining an archive and handling customers.

This, too, shall pass.

Problems With Statistics in Selling Marriage to Men

Statistics are about a population, not individuals. What happens in your life either will happen or it won't (usually depending on your choices) - so it is either 0% or 100% for you. Statistics can tell you the odds, all things being equal, but things aren't equal. Let's take college graduates, for example. The average person with a Bachelor's degree is going to earn more than the average person without a college education. Yet some of the people with the highest incomes or the most wealth never graduated from college. This includes tech leaders, professional athletes, entertainers and authors, and various businesspeople. [Please note that this entry was posted several years ago. It still holds up pretty well.]

Statistics usually can't tell you why something is the way it is. For example, statistics will tell you that if you compare 200 people in a hospital and 200 people in an apartment complex across the street, you'll see that you're far more likely to die in the hospital than in the apartment complex. What are we to think as a result? That hospitals are harmful to our health? Or that people who are seriously sick and injured go to a hospital, where some of them are going to die, but more of them would die if they hadn't gone to the hospital?

Talk show host Tom Leykis, like a lot of other people, will tell you that half of all marriages end in divorce, and that more adults are unmarried now than married, as if this is some profound shift in how people look at life. However, most of the shift in married vs. unmarried involves people getting married later in life, such as their late 20s or early 30s instead of their early 20s. Although there is a growing percentage of men swearing off marriage, it is still a small group and most people will get married at some time in their lives. As far as divorce, Leykis has had four divorces. I've had none. If you average us together, that means the average person has two divorces. That's a little misleading. First marriages have about a 40% divorce rate, which is still way too high, but it isn't 50%. It is the high divorce rate for second, third, etc. marriages that skew the statistics. (On the other hand, perhaps even MORE marriages would end in divorce if it were for fatal illness and injuries, murders and suicides ending someone's life before they could divorce – so just because a marriage didn't end in divorce does not mean it was a good marriage.) 40% is the rate for all first marriages. I wonder what the divorce rate is for people who marry into a first marriage: 1) without children from other lovers or a current pregnancy influencing their decision; 2) after about 18-24 months of being a couple (but not too much longer than that); 3) without having shacked up OR being "long distance"; 4) after six months of intense premarital counseling with a LMFT; 5) with the same or compatible religious beliefs or practices and plans for children; 6) with no credit card debt; 7) without substance abuse problems. My guess is that divorce rate for such marriages is very low.

Conversely...

Tom Leykis Has Transitioned

No, not like that.

As he announced he would a month ago, he has ended his live call-in audio show. He last had a regular radio show in 2009, started up this Internet-based call-in audio show in 2012 after his contact with the radio company (and the accompanying paychecks) ended. While that show was placed into subscription podcast format after in ran live on the stream (on which it would be repeated) for free, now Leykis is specifically doing a podcast for paid subscribers, who can also access the content from 2012 onward.

This means he's no longer doing a live, appointment show. It gives him far more flexibility, while trading away caller participation.

While the call-in show generated enough revenue through subscriptions, advertisements, and other ways to more than cover costs (sans a healthy paycheck for Leykis), it is possible he'll make more money from his new podcast format.

How so, given that he won't have as large of an audience for advertisers to reach?

Not Booked

Someone commenting here reminded me of something I was thinking about the other day.

Wasn't Tom Leykis' book supposed to be released this month? It was going to be about Leykis 101, which essentially teaches men how to get more sex for less money.

It's placeholder has disappeared from Amazon.

I haven't heard the book mentioned on the show lately.

Tom's live, free, call-in show is about to end, but he does plan to start podcasting for paid subscribers.

At this point, it wouldn't be all that difficult for an avid listener to publish a well-organized and annotated book with the exact same information, while avoiding using the name "Leykis" or some of Tom's favorite phrases and personal stories. Granted, that listener wouldn't have Leykis' name recognition or media connection for ready publicity. Tom would probably argue that multiple people have already tried.

It did seem strange that the placeholder listed that the book would be released the same month Tom was ending the current version of his show.

The book could still be used to promote the subscriber podcast and archives, and perhaps Tom is revising the text to do exactly that. Heck, he could string together segments from his archives to compile an audiobook.

Tom's Final Month of Doing a Live Show

At least for now.

Tom Leykis announced on today's show that his last live audio show will be Thursday, October 25, 2018. He has been saying all year that this day was coming.

What he plans to do is keep his library of shows available for paid subscribers only and to do some new content via podcasts, starting October 29, only for paid subscribers.

