Kevin and Bean

Kevin and Bean was the morning show on KROQ-FM, an alternative rock-format radio station in Los Angeles, California. It was hosted by Kevin Ryder and Gene "Bean" Baxter. The show was on the air from 1990 to 2019 and interspersed music and news with comedy, celebrity interviews, listener call-ins, and live music performances.
Baxter announced his departure from the show in early 2019, with his last show being November 7 of that year. The show continued on with new episodes and Baxter's nickname in its title until January 2, 2020, when the short-lived spin-off morning show Kevin in the Morning with Allie and Jensen debuted. Just over 10 weeks later on March 17, 2020, the spin-off was cancelled with all cast and crew fired, effective the following day.
History.
The show debuted on KROQ on December 31, 1989, when it hosted the annual countdown of the year's best songs.
On November 10, 2008, the Kevin and Bean Show started an afternoon segment, "Cinco De La Tarde" weekdays from 5-6 p.m. As of August 3, 2009, this segment has been discontinued and the morning show has been restored to its original 10:00 AM end time. A Best of Kevin and Bean show called "Same Shit, Different Day" was added on Saturday mornings airing from 7:00-10:00 AM.
On May 11, 2009, Kevin and Bean began syndicating on KEDJ, 103.9 The Edge in Phoenix, Arizona, KFRR 104.1 Fresno and KRZQ-FM Reno. The show is also available as a podcast on iTunes.
In February 2015 the Kevin and Bean show let go of long-time contributors, Lisa May and Boyd R. Britton (Doc on the ROQ). May started as a traffic reporter on the program and had grown to become a key contributor of the Kevin and Bean Show during her 24 years with the program, while Doc had been providing the news for 27 years. Kevin and Bean explained that management had made it clear audiences were not tuning in to KROQ for traffic or news, so the painful decision was made to make changes to the show. Allie Mac Kay later joined the show to help fill the role lost by the exit of May.
On April 14, 2015, Kevin and Bean were inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame during a ceremony hosted by NAB President (and former Oregon Senator) Gordon Smith. Bean said, "We are happy to share the recognition with our great team who works just as hard as we do to make the show successful." The three-day NAB trade show is held every April at Las Vegas Convention Center.
On March 6, 2019, declaring "Thirty years is a good time to stop," Bean announced that he would leave the show before the end of the year and move to England. His last day on the air was November 7, 2019.
On March 18, 2020, Kevin Ryder announced on Twitter that he and the other personalities on "Kevin in the Mornings With Allie & Jensen" had been fired.
Format.
Opening segments.
Each episode opens with an audio montage (usually created by Baxter) featuring musical and audio clips that draw from current events in politics, pop-culture, and the news. An overview of the day's show is also given, as well as any small talk about the cast's day-to-day lives.
Hourly segments.
Music from the standard lineup of KROQ-FM is played regularly during the program.
Recurring segments.
Many of the show's periodically recurring segments are based on listener participation and involve the hosts taking calls on a discussion topic or for a guest, or involve games and contests created around promotional giveaways. Ryder and Baxter will also occasionally read emails sent to them, and play messages from the show's voice mail service, known as the "Afro Line". Other segments focus on the hosts and their personalities and quirks, like "Thanks for That Info, Bean", which pokes fun at Baxter's intense interest in seemingly trivial topics, and "A Moment with...", where a humorous audio clip of a statement made on-air by a host is replayed. "Would You Like to Take That Back?" is another feature during which the hosts give each other the option of "taking back" an unsuccessful or poorly delivered joke or pun.
There are several other segments that frequently happen on the show. "Bean Makes Us Guess" is when Baxter finds a list from the internet and has the rest of the crew guess the top 10 (such as the Top baby names of 2018). Ryder often does not take the game seriously and makes nonsense guesses. Another segment hosted by Baxter is "What's up with Florida?", where Baxter brings bizarre stories from the state of Florida. Ryder hosts a similar segment, called "People are Dumb", where he brings in stories of people making questionable choices. A weekly Thursday segment is hosted by Karp, called "Get Up on This" (based on his former podcast), where he gets people up on things that people might not know about that he thinks people should.
Several segments feature regular guests, including sports updates from both of the "Petros and Money Show" with Matt "Money" Smith (former "Kevin and Bean Show" sports reporter) and Petros Papadakis. Since January 2010, Dr. Drew Pinsky, whose syndicated radio program "Loveline" was broadcast by KROQ, has also appeared frequently on the program.
The show also features a listener call-in segment on Friday's called "Keep it 100", where listeners can text in to request a song from the station's catalog to play on the air. The 100th caller gets to have their song played on the air. Baxter often presents some facts about the song, and Mac Kay tries to guess the year.
Closing segments.
The program generally ends with a short preview of the next show, and on Fridays the show closes (and opens) with a cover of "Don't Bogart Me" by Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise (a song first performed by the band Fraternity of Man), as performed by the hosts.
Cast.
Kevin.
Kevin was born Kevin Ryder in Phoenix, Arizona on March 29, 1962. He was married to Melissa Ryder until they separated in 2017. Kevin and Melissa run the Friends and Helpers Foundation, based out of Encino, California.
Since January 2021, Kevin hosts "Great News with Kevin and Mike" with former "Kevin and Bean" producer and former Loveline co-host Mike Catherwood. The YouTube series derives from a weekly "Kevin and Bean" segment created by Allie Mac Kay.
Bean.
Baxter was born on November 14, 1959 and resided until his early teens in Bingley, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. He graduated from Bowie High School in Bowie, Maryland, in 1977, and speaks with an American accent. He claims to suffer from memory loss, due to a childhood injury sustained from a car accident.
He is married to Donna H. (Mendivil) Baxter, who works as a fashion designer.
After moving from L.A. to Seattle (and later, New Orleans) Bean continued with the show by broadcasting from a room in his house where he had a sound mixing board, recording equipment, a video monitor showing staff in the KROQ studio in Los Angeles, a computer and a microphone attached to a high-quality phone line.
Baxter currently resides in the United Kingdom. He hosts a fee-based podcast on Patreon with Allie Mac Kay, "A Cup of Tea and a Chat." He also contributes to UK-based Podcast Radio and guest-hosted from England The John and Ken Show on KFI in December 2020.
Other cast members and staff.
Also on the show at the time it ended were:
Former cast members.
Personalities no longer with the show include:
The B-Team Podcast.
Current and former members of the Kevin and Bean show, including Lightning, Omar and Dave started a podcast documenting the behind-the-scenes look at the show in July 2017. Each week they look back at different bits, or moments in the show's history and help to retell the happenings of the Kevin and Bean show over the years. They also take listener feedback from emails to help address questions people have about the show.