I grew up in Orange County. I listened to KROQ in middle & high school, through college when I was home on breaks, and thus have been a fan of Kevin & Bean, their morning DJs, for a long time now. I appreciated their wry & often immature sense of humor and they were two of the small number of acceptable voices of authority on the alternative/rock station that was supposed to be the station we kids listened to when we had the car to ourselves, since it was "too noisy" for our parents. They had a female sidekick (now Lisa May), interns to bag on & blame for mishaps, and some other guys that hung around (remember Jimmy the Sports Guy, a.k.a. now fancy-pants Jimmy Kimmel who has his own late-night show?? Currently they have Psycho Mike, among others, who apparently went to my spouse's high school) to keep things going.
Throughout and directly after college I lived in the Bay Area, so I wasn't able to follow them for a while. When I moved back down here 5 years ago and started listening to KROQ again, I slowly began to realize that Kevin & Bean had grown older just as I had. The more I listened to them, the more forced their own laughter became. And their attempts to relate to current events in music & alt/rock culture seemed less & less genuine.
Throughout and directly after college I lived in the Bay Area, so I wasn't able to follow them for a while. When I moved back down here 5 years ago and started listening to KROQ again, I slowly began to realize that Kevin & Bean had grown older just as I had. The more I listened to them, the more forced their own laughter became. And their attempts to relate to current events in music & alt/rock culture seemed less & less genuine.
So, I began listening more and more to KLOS. The newer alt-rock on KROQ was sounding more pop-y to me and as a fan of the oldies, I'd always had an appreciation for classic rock, which is their metier.
(Aside: My unconditional love for K-EARTH, the local oldies station, became quite conditional when I realized they'd added 70s & 80s pop songs to their playlist. I mean, c'mon, is it really right for a radio station to play doo-wop back-to-back with new wave? You cannot play Rod Stewart's "D'ya Think I'm Sexy?" right after The Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody". No, no. Not in my book. I'm all for variety, but when I listen to a specific radio station, I don't want the same variety I can get with my iTunes on shuffle mode. I want the Four Seasons, Beach Boys, Sam Cooke, and Elvis Presley. I do NOT want Billy Idol, 80's Billy Joel, Hall & Oates, or Belinda Carlisle.)
KLOS also has two male morning DJs, named Mark & Brian. They also have their female sidekick, currently Kelli. They have their interns and other peripheral cast members with unique personality traits, hobbies, or cultural differences to make fun of. I remember seeing billboards & TV ads for them when I was younger, but back then KLOS was considered an old-fogey's station to me, so I never tuned in. But as I began tuning in to Mark & Brian, I was more comfortble with their sincerity in accepting their age and the age of their target audience. That, and I guess I'm now an old fogey!
With Kevin & Bean, I'm mainly turned off at the idea that they are now 25-30 years older than the listeners their station is supposed to be targeting - to me that just seems anachronistic to a fault. That's like if my 63-year old father tried to convince my 4-year old niece why Curious George is way cooler than Clifford the Big Red Dog. My dad doesn't know! He shouldn't care! He has no frame of reference to make such a claim or purport his opinion on the situation. That's how I feel when I hear Kevin & Bean try to profess their views on young Hollywood starlets, the Twilight phenomenon, and over-tweeting. Mark and Brian do also talk about mostly the same stuff but from the perspective of a more paternal figure - they accept, own & rock the fact that they've had their day in the sun. They have the proper amount of annoyance and distance from the fact that their kids' phones constantly chime at the dinner table. Kevin & Bean are like the mom trying to stay hip and be best friends with her daughter's friends. Mark & Brian are like your curmudgeonly uncle making fart jokes.
Further evidence that Kevin & Bean are losing their touch, is that they now have to bring in Adam Carolla once a week to keep things kicking. Don't get me wrong, I love Adam Carolla - I think he's hilarious - the man has brought me to tears on several occasions with his infamous rants. My point is that Adam Carolla is a TV/radio personality in his own right - most definitely more famous on a national (dare I say, international) stage than Kevin & Bean. He has his own daily PodCast now, and was (up until last year) the host of his own nationally syndicated morning show having taken over Howard Stern when he left "regular" radio for satellite radio back in '06. Now, if one show's hosts need to rely on another show's host for variety and laughs, doesn't that tell you something?
