KFI cancels talk show as AM radio struggles

The change appears to be part of a wider restructuring by parent iHeart Media.

- MEG JAMES

"I GAVE it everything I had," said longtime host Morris “Mo” O’Kelly.

(Morris O’Kelly)

Radio and podcast giant iHeart Media has canceled the evening talk show “Later, With Mo’Kelly” on KFI-AM (640), as the latest wave of job cuts sweeps the radio industry.

Morris “Mo” O'Kelly had hosted the program for nearly three years. Previously, he anchored KFI’s weekend “Mo Kelly Show” for more than a decade after joining the historic Los Angeles station in 2011.

O’Kelly’s last night on the air was Oct. 6.

“I gave it everything I had,” O'Kelly said in an interview Tuesday, adding that he was proud that his show “was a true representation of what I wanted talk radio to be. ... I wanted to bring voices of people less often heard, viewpoints less often expressed and communities less often featured.”

It’s unclear how many people KFI cut beyond O'Kelly, his producer and a marketing manager. Host Chuck Dizzle also announced on Instagram that he'd been cut after 10 years from iHeart’s Los Angeles hip-hop station KRRL-FM, which brands itself as “Real 92.3.”

News reports suggest that the layoffs were part of a larger companywide restructuring.

Separately, Karen Sharp, host of “Love Songs on the Coast” at sister station KOST-FM (103.5), retired Friday after 38 years playing love-song dedications — once a sweet spot for radio programmers. “You shared your breakups with me, wedding proposals, the passing of a family member,” Sharp told listeners in her final sign-off. “Most of all, you shared your heart.”