KYLD - Controversy

Controversy

In 1993, a story was circulating that President Bill Clinton tied up traffic on an LAX runway for over an hour while getting a haircut on Air Force One. KYLD's morning DJ Mancow Muller staged a parody of the incident on the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge during rush hour. He used vans to block the westbound lanes on the bridge while his then sidekick, Jesus "Chuy" Gomez, got a haircut. As a result of this stunt, Muller was not only fired from the station, but prosecuted and subsequently convicted of a felony by a San Francisco Municipal Court. His sentence included three years probation, a $500 fine and 100 hours of community service. KYLD eventually paid $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a bridge commuter.

After Muller's departure, KYLD replaced his program with yet another successful—and yet later, another controversial—morning show, The Dog House, hosted by JV (Jeff Vandergrift) and Elvis (Dan Lay). Their program became the #1 rated morning show in the Bay Area receiving higher ratings than Howard Stern. Despite their success in the ratings, they would find themselves in trouble with station management over a series of stunts that would get them in hot water with the local authorities. One stunt in particular had members of the show dressed up as escaped inmates (and law enforcement officials to fine them for the prank and endangering the public) and causing a walkout at a San Jose high school. But the last straw for The Dog House came on April 21, 2005, when station management fired the show after they made offensive comments toward two female members of the San Francisco Renegades Drum and Bugle Corps. The band's members, Lisa Johnson and Robin Kinoshita, were at the station to promote an annual fundraiser when JV and Elvis allegedly made lewd remarks towards them. JV has since returned to KYLD as their morning host.

On August 6, 2008, KYLD PD Jazzy Jim Archer and evening host Joe Breezy were fired over an April Fool's Day 2008 prank, in which the station promised to give away a pair of breasts from "Dr. Sanders." Unfortunately, it was a promo to give away chicken breasts from Kentucky Fried Chicken. The winner was not impressed and filed a complaint against the station. Joe Breezy is now at KDND/Sacramento, California and also voicetracks an airshift for KMVQ.

Since the late 90's, KYLD has been heavily criticized for their frequent repeats of the most current songs, often multiple times in the same hour. KYLD management has yet to make a statement in this regard.