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What started the rivalry between Tom Leykis and Phil Hendrie?

R

radioandpodcastjunkie

New member
Phil does a character based on Leykis called "comboverboy". Ive searched Tom Leykis archives on his website and cant find him talking about Hendrie. Im curious about the history of this radio rivalry and would appreciate some info on this.
 
radioandpodcastjunkie said:
Phil does a character based on Leykis called "comboverboy". Ive searched Tom Leykis archives on his website and cant find him talking about Hendrie. Im curious about the history of this radio rivalry and would appreciate some info on this.
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Sorry it took a couple of weeks to see this. If I recall, it goes back to the brief period when KFI moved Phil to afternoons (when John & Ken defected to KABC), putting him opposite Leykis on KSLX.
 
Wasn't "Combover Boy" developed before Phil moved to afternoons? Leykis has disdain for people who make a living mocking him, just ask Brian Whitman.
 
SimiRadioListener26 said:
Wasn't "Combover Boy" developed before Phil moved to afternoons? Leykis has disdain for people who make a living mocking him, just ask Brian Whitman.
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Or have fired him. In the 90s, I'd hear his syndicated show in the Bay Area on the late unlamented KPIX-FM. This was a while after he'd been fired from KFI, and replaced by former Police Chief Daryl Gates. Leykis would spew about that frequently, and referred to the station as "KKKFI."
 
Here's what I remember of the Leykis-Hendrie rivalry.

Tom Leykis, Phil Hendrie and Howard Stern shared the same agent: Don Buchwald. Howard Stern would visit Phil Hendrie back in the day at KFI when he was in L.A. and watch him work and do his all of his characters. Stern was a big fan of Hendrie and on good terms with Leykis.

Tom, will not tolerate people imitating him in any way like Phil Hendrie or Brian Whitman. He has threatened them with legal action in the past.

I always had the impression that Phil resented Tom for his success. It was clear that when Don Buchwald agreed to become Tom's agent he had a plan to eventually pair Tom Leykis with Howard Stern on the same station. That was very successful for KLSX from 1997 when Tom joined and developed his Leykis 101 material until Howard left 97.1 for Sirius/XM. After that Adam Carolla could not hang on to Stern's audience in the morning. I remember Tom Leykis having some health issues and explaining that mold discovered at his Hollywood Hills home had affected his vocal chords. Tom made a seven figure salary for all those years at KLSX afternoons and Don Buchwald had something to do with it.

A few years ago Tom Leykis and Phil Hendrie were on the same stage together on a panel at the Talkers convention in NYC if I am not mistaken.

Phil Hendrie never made the amount of money that Tom made in syndication. Maybe there was some tension there because of them sharing the same agent that made Tom and Howard very rich.

@radiocph Leykis was on KMPC 710 after returning from Boston in 1992 (his return to the L.A. airwaves after he was fired from KFI by David G. Hall) after it flipped from all-sports. Tom was on 3-7 and would get angry that his syndicated show would be interrupted in L.A. by Angels baseball and Clippers basketball. He then left KMPC, but continued to do his show for the old Westwood One. He would fill-in at KABC once and awhile before joining KLSX for the hot talk format in 1997 until 2009.

Hendrie had a few good years at KFI, but nothing like what Leykis accomplished at KLSX.
 
BMedina said:
Here's what I remember of the Leykis-Hendrie rivalry.

Tom Leykis, Phil Hendrie and Howard Stern shared the same agent: Don Buchwald. Howard Stern would visit Phil Hendrie back in the day at KFI when he was in L.A. and watch him work and do his all of his characters. Stern was a big fan of Hendrie and on good terms with Leykis.
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Somewhere around here, I have a tape of Stern's first day in LA. He said some nasty stuff about Tom, but it might have been just for show....
 
Great piece of audio. This was before Tom Leykis became a client of Don Buchwald. Tom had been critical of Howard Stern on KFI a few times, I remember when they would do their annual show with all the station hosts including Rush Limbaugh at KFI, Leykis would be critical of Stern. When Howard entered the L.A. market he felt that Leykis and others had "stolen" his act. Later on when Leykis signed on with Stern's agent Don Buchwald, things changed. Tom recently said he had seen Howard at an event in New York a few years ago. Tom now has nothing, but great things to say about Howard. I think they both realize they complimented each other all those years on KLSX, but before that when Tom was on KFI there was a little bit of a rivalry. That's why Stern calls him "Mr. Los Angeles," in this piece of his first L.A. show. Thanks for sharing that audio.
 
...Tom has an extensive history of these on-and-off rivalries. On the day in August 1999 when Steve Dahl pulled the ISDN line from WCKG Chicago to his WKRK Detroit simulcast, leaving WKRK with dead air in afternoon drive for about 20 minutes, WKRK picked up Leykis' Westwood One show early at the top of the next hour. Tom spent that day's first two hours roasting Dahl for the benefit of the Detroit audience. Six years later, when WCKG added the Leykis show as Dahl's lead-out, Dahl crapped on Leykis daily while Tom couldn't kiss Steve's a$$ enough...
 
Wow, the "Meeting of the Mouths" brings back memories....even a traffic report from Mark Denis (RIP)....Thanks for the link!
 
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