Longtime listeners to KFI (640 AM) know the name Chris Little. The former news reporter-turned news director was with the station for 33 years before being let go in an iHeart Media mass layoff in late 2024; he was let go along with half of the station’s news department.
Little made KFI news what it was: quick, concise, and extremely popular. KFI was the station many from Southern California tuned to in an emergency, instead of even all-news competitor KNX (1070 AM, 97.1 FM). KFI won more awards for news coverage than did KNX, at least during his tenure.
He’s officially retired now, but like so many retired people, he’s still working. His current project is a podcast, entitled “The Death of News,” available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
When I first heard the title, I thought it might be about iHeart, but as it turns out, it’s not. It’s better, and far more entertaining. This is the podcast that would make my senior high school English teacher, Mr. Bergeron, very happy.
Little imparts wisdom developed over his many years of reporting news on the radio and training others how to be better reporters. The focus is on what he considers mistakes, along with suggestions on how to improve radio reporting, essentially giving listeners an inside look at what he did and how he trained his staff at KFI.
His inspiration comes from hearing others report the news incorrectly, according to Little. He points out when reporters use clichés, refer to someone as an “eyewitness” when they didn’t see anything, or speak in ways regular people just don’t.
My teacher Mr. Bergeron used to talk about this in class years ago, giving examples of things that would drive him crazy. Hearing a reporter saying “at this point in time” or worse, “at this particular point in time,” instead of the equivalent single word “now” was one of his biggest peeves.
Little describes much the same thing.
“I spent years with (former KFI reporter) Steve Gregory,” Little told me, “making fun of TV news and the empty-headed reporters saying things normal people would never say, or just grabbing the first person they found to be an ‘eyewitness.’
“One day, I was having lunch with Steve, and he mentioned I should do a podcast about how horrible some reporting really is.” The title came about when Gregory drew a tombstone on a napkin: The Death of News was born.
Broadcast news is a special thing, and radio even more so. There’s not much time to get a story across, so proper word choice is essential. At the same time, you don’t want to sound artificial. Little calls this “conversational reporting” and it has special requirements. You want to make sure you’re accurate, have the facts verified, and give the news without bias. As well, you want to credit sources not only for transparency, but to give credit where it’s due. These are the foundations of his podcast.
Little detests poor grammar, the misuse (or total lack) of verbs, misinformation, and just plain lazy and inaccurate reporting; these topics make up the bulk of his episodes. You might call it a training ground for young reporters, and the information can be applied to all reporting or writing, including this very column. Indeed, many of the tips my editor gives me are covered by Little.
Segments are short, generally less than ten minutes, and he gives examples of what he considers bad writing or reporting with insights on how to fix it. The importance of doing so is obvious: “When journalists are inaccurate and inflammatory, they hurt their credibility and they hurt the credibility of journalists in general,” he said in one episode, “and we’ve got enough credibility problems already.”
But the point is not to bash people trying to do their job. Even in retirement, Little loves the news. He watches and listens to newscasts constantly, and his belief is that it can and should be better. In his view, he told me, “Doing the podcast can hopefully help prevent the death of news.”
KOLA’s Slick replacement
When longtime air personality Vic Slick retired in mid-December, KOLA (99.9 FM) found itself in need of a replacement. They found him inside their own studios: Freddy Rivera, who has been doing weekends and fill-ins at the station for the past five years. Most recently hosting the Saturday night shift, he was announced as Slick’s replacement, effective January 14th.
Rivera has been at a handful of other stations locally and far away, including KGGI (99.1 FM), KIIS-FM (102.7) and KDMX/Dallas.
Richard Wagoner is a San Pedro freelance columnist covering radio in Southern California. Email rwagoner@socalradiowaves.com