KSTE

Talk 650 KSTE is an AM talk radio station owned by ClearChannel. That pretty much makes it conservative talk by default, but their sister station KFBK carries Rush Limbaugh and the other biggies. That means that KSTE carries quite a few local shows and winds up being much less conservative in the mornings.

Like many ClearChannel talk stations, KSTE streams their broadcast over the Internet. One can listen to the broadcast at their web site; Windows Media Player required.

Schedule

6am to 10am - Armstrong and Getty

A laidback, fairly non-political (for talk radio) show. When the media went crazy about the Scott Peterson trial in 2004, they were sent to cover the trial. Instead, they interviewed the other media people, asking why they were insisting on such heavy coverage. The show often starts at 5am, but the first hour on KSTE is a replay of the 9am hour of the previous day, sometimes preempted by paid programming.

Jack Armstrong lives in Davis and can be spotted at 5:45am crossing the causeway eastbound on his motorcycle. His former wife is a scientist, possibly working at UC Davis. She is doing research that involves human blood, and is Native American. He also has an imaginary adopted son, known as "Jack Junior" on the show. Jack collects and plays guitars, playing local venues such as Delta of Venus, sometimes alone and sometimes with local modern bluegrass and cow-punk bands such as The Spillit Quikkers. He runs in the local Turkey Trot.

Joe Getty plays guitar in the local band The Mighty Josephine (under his real name rather than his radio name, presumably), which used to be West Memphis Three. They perform now and then in various Davis venues, and often in West Sac and Sacramento. He has a son named Declan, a daughter named Katelyn and a black lab named Onyx. He may have moved to Davis recently; unlike Jack, he doesn't say where he lives.

10am to Noon - Phil Cowan

Sometime in June 2006, the legendary radio duo of Paul Robbins and Phil Cowan split up. Paul can still be heard on KGBY Y92.5 in the mornings, but Phil went for the talk show. It's still a bit early to tell how entertaining "The Phil Cowan Show" is, but he doesn't miss the (very) early hours needed by the FM show. Prior to the split, Paul and Phil did the morning Y92.5 music program and used to be the Discovery Channel's "Answer Guys". Paul is a fairly open minded Republican while Phil missed two weeks early this year because he was at the Burning Man festival. As a result, they tended to tear into any topic from different directions.

Late night - Coast to Coast AM

Ah, Art Bell's baby. If you have never listened to Coast to Coast, it is well worth it... everything from UFO abductees to "shadow creatures" to psychics to vampire hunters (no... really). George Noory is the new weekday host, and isn't quite able to step into Art's shoes, but the wackos still come out, both as guests and as callers.

Other Programming

In the afternoon and evenings, they also have Dr. Laura and a handful of conservative types, including some FOX Network regulars. One national host from Northern California (Marin County) is controversial conservative Michael Savage, most notably fired from MSNBC for an anti-gay remark.