Kevin and Bean

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Cover of "Kevin and Bean's Last Christmas"

Kevin and Bean is the morning show on KROQ, the famous alternative rock-format radio station in Los Angeles, California hosted by Kevin Ryder (real name "Kevin Beyeler") and Gene "Bean" Baxter. The show has been on the air for over fifteen years and incorporates traditional radio format with celebrity interviews and live music performances.

The duo have released a number of charity albums, usually with a Christmas Theme. These have included "Kevin & Bean's Last Christmas" (proceeds to the Starlight Foundation), "Kevin and Bean: We've Got Your Yule Logs Hangin'", "The Year They Recalled Santa Claus", and "Christmastime in the 909" (a reference to the area code 909 for the often ridiculed Inland Empire).

The show often includes celebrity impersonations (provided by Ralph Garman, and occasionally, Psycho Mike), games, listener call in, and recaps of TV shows.

Contents

1 Personalities

1.1 Kevin
1.2 Bean
1.3 Other personalities
1.4 Famous past personalities

2 Recurring Themes & Characters/Running Jokes
3 Availability
4 Trivia
5 External links

Personalities

Personality quirks abound on the show, with Kevin and especially Bean, and their numerous other personalities.

Kevin

Kevin has odd interests that he mentions on the show from time to time:

is obsessed with midgets, or little people; he thinks they're cool.
has packages mailed to his home using fake names, such as "The Duke of Tarzana"
loves things so bad that they are in turn good, earning the nickname 'The King of Bad'. He loves Rob Schneider movies, and horrible reality shows.
loves Miami Vice. He even dressed up as Don Johnson one Halloween.
has a 'unique' command on the English language.
has short-term memory 'difficulties'. One game played on the show "Does Kevin Know" had listeners placing bets on what common knowledge Kevin would be able to remember.
is married to Melissa (who calls him "Lamby")
has twin daughters

Bean

Bean has odd interests and knowledge of little known subject matter. In particular Bean:

loves the Post Office and visits it frequently (he even had a poster of the postmaster general on his wall when he was younger)
loves 7-11 stores.
wore a Hello Kitty watch
owns many undeveloped websites, including one pertaining to the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (a Canadian ship that famously sank on the Lake Superior in 1975). Bean is obsessed with both the ship and the Gordon Lightfoot hit song about it.
is obsessed with Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto (he considers himself as a "Pluto enthusiast").
has a particular love for Asian women
claims to have few if any memories from childhood
is fascinated by "jet packs" and longs to own one some day
although Bean has yet to put up a personal website, he keeps a blog[link] that he updates everyday, which is frequently ridiculed by the staff. Once in a while they have a segment where the cast reads Bean's blog entries.
[more facts from IMDB]

Other personalities

Also on the show are:

Ralph Garman - The Man of 1,000 Voices (Bush, Gore, Cruise, Pacino, Michael Jackson, the Pope, Jerry Lewis), Ralph covers the regular entertainment news segments and often acts as a substitute when Kevin or Bean are not present. He is also known to unleash hilariously bitter rants aimed at the Kevin, Bean, 7-11 coffee lids (He prefers the"Solo" lids over the "Sweetheart" ones), random celebrity stupidity, and Joan freakin' Rivers. A recurring joke at Ralph's expense refers to his spending nearly 2 months filming "Two for the Money" with Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey, only to have all but a few minutes of screen-time cut from the movie.
Lisa May - Obstensibly the traffic reporter, Lisa May chimes in during most other segments, offering a female point of view, and often, the voice of reason. A good sport, she's not above putting her own foibles under the microscope and providing a focal point for the recurring game "Lick Lisa".
Psycho Mike - An assistant producer who is known for being the voice of "Kevin Federleezy" (and performing many hilarious hip hop songs in that persona), Mike also is the fearless "man with a microphone" who conducts interviews in such uncomfortable places as the gym shower room and the Magic Johnson Theatre. He's often kidded on the show about his ambiguous sexuality and his strange body-image neuroses.
Dave "The King of Mexico" - The show's notoriously lethargic phone screener, he recently set the Guiness World Record for constant TV watching. After a station concert or event, stories of Dave's drunken escapades run rampant.
DJ Omar Khan - A man behind the scenes. A running on-air joke told at each of the show's remote events has the on-air guys relating exaggerated tales of Omar's wild behavior only to have Omar interrupt and remind them that he's still back at studio while everybody else is having fun.
Producer Lightning (Jay Tilles) - The long-time producer of the show, he is often the butt of jokes regarding the pitch of his voice, the size of his monster truck, and the dozens of commercials he records. The nickname "Lightning" is supposed to be ironic, and references his annoyingly slow movements.
Assistant Producer Alex - A young, beautiful woman behind the scenes whose on-air contributions are usually limited to voicing "Britney Spears" and occassionally relating her own various sexual experiences.
Super Steve - The show's rotund man on the street, Super Steve calls in from remote contest events and at times travels to announce contest winners in person. In the past, he has contributed "The Whole Enchilada" segments which put a comic spotlight on issues in the Latin community.

Famous past personalities

The show has been the stepping stone for many celebrities.