I dunno. KROQ will always be a preset in my car radio, and I'll switch over to them every so often in the mornings on my drive to work just to see what antics Kevin & Bean are up to - but it still makes me a little sad just listening to them, feeling like they're those house guests who have overstayed their welcome, listening with empathic embarrassment that they don't realize they're simply too old to be doing what they're doing. Or at least they sound like they are. Perhaps I'm being ageist. All I know is I will release a small sigh of relief when I hear KROQ has new morning DJs.
(Aside: My unconditional love for K-EARTH, the local oldies station, became quite conditional when I realized they'd added 70s & 80s pop songs to their playlist. I mean, c'mon, is it really right for a radio station to play doo-wop back-to-back with new wave? You cannot play Rod Stewart's "D'ya Think I'm Sexy?" right after The Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody". No, no. Not in my book. I'm all for variety, but when I listen to a specific radio station, I don't want the same variety I can get with my iTunes on shuffle mode. I want the Four Seasons, Beach Boys, Sam Cooke, and Elvis Presley. I do NOT want Billy Idol, 80's Billy Joel, Hall & Oates, or Belinda Carlisle.)
KLOS also has two male morning DJs, named Mark & Brian. They also have their female sidekick, currently Kelli. They have their interns and other peripheral cast members with unique personality traits, hobbies, or cultural differences to make fun of. I remember seeing billboards & TV ads for them when I was younger, but back then KLOS was considered an old-fogey's station to me, so I never tuned in. But as I began tuning in to Mark & Brian, I was more comfortble with their sincerity in accepting their age and the age of their target audience. That, and I guess I'm now an old fogey!
With Kevin & Bean, I'm mainly turned off at the idea that they are now 25-30 years older than the listeners their station is supposed to be targeting - to me that just seems anachronistic to a fault. That's like if my 63-year old father tried to convince my 4-year old niece why Curious George is way cooler than Clifford the Big Red Dog. My dad doesn't know! He shouldn't care! He has no frame of reference to make such a claim or purport his opinion on the situation. That's how I feel when I hear Kevin & Bean try to profess their views on young Hollywood starlets, the Twilight phenomenon, and over-tweeting. Mark and Brian do also talk about mostly the same stuff but from the perspective of a more paternal figure - they accept, own & rock the fact that they've had their day in the sun. They have the proper amount of annoyance and distance from the fact that their kids' phones constantly chime at the dinner table. Kevin & Bean are like the mom trying to stay hip and be best friends with her daughter's friends. Mark & Brian are like your curmudgeonly uncle making fart jokes.
Further evidence that Kevin & Bean are losing their touch, is that they now have to bring in Adam Carolla once a week to keep things kicking. Don't get me wrong, I love Adam Carolla - I think he's hilarious - the man has brought me to tears on several occasions with his infamous rants. My point is that Adam Carolla is a TV/radio personality in his own right - most definitely more famous on a national (dare I say, international) stage than Kevin & Bean. He has his own daily PodCast now, and was (up until last year) the host of his own nationally syndicated morning show having taken over Howard Stern when he left "regular" radio for satellite radio back in '06. Now, if one show's hosts need to rely on another show's host for variety and laughs, doesn't that tell you something?
I dunno. KROQ will always be a preset in my car radio, and I'll switch over to them every so often in the mornings on my drive to work just to see what antics Kevin & Bean are up to - but it still makes me a little sad just listening to them, feeling like they're those house guests who have overstayed their welcome, listening with empathic embarrassment that they don't realize they're simply too old to be doing what they're doing. Or at least they sound like they are. Perhaps I'm being ageist. All I know is I will release a small sigh of relief when I hear KROQ has new morning DJs.
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