Bean Drops The Mic On Thursday
• UPDATED: It’s only fitting that Gene “Bean” Baxter is going out on top — RAMP has learned that Baxter’s final Kevin & Bean Show broadcast on The World Famous KROQ/Los Angeles will be this Thursday, Nov. 7 — one day before the duo is inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in New York. As Bean posted on his Twitter home page, “After 30 years on KROQ my last day is November 7th. Then, back home to England to get behind a new mic.”
We all knew this moment was coming since early March, when Baxter surprised the show’s longtime and loyal fan base when he formally announced he was leaving the station’s signature Kevin & Bean morning show after 30 years and moving back home to England, “the ninth largest island in the world.”
That Nov. 7 departure announcement was made last week following Kevin & Bean’s Breakfast with Green Day show on Oct. 28, according to the Los Angeles Daily News, which quoted Baxter as saying, “The last show, I’ll have some feels, there’s no question about that. But honestly, we haven’t scheduled anything. I think we’d like to incorporate some listener phone calls, but I don’t want a surprise and I’m not much into goodbyes either, to tell you the truth. I’m into forward momentum and I’m excited about what the show and station are going to be doing in 2020, and you don’t need to stop and think about me. Just move on to the next thing.”
What exactly that “next thing” is for the Kevin & Bean cast — Kevin Ryder, co-hosts Allie MacKay and Jensen Karp, Producer Dave “The King of Mexico” Sanchez, Associate Producer Christine Fung, Jonathan “Beer Mug” Kantrowe and DJ Omar Khan — remains to be seen, although Bean did tweet to us, “Thanks, guys… and the @KROQ morning show will continue, just without my dead weight!”
• Kevin & Bean were inducted into the NAB Hall of Fame in 2015, and this Friday evening, they will be enshrined in the Radio Hall of Fame alongside Sean “Hollywood” Hamilton, Harry Harrison, Joe Madison,Jim Rome, Ryan Seacrest, John Tesh and Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
