What’s Behind KFI’s Firing of Tom Leykis? : Radio: Dropping of host--and Daryl F. Gates stepping in--stuns audience. At issue--Leykis’ salary, view he was a malcontent.

The sudden firing of KFI-AM (640) personality Tom Leykis left both listeners and radio industry insiders stunned. Why would the station drop the market’s top-rated afternoon talk-show host, seven months before his contract was up?

With no advance announcement, Leykis was replaced Tuesday by former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates. Gates simply appeared on the air in Leykis’ 3 p.m. slot, saying he knew listeners would be shocked but asking that they give him a chance.

Although KFI management has been largely closemouthed on the subject, saying only that Leykis’ dismissal after four years at the station was motivated by “things other than ratings,” it appears from interviews with other station sources that the firing centered mostly around Leykis’ high salary and, secondarily, on a perception that Leykis was a malcontent and was seeking work elsewhere.

Leykis was the highest-paid KFI employee, with a salary close to $400,000 a year, according to sources. They said that station executives seemed to think he would be asking for a big pay increase when his contract expired in April, and they were looking instead to cut costs.

A source close to Leykis said the talk-show host “is paid three times more than anyone else there is paid. The broadcast industry is in a recession and my guess is they want to cut costs to the bone. So they hire a guy who’s 65 and has no broadcast experience,” referring to Gates, who actually turned 66 in August.

Leykis had sought to open discussions about renewing his contract early this year--14 months before the current pact was due to end. But he said that his efforts were essentially ignored.

Because he feared he might lose his job when his contract was up, Leykis said, he took time off from KFI to take “fill-in” assignments at radio stations in Chicago and New York, and to attend a national broadcasters’ convention at which he let program directors know he might be available for work. Such activity angered his bosses, sources said.

“Part of the problem is that the management at KFI has been really (angry) with him,” said George Green, general manager of talk station KABC-AM (790), KFI’s main competition. “Leykis has been auditioning all over the country for a spot and that doesn’t sit well with management.”

But Leykis said that his actions were not intended as pressure tactics.

“I want to make this very clear: My No. 1 goal was to stay at KFI,” Leykis said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “I had no interest in leaving. I filled in at other places because I knew if I were available someday they would talk to me. When I went to other places, the whole idea was trying to let everybody at KFI know that the end of the contract was coming.”

Meanwhile, loyal Leykis listeners flooded KFI with calls, some to express their objection, others merely to get an explanation. When they were able to get a station employee on the line, some said, little information was forthcoming.

“I have been calling KFI repeatedly and it’s impossible to get through,” said Shauna Weaver of Fullerton. “I’m going to go nuts on the freeway without Tom Leykis.”

“I’m not sure that anything we say to them (the listeners), they would buy,” said General Manager Howard Neal. “Many