KFI AM-640 host Ken Chiampou is in his final week hosting the station’s early afternoon show before he retires. Morning host Bill Handel shared his sentiments on the longtime host Tuesday.

John and Ken are airing a series of tributes to Chiampou throughout the week, and Tuesday, Handel shared that the loss of the radio host is a big one for the iHeartMedia station.

“Frankly, it’s a big, big hit to KFI. Obviously, you’ve been a huge part, not only of the radio station, but of talk shows all over the country,” Handel said. “Everybody knows who you are. Even though I hate to say this — because that’s not how I role — you are going to be missed. And it’s kind of a nice feeling to end a career the way you are doing, leaving at the high end of your career.”

According to KFI, John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou are the longest-running duo in talk radio history. The pair have been working together since 1988, when they joined 1400 WOND in Atlantic City, NJ, after leaving competing stations in Elmira, NY. 

Hugh Hewitt welcomed author Tim Alberta to his Salem Radio Network morning show Wednesday to promote Alberta’s recent book. However, there was a point of contention about how the interview would be conducted.

While promoting that he’d appear with Hewitt, Alberta shared that he had agreed not to discuss Eric Metaxas and Charlie Kirk — Hewitt’s Salem Radio Network colleagues — during the interview, despite being prominent figures in his book The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism.

“I agreed to keep his Salem Radio colleagues, Charlie Kirk & Eric Metaxas, whose radicalism I document in detail, out of this conversation,” Alberta wrote in a post to X.

Hugh Hewitt followed that post up by pointing out the condition for Alberta to appear on the program and not talk about Salem Radio Network hosts isn’t a new policy for the longtime radio host.

“In the interests of accuracy, (Tim Alberta), on air I told you I don’t discuss colleagues from (NBC), (The Washington Post), or (Salem Media Group) on air and that therefore we wouldn’t be discussing Charlie or Eric, and you agreed to my groundrules,” Hewitt wrote. “It is a rule set for every interview with every author and guest for all three platforms. It is professional courtesy and I extend it to all my collegaues, present and past.”

New Jersey 101.5 Director of Content Anne Gress has departed the Townsquare Media-owned station.

Barrett News Media has learned that the station’s top programming boss has been let go as part of cost-cutting measures by the company.

Gress began programming New Jersey 101.5 in January 2018 after 14 years of leading CBS Radio’s classic hits station WOGL in Philadelphia. In 2020, she added programming duties at station WPST, a CHR station.

Her other prior stops include urban formatted Power 99 and smooth jazz WJJZ in Philadelphia, and Q105 in Tampa, among others.

Under her leadership, New Jersey 101.5 finished the Trenton spring ratings period with a 7.9 share in the 6+ demographic, 2nd overall among all local stations. The dominant talk brand featuring Bill Spadea, Deminski and Doyle, and Dennis and Judi also delivered a 5.2 share in the Middlesex-Summerset-Union market.