Kevin Ryder Returns to KROQ For Afternoon Drive, Five Years After the Station Fired His Morning Show

Five years after KROQ fired Kevin Ryder and his morning team at the start of the pandemic, Ryder is returning to the station. Ryder spent 30 years at KROQ as one half of the “Kevin & Bean” duo, and was inducted into two radio halls of fame for the legendary run.

Ryder will take over the afternoon drive slot from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., while Megan Holiday, who currently holds that slot, will shift to nights. Ryder first showed up on the air on April 1 — and listeners were left wondering if it was an April Fool’s Day prank, something “Kevin & Bean” used to regularly due during their heyday.

“We were going back and forth and they said, ‘when do you think you can start?’ and I said, ‘April Fools would be hilarious,'” Ryder said of his new one-year deal at the station, with the option for a second.

Variety had the chance to sit in with Ryder on Tuesday, where he revealed that the deal to come back to KROQ came down to the wire — on Sunday night it was looking official, and he finalized the pact on Monday, with the goal of quietly showing up on the station on April Fool’s Day.

“It’s really bizarre in that this is where I spent half my life,” Ryder said Tuesday of being back at the station for the first time in five years. “Because it feels like home and it also feels like the craziest, weirdest outer space thing in my life. What a strange situation, pulling up to the building and looking at it in the parking lot and remembering where the ticket thing is and where I need to get it punched and all of that. I love doing this. I remember beng in college and I used to play a Rick Dees Top 40 countdown on the radio, and I remember thinking to myself, wow, it would be amazing to work in Los Angeles one day and getting on a cool station.”

Later in the show, Ryder included a comedy bit from another former “Kevin & Bean” partner, Ralph Garman, who called in to voice the character “Linus,” who would show up on “Kevin & Bean” over the years as “Kevin’s assistant.” And Ryder also took calls from listeners, giving impressions in order to win Coachella tickets.

Of course, in Kev-Dogg fashion, at one point he accidentally said the call letters “KLOS” instead of “KROQ.” Ryder was indeed back!

Read more here.

Former KROQ 'Kevin & Bean' Co-Host Kevin Ryder Moves to KLOS

The post-"Kevin & Bean" saga continues, as Kevin Ryder returns to the Los Angeles radio airwaves on Thursday. As I wrote in Variety:

A year after KROQ owner Entercom shocked the radio biz by yanking the station’s morning program, “Kevin in the Morning with Allie & Jensen” (the successor program to three-decade staple “Kevin & Bean”), host Kevin Ryder is prepping a return to the Los Angeles airwaves.

Ryder announced this morning that he’ll be joining Doug “Sluggo” Roberts to co-host the afternoon drive shift on crosstown rival KLOS, owned by Meruelo Media, starting this Thursday. The daily 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. shift will be in addition to the new daily show he launched last month with Mike Catherwood, “Great News! With Kevin & Mike,” which will continue to be produced weekdays as both a YouTube video and podcast.

“I’m excited, I’ve known Sluggo for 33 years, so we’ve always been friends,” Ryder said. “[He] was one of the first people to call me when I was let go.”

The pairing of Ryder and Roberts is a KROQ reunion of sorts, as Roberts spent decades doing shifts at KROQ (as “Doug the Slug,” “Sluggo” and various variations of his persona) while Ryder and Gene “Bean” Baxter joined KROQ in the mornings at the start of 1990. “Kevin & Bean” eventually led as No. 1 in the L.A. market during part of the 2000s, and the duo was inducted into both the NAB Hall of Fame and Radio Hall of Fame.

"Kevin & Sluggo" will air weekdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on KLOS starting Feb. 18.