He mentioned that he's had to cancel (or postpone) two of his dinner events due to a "minor medical issue" and his dinners were what was keeping the business profitable this year. (Haven't heard him mention the 1,900 subscriber mark lately.) He doesn't want to operate in the red, and doing the live show costs approximately half of a million dollars per year, so he's ending the live show. A podcast should cost less to produce, but he insists it will still have a high cost compared to many other podcasts because he wants the quality to be high.

So, with six straight years of profitably, he's calling it a day and making a change.

Of course, there is always the possibility that some company will offer to pay him enough that he'll take them up on the offer. SiriusXM had enough money to buy Pandora, or so it seems. I can't see him doing that unless the deal is very lucrative and/or he is given nearly total control over the show.

As of this writing, his book is still listed on Amazon as being released October 15, which is about three weeks away, even though there is no cover art and minimal information shown.

Where's the Book?

As I wrote tangentially in a long entry about the Tom Leykis Show, the lack of mention of his book on his show indicated to me that the project is in limbo or even scrapped, even though a couple of years ago it sounded like it would be for sale within a few months.

This week, a caller mentioned the book but Leykis didn't address that part of the caller's comment at all.

A search on Amazon comes up with this, which is placeholder. It gives a price, a description (apparently boilerplated from existing Leykis media), and a release date (when I checked) of October 15, 2018. That's a Monday. Books are released on Tuesdays. If the placeholder was put there by a fan, it means absolutely nothing. Do we have any reason it was put there by Leykis or a publisher?

I'm curious because, if done right, the book, which would focus on the core of "Leykis 101" which is about "how to get more tail for less money" can be informative, persuasive, entertaining, and provocative. While I do not advocate fornication, other parts of Leykis' "course" are broadly applicable and I support them, such as spending as little money on women as possible, avoiding marriage and exclusive relationships, not tolerating troublesome women, and generally preventing women from exerting control over or negatively influencing your life.

I can't help but think of what the book should be like. Each tenet of L101 could have its own chapter, explaining what to do, why it works, and providing examples from Leykis' life, the lives of his callers, and the news. I could even see Leykis promoting the book  and answering questions like, "Aren't you afraid this will allow women to figure out your tactics?" with "The women my readers wan't don't read books."

Anyway, with how transparent Leykis has been about everything else, his silence on the book, along with the delay, indicates that something has gone wrong and I would not count on a book being release in mid-October.

UPDATE: On his Tuesday, March 20, 2018 show, a caller asked about the book during unscreened calls, and Leykis  said it is in the editing process. So that's good news.

Tom Leykis is on Farewell Tour

Although Tom Leykis insists his decision to end his show came early this year, after he got sick and some fans got snarky, he also insists that was very low on list of reasons and keeps saying his fans "tested" him by dragging their feet on (re)subscribing in 2017. They did reach 1,900 subscriptions like he demanded in order to return in 2018, but apparently it wasn't fast enough for him, despite it being before his deadline. So he's "back for 2018" but only as long as the show is generating enough revenue to break even or better. He'll no longer beg for subscriptions (which is entirely understandable given how much time and effort it took last year), other than mentioning that the show will end its run when the subscriptions fall to a level that won't cover expenses. He's also said the library of past shows will be available to subscribers after the end of the show's run as long as subscriptions cover those expenses.

He's admitted he thought he could be dying when he was sick. I think that has more to do with his decision to end the show than he's indicated. He knows he's got less life to live than he's already lived, at least chronologically, and the fact is, like anyone else, he could die tomorrow. I'm sure he wants to travel and party and relax and not be obligated (by his own word) to do 12+ hours of live shows every week (and all of the related work, which we don't hear)  when he can't be certain he's got many years of good health left. As I said before, even though he hasn't said so, he probably got a little bit excited last year at the thought of starting another chapter in his life if the subscriptions didn't reach 1,900, which would have meant January 2, 2018 would have been the end of his show.

Tom Leykis is BACK - But The End is Near

Talk show host Tom Leykis returned to doing live shows this past Friday, February 2, after announcing he was going to make an announcement on Wednesday, January 31, and that announcement being that he was going to be back on Friday to make some announcements. Got that?

After being very sick for weeks, and having a bad voice as a result, it was good to hear him back on the show and seemingly healthy. He ended up doing a show for about four and a half hours.

The biggest announcement he had is that he's ending his self-titled show this year. He didn't provide an exact date, but he said the show would not exist in 2019.

From what he said, it sounds like there are multiple reasons for this.

As I Guessed

On yesterday's show, Tom Leykis confirmed the threshold had been met and his show will continue. He came on live to make the announcement despite his voice being seriously limited by illness, because he'd  promised that date as the date of the big announcement.

