John and Ken - Political and Social Activism

Political and Social Activism

In 2001, Kobylt gave cheese to Mexican immigrants waiting in line to turn in INS documentation, which Spanish media asserted was insensitive.

In 2003, Kobylt and Chiampou were instrumental in the recall of California Governor Gray Davis. Davis, who was derisively called Gumby on the show for his shifting positions on issues, was criticized on a daily basis for the state's budget deficit, signing a bill that would give drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants, increasing the state's car licensing fee, offering large concessions to state employee labor unions, and for his alleged role in creating the California electricity crisis. The hosts regularly had recall petition gatherers on the air and almost immediately threw their support to Arnold Schwarzenegger when he announced he would run for governor. On October 6, 2003, as part of the fallout from Schwarzenegger's scandals, the hosts read information from the Los Angeles Superior Court, purporting that one of the key accusers against Schwarzenegger had a long criminal record. In fact, the information retrieved was about an individual who had nothing to do with the scandal, and the pointers to the information were provided by a Schwarzenegger assistant. The hosts apologized on October 8, after the election.

Increasingly, after Schwarzenegger's 2006 re-election, Kobylt and Chiampou criticized several of his policies, as Schwarzenegger moved to the center following the election. The tirades culminated with an image of Schwarzenegger's head on a sword after the governor signed the largest state tax increase in United States history (eclipsing the New Jersey increase).

In the run-up to the 2004 elections, their main issue was fighting what they saw as misguided policies of the federal and California state governments to encourage illegal immigration. They devised a "competition" that they dubbed Political Human Sacrifice, in which five Republican Representatives from California were grilled regarding their stance on illegal immigration. The "winner" would be the Representative whom the show's listeners saw as the worst on illegal immigration restriction; Kobylt and Chiampou would endorse his or her opponent in the general election and urge listeners to vote for the opponent. Political Human Sacrifice was conducted in a fashion similar to reality television series such as Survivor. U.S. Representative David Dreier won the nomination as the "victim" of the "sacrifice." Kobylt and Chiampou also designated a Democratic Congressman, Joe Baca, to be "sacrificed" in the general election. The comments about Dreier resulted in a complaint to the Federal Elections Commission being filed by the National Republican Congressional Committee, which was rejected by the FEC on March 17, 2006. As it turned out, both Dreier and Baca won reelection, but this apparently has not deterred Kobylt and Chiampou from their activism on this issue. Dreier outspent his opponent by 30 to 1 and won with 54% of the vote versus 43% for his opponent, his lowest percentage in 24 years. On the other hand, Baca appeared to have been unaffected as he garnered 66.4% of the vote in 2004, exactly the same percentage as his 2002 vote.

On May 2, 2005, KTLA entertainment reporter Sam Rubin made comments alleging that Kobylt employed an illegal immigrant. Kobylt demanded that Rubin apologize on his program for making this allegation without any basis in fact, and later Kobylt's wife called in to berate Rubin for making the statements. Rubin later apologized and retracted the statements on the KTLA 5 Morning News, as well as on The John & Ken Show.

Kobylt and Chiampou often do various stunts in regards to their topics. When Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said to a group of illegal alien supporters "We clean your toilets", the duo urged their listeners to send toilet brushes to the mayor's office, of which thousands were received. Other jokes include taking Cardinal Roger Mahony's words of, "So Disappointed," whenever the duo are talking about illegal immigration.

When Long Beach, California residents protested the presence of several paroled registered sex offenders living in one apartment complex, Kobylt and Chiampou hosted a remote broadcast near the complex on February 19, 2008. Fueled by this story, on March 11, 2008, and approved with a required second vote on March 18, 2008, Long Beach City Council members voted 7–0 to enact 18 ordinances heavily restricting the residency and recreational activity of all registered sex offenders.

In September 2011, Kobylt and Chiampou expressed opposition to the California Dream Act, a bill that would extend financial aid to immigrants regardless of their legal status. As part of their opposition, they broadcast the cellular number of a spokesperson for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). The spokesperson received several hundred phone calls from irate listeners, some of which expressed threats towards the spokesperson. CHIRLA said that the phone number was a private number, although the number was listed on the press release for the event. Subsequent to this, CHIRLA has called for the cancellation of The John and Ken Show, which KFI has resisted. Observers such as Gustavo Arellano have said that the show targets Mexicans specifically, in contrast to other KFI hosts such as Bill Handel that make light of all races, a charge the hosts deny. Kobylt apologized on KMEX-TV to Cabrera for the behavior of their listeners.

In February 2012, John and Ken were suspended for making disparaging comments in reference to Whitney Houston. While speculating on Clive Davis's reaction to Houston's death, Kobylt imagined Davis calling her a 'crack ho' and making other derogatory comments on Houston's alleged drug use and mental state. This caused a stir in media circles and in the African-American community as racially insensitive reference to the recently dead singer. They were suspended seven days, "for making insensitive and inappropriate comments about the late Whitney Houston". John Kobylt later said, “We made a mistake, and we accept the station’s decision. We used language that was inappropriate, and we sincerely apologize to our listeners and to the family of Ms. Houston.” Many in the Los Angeles radio market came to John and Ken's defense including KROQ's Kevin and Bean who used an entire segment of their February 17, 2012 show to discuss the duo's suspension and the current overall state of political correctness within talk radio.

The duo was named one of the 100 most influential people in Southern California by the Los Angeles Times in 2006.

Similarly, Governor Jerry Brown singled out Kobylt and Chiampou, along with Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, taxpayer advocate Grover Norquist, and California Republican Party vice chair Jon Fleischman as a "legion of acceptability" in influencing Republican votes in the California State Legislature.