Ralph Garman Leaves KROQ ‘Kevin & Bean Show’ After 18 Years
Longtime Los Angeles radio icon Ralph Garman announced that this Thursday’s show would be his last.
Garman made the announcement during KROQ’s “The Kevin & Bean Show,” where he worked for 18 years and contributed entertainment news through his Movie Beat and Showbiz Beat segments. He is also a voice actor and often did celebrity impressions and voice gags on the show.
CBS Radio was recently acquired by Entercom, which has led to changes in KROQ operations. Garman’s exit from the program was confirmed by the “Kevin & Bean Show’s” official Twitter page.
“I’m glad I had the chance to do it. A lot of people don’t in the world of radio, when it all ends, they don’t get a chance to say anything, they just become a footnote,” he said as he teared up during his final Showbiz Beat segment. “So I appreciate the powers that be at KROQ giving me the opportunity to say goodbye to everybody and that’s what I really wanted to do more than anything else because the highlight of this whole experience for me has been the people who listen and I just can’t thank you enough for having spent some time with me for the past almost two decades.”
“It’s a longest I’ve ever done anything and professionally and personally, the KROQ listeners have been remarkable to me, so I just wanted to have the chance to say goodbye and they gave me that chance and I want to thank you and also tell you that it’s been an honor and a pleasure to be able to give you a laugh or smile at some point during your day,” he continued. “That was always the goal for me and I hope to be able to do it again someday. I don’t know what’s next for me. This is the end of a chapter, but hopefully not the end of you and I spending some time together.”
Garman’s former KROQ coworkers said their goodbyes on Twitter. Host Kevin Ryder said that Garman “put this show on his shoulders,” while Gene “Bean” Baxter called him a “uniquely talented man” and Ted Striker referred to him as a “genius.”
Filmmaker Kevin Smith, who co-hosted a podcast with “Hollywood Babble-On” with Garman and often featured him in his films, chimed in on Twitter, saying that he was fired “because of budget cuts. But worse? They won’t let Ralph say WHY he’s fired on @kevinandbean today!”
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