Hopefully, he'll fully recover ASAP.

It will be interesting to see how many people bought yearlong subscriptions that will lapse (due to their intention setting or due to credit card changes) in December of this year. If enough other people subscribe or renew throughout the year, or a significant new sponsorship gets into place, it won't matter.

If Leykis still has a book coming, that should get him a new wave of listeners/callers/subscribers.

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 Flaw in Tom Leykis’ Logic

It's been almost ten years since I published what is below the fold. It still stands up.

You're not going to find a better talk show host than Tom Leykis when the topics are the radio and television industries. He's also brilliant when it comes to personal finance and money management, entrepreneurship, motivation, and how to avoid marriage, avoid relationships, and how a man can "get more tail for less money".

One of the areas he falls short in, however, is when he blasts Christianity or a general belief in God. He's a lifelong atheist. But there are atheists out there far more knowledgeable and willing to debate much more seriously than Leykis. So when he tries to goad people to call up and argue with him about God, it isn't surprising that it doesn't "work". He tried having a semi-regular segment to his show called Ask the Atheist, but he dropped it for lack of calls (his audience is different now that his show is streamed online rather than on terrestrial broadcast radio), and today he tried (and failed) to do an unofficial Ask the Atheist hour by saying Hurricane Harvey is proof there is no God. There are many, many, many, many, many serious essays on natural disasters/suffering and the existence of God that Leykis could critique during his show, or he could have a Christian apologist on his show if he was really interested in a serious discussion. Instead, he's inviting his listeners to call in, most whom are primarily interested in how to fornicate with as little trouble as possible. If anyone does try to take the position of Theism or even Deism, Leykis resorts to the tactic of essentially repeating "Sez who?!? and "Not so!!!" and all sorts of sleight of word, redirection, etc. Most of what he does is to provide an entertaining show, but this appears to be an attempt at an ego boost or confirmation bias. Whatever the case, he isn't open to serious discussion on the topic. If he was, it might actually be a more successful segment to the show.

But let's get to what I wrote ten years ago.

Was Sacks Sacked?

As I previously blogged, attorney Adam Michael Sacks would do the Tuesday "bonus" hour of the Tom Leykis Show, and for me, it was must-listen. Recently, that arrangement ended, and as far as I know, all Leykis has publicly said about it is a terse written statement indicating the involvement had ended. No reason was given.

Since Leykis' Internet-based audio talk show began (after the terrestrial broadcast corporate radio version had been off of the air for a few years and Leykis rode out the rest of his contract), Sacks would not only do that hour on Tuesdays, alternating between  "criminal law" (mainly DUI and marijuana violations) and "family law" (mainly divorce, alimony, child support, and child custody), but he would be at listener parties  and events and his ads would run throughout the show. And by his ads, I mean ads for his law practice that featured copy read by Leykis, and ads for becoming an advertiser with The New Normal (Leykis' businesses) as spoken by Sacks. Sacks and Leykis even talked on the show about work Sacks had done for Leykis, such as with traffic tickets and with getting a restraining order against a radio show host Leykis and/or Sacks have described as an obsessed fan. Finally, Sacks would often appear during other times on the show by calling in to answer questions and give advice to another caller.

Of course, listeners have speculated as to why Sacks and Leykis have parted ways. Leykis has had his staff go back and eliminate the Sacks bonus hours from the archive files available as podcasts to paid subscribers. To paraphrase Leykis, he did that because those hours were essentially infomercials. However, there was some entertaining and informative content to many of those hours.


What could the reason be for ending the professional relationship? I have no more insight than any other frequent listener who occasionally visits the show's Facebook page. I figure there are several basic plausible reasons, and it may be a combination of two or more of them. So in no particular order, let's consider them. Again, these are POSSIBLE reasons, I'm not stating that they ARE the reason(s).

Why I Listen To and Retweet Tom Leykis

Tom Leykis ridicules my faith and any faith that includes theism or anything supernatural. He thinks people like me are not smart. He dismisses many of the moral convictions I hold. He promotes abortion (and has paid for multiple elective abortions himself), even telling guys how to effectively prompt a woman to have an elective abortion if she's knocked up and he was at least one of the guys having intercourse with her. (To be fair, he encourages guys to avoid conceiving in the first place through vasectomies and condom use, although not abstinence). He sometimes bashes political figures and media personalities I respect and admire. Some of his political soapboxing frustrates me. I'm aging out of his target demographic.

And yet, I'm a regular listener.

Why? Many reasons. Here they are, in no particular order:

Does He Really Care?