Jimmy Kimmel got his start as their sports announcer.
Adam Carolla would do spots as the cranky Mr. Birchum (who later became a character on Comedy Central's Crank Yankers).
Matt "Money" Smith, Jimmy's replacement, now does pre-game, post-game, and half-time reports for the Los Angeles Lakers on AM570. He also co-hosts a drive time sports talk show with Joe Grande and Wayne Cook entitled "Good Times" Monday through Friday from 4-8 on AM570.

Other personalities no longer with the show include:

Big Tad, an overweight and incompetent production assistant, was fired and rehired by Kevin and Bean several times. He would also drive the KROQ van and give out prizes at various public locations. He was later given a job by Jimmy Kimmel and was seen on Jimmy Kimmel Live several times. Tad now works on Carolla's radio show.
Michael The Maintenance Man: an actual maintenance man in the building where KROQ had its studios. He would perform man-on-the-street interviews and make public appearances. He was heard on the show throughout the early 1990's.
Paul, The Forty Year Old Intern: Also known as the World's Oldest Intern, would appear in comedy sketches and was a tireless fan of Frank Sinatra. He sang (badly) in the Sinatra style many times on the show.
Chet Waterhouse, Sports Reporter: Actually stand-up comedian Paul Cesario. The character of Waterhouse was a stereotypical bombastic sports reporter who spoke in a mealy-mouthed voice and used rickety metaphors. He was replaced by Jimmy Kimmel.

Recurring Themes & Characters/Running Jokes

"Ding" - Bean often rings a bell at the mention of an attractive woman's name. The practice extends to when callers specifically greet Lisa May, usually with a suggestive tone. At one point, a children's bicycle bell was used when attractive but underage stars were mentioned, such as the Olsen Twins and Lindsey Lohan.
"The 909" - The guys often mock the Inland Empire area of southern California (which has the 909 area code) for being a home to meth labs and trailer trash. On one April Fool's Day, the show staged a fake Blink 182 concert in the area as an "apology", sending many 909ers on a frantic search for the bogus event.
"Rock Me Amadeus" - Ralph's affinity for the 80's pop song by Falco led to a string of listener-submitted stories that would give Ralph an excuse to play a clip from the song. When that song was eventually "retired", Ralph moved on to classic hits such as "She Blinded Me With Science" by Thomas Dolby and "Heat of the Moment" by Asia.
"Pedro Guerrero" - Riffing on the over-enunciated way that O.J. Simpson said the ballplayer's name on a 911 tape, the guys never pass a chance to repeat the name and will, at times, pronounce similar sounding names in the same way.
"Loquecia" - A character of Ralph's, this feisty African-American hairdresser calls in with recaps of whichever reality show is currently running, often pointing out how crazy white people are.
"There's always room for J-Lo!" - Although now seldom heard, for several years Ralph made almost daily mentions of Jennifer López in the entertainment news bits, each followed with a lengthy explanation of how, despite the busy schedule and numerous more important stories, they were able to discuss Jennifer as, "there's always room for J-Lo."

Availability

KROQ is a notoriously low-powered station and listeners in remote areas, or even in particular buildings, often have a difficult time getting clear reception of the show. As a result, listeners have complained for years that Kevin and Bean were not on the Internet. However this changed on February 6, 2006, when KROQ started streaming online. (KROQ also did not have a web site for many years after the Internet became established.)

Kevin and Bean were also broadcast in Fresno, California for several years, but that station began broadcasting the Adam Carolla Show when it started in January 2006.

The show runs from 5:30 to 10:00, weekday mornings. Between 5:00 and 5:30 will be 1 segment from the previous show.

Trivia

Most of the cast lives in Southern California, except for co-host Bean, who now lives near Seattle, Washington on Vashon island. He broadcasts via a phone line hooked up at his home. He used to live in Southern California, but moved to Washington in 1999.
Kevin and Bean start and end their Friday shows with a cover of "Don't Bogart Me" by Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise, sung by the cast.
The Kevin and Bean show was once the subject of an episode of Unsolved Mysteries following a caller claiming to have been the cause of an unknown murder. This event also became the inspiration behind the movie "Power 98" (1996) starring Eric Roberts. The call, part of a segment called "Confess Your Crime" was a hoax arranged with another DJ, Doug "The Slug" Roberts and resulted in KROQ being sued for mental anguish by parents of a missing woman who believed the caller was referring to their daughter. The station was later fined for the incident by the FCC and billed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which had invested time investigating the case.
The show caused international controversy when Ralph made a crank phone call to the office of French president Jacques Chirac while posing as Jerry Lewis. All were suprised when Chirac picked up the phone and began talking to "Jerry". Lewis's lawyers were quick to threaten with lawsuits and the bit has rarely been spoken of since.
Many of their stunts have been stolen by Rick Dees during his stint as host of KIIS-FM's morning show. Ryan Seacrest has stolen some of their most popular segments as well.
Every year on Lisa May's birthday, Kevin and Bean call QVC and purchase whatever is being shown on television at the moment for Lisa's birthday gift, regardless of the price or usefulness of the product.
Kevin and Bean debuted on the station on Dec. 31, 1989, when they hosted the annual countdown of the year's best songs.

External links

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