I believe it was Dr. Laura's opening comments on her Monday, January 23 2017 show in which she listed and described ways to know a man loves you. If you listen to her or read her stuff, or follow this blog, you know that for her, dating is for discerning if you're a match for marriage. If you're in your late twenties or older, you're finding your spouse and you marry about two years after you start dating. (But keep in mind, if a guy is in his 40s and has never been married, he's probably not going to marry or probably not marriage material, and nobody with minor children should be dating seriously enough that the minor children meet their parent's new lover.)

So with that in mind, here's  Dr. Laura's list of signs he loves you, even if he hasn't SAID the words. Some of it might be slightly paraphrased from what she said:

You're having a bad day and he tries to turn it around, bringing sweetness into your life.
He remembers the little things you say and do.
What you say makes a difference to him.
He wants to know about your day.
He talks about his day.
He says and does cute little "nothings" (which Dr. Laura says are somethings).
He puts you first in front of his friends.
He wants to know more about you.
He loves to hold your hand.
He enjoys taking care of you  and wants to know you're OK.
He offers you a helping hand when you need one.
He remembers the special occasions.
He likes to be close, such as watching a movie and cuddling.
He wants to meet and know your family and to like them.

He talks about his dreams for the future, hints or talks about "our" future
He makes time for you.
Your opinion matters.
He can't stay mad at you for long.
He tells you what he likes about you.
He apologizes when appropriate.
He's very protective of you.
He touches you in subtle and loving ways.
He gets giddy.
He says nice things about you to others.

Where Was Kermit the Frog?

Tom Leykis spent the first two hours of his three hour show yesterday telling listeners they need to financially support his show. I pictured one of those PBS pledge drives of my childhood, with Kermit the Frog telling us why we should send in money. Of course there's a huge difference.

He's Not Late, He's Just Holding Onto the Ball

The opening of each Tom Leykis Show is now like a Phil Hendrie bit, only Hendrie would do it much better. Leykis refuses to actually start his show until he has over 1,000 people listening live. Unlike terrestrial radio, he knows exactly how many people are listening to him live at any moment, because his show is done via the Internet, and since he is self-employed, he can decide when to start the show. This has proven to be handy when there has been something going on in the evening and he wants to do the show earlier.

So now... the interstitial music will play (a metal-ish instrumental piece) and every so often he'll speak up and say he's not going to start the show until there are enough people listening. Listeners do tend to "tune in" late, six, seven, eight minutes or more into the show, perhaps, for some, because Leykis himself has often started a little late in the past.

It sounds a little funny, almost like a toddler saying he's going to sit on his rubber ball until the other kids nearby do what he wants.

At the other end of the show, Leykis also often threatens to cut the show short for the day due to a lack of calls even though he often will talk for 90 minutes without taking call (and sometimes to tell a story he could tell in much less time). He has indeed cut the show short a few times, but on the other hand, he's sometimes honored "we'll keep going until the calls stop" the other way, too, by doing an extra hour or more. That makes for an interesting show.

I also find the show interesting when he'll tall to his crew for an hour. He won't announce that's what he's going to do; instead, it sounds entirely spontaneous. I used to tune out when he did that on corporate terrestrial radio, because it never was of any interest to me, but since he's now self-employe and running his own company and free of FCC broadcast restraints, those discussion are fascinating, especially when they talk "inside baseball" about the show, dealing with fans, and the radio industry.

While I do pick at his show here and there and have a few serious disagreements with him, I strongly appreciate his business model, professionalism, and ingenuity. If I know an hour is not going to interest me, I won't listen, but he does have some of the most interesting talk show content to be found anywhere. And everyone should listen to his regularly weekly "bonus hour" at 6 p.m. Pacific Time on Tuesdays with an attorney who gives free legal advice and alternates criminal law discussion with family law discussion.  To be fair in getting back to the opening line of this entry - Hendrie and Leykis have completely different objectives, in that Hendrie does stuff like that to entertain, and Leykis does it to try to train his audience.

How Is It?

How is it that the same guy who berates and threatens his listeners for not calling in on some days, saying he's not going to do the "heavy lifting", rambles on for 30-60 minutes without taking calls on other days?

And there's nothing like taking 45 minutes to say something that could be said in about ten. That's a real talent, and it is a good one to have when you sell advertising and subscriptions.

How to Piss Off Tom Leykis - UPDATED

[Bumped up May 21, 2015 because Tom is throwing a tantrum because of a tweet made by some average Joe, who expressed regret that Tom had ever been a role model for him. Because this tweeter was religion, Tom starting ranting on religion again. It's an awful lot of time and energy on something Tom claims not to care about.]


[Bumped up YET AGAIN on May 14, 2015 because Tom was again berating his listeners, calling them stupid, and mocking them for not filling all ten of his phone lines. When they actually did call, he often knocked down strawmen, seeming to miss the real points some of the callers were raising about why more listeners weren't calling in. You can't make this stuff up.]

[Bumped up AGAIN on June 17. 2014 because Tom is again scolding his listeners, noting that summertime brings a drop in calls, and he even cut one of his Monday shows off a half hour early.]

[Bumped up because Tom is "warning" (berating) his listeners a lot these days for not calling in. I don't think I've ever heard another show host lecturing his audience in this manner and tone. I'm sure plenty of hosts have contempt or disdain for their audience, but they don't come right out and say it on the show. How many hours of the show can be about the show? I like some "inside" stuff, as long as it isn't too much, and as long as the host isn't wagging his finger at me for not calling in.]

Tom Leykis has been doing a great job with his new venture, at least as far as his signature show goes. It is even better than when it was on corporate-shareholder FCC-constrained radio. He plans for most of the shows to run live 3pm-6pm Pacific Time, but if there is a high level of interest from the audience, especially if that includes a high volume of calls (perhaps because of breaking news, or a really hot topic), he may extend the show an hour or more. He can see in real time how many people are listening via various ways of getting his show, which is Internet-based rather than on AM or FM radio.

Listening closely to his tone and some of his comments, he does, from time to time, get irritated with a lack of calls, and even warns that he'll stop any given episode of the show when the calls stop and go off and enjoy his wealth, even if that means stopping that day's show early.

That's where the fun comes in.

One of his advertisers is an attorney. That attorney is regularly scheduled for the "bonus hour" of 6pm Pacific Time on Tuesdays. One Tuesday the attorney will talk about divorce/family law. The next Tuesday he'll talk about criminal defense law (especially relating to DUIs), and it alternates like so. Tom and the lawyer take calls after discussing what are usually relevant current events and the callers will get free legal advice to a certain extent.

Here's where Tom's audience has the opportunity to prank or punk him.

It seems to me that Tom has to do all three hours of Tuesday's show because he has to do the fourth hour with his advertiser, who obviously has asked to be on the "bonus" fourth hour because of needing to work before then. That means there is no way Tom is going to end the show early on a Tuesday. That means that if the audience refrains from calling in, Tom will have to vamp (as he likes to put it), most likely by chatting with the crew. Or less-than-stellar callers will be kept on the show for a long as possible.  Especially if Tom figures out that the audience is doing it on purpose, he may get irritated enough to go on a rant about his own audience.

If it happens regularly, I wouldn't be surprised if he starts doing the Tuesday show at 5pm or even 6pm.

Just something to think about if you want to get under his skin a little bit.

And Tom, if you're reading this - you're welcome.


UPDATE: He went on a rant today (July 8. 2013) about the lack of calls in July 1 & 2, and saying that's why they took July 3rd off, and he expressed his contempt for people who were criticizing him for taking the 3rd off. He even threatened to take the summer off. Today was his first live show since last Tuesday. Oh yeah, he's ticked. I think he expected that, by this date, he'd have a higher volume of quality calls and more people paying for the premium access rather than listening for free to the live stream or the repeating show (which repeats until the next live show).

Tom Leykis Doesn't Really Know All That Much About Religion

But then neither do a lot of religious people.

Tom Leykis is an Atheist.  He makes no pretense of being Agnostic or anything like that. He states that there is no God, not that there might not be a God. He does admit his Atheism is a belief, but he falsely claims he doesn't try to get people to adopt his belief system.

The first two hours of his Thursday, January 8 show was the topic "Religion: Stupid". It was inspired, it sounds like, by the Islamist terrorist attacks that just happened in France.

1) His lumping of all religions together is like someone lumping all audio content shows (radio, podcasts, etc.) together and saying something like "Stephanie Miller did something terrible, so all audio content shows are stupid!" If Leykis wants to debate whether philosophical naturalism or a belief that there is a supernatural existence makes more sense, that's one thing, or debating the benefit of religious community, or ritual, or whatever, fine. But to lump all "religions" (by which he seems to mean anything that isn't Atheism or Agnosticism), which are highly diverse in beliefs, practices, and historical behavior, and then demand that someone has to defend them all, is an invalid exercise. I'm not obligated to defend belief systems and practices that are often exactly opposite of mine.


2) He repeats the common falsehood that there has been more death and destruction in the name of religion than anything else. First of all, "religion" is too broad a term. See #1. I know he doesn't consider Atheism a religion and since Atheistic rulers have been the biggest mass murders in history, then no religion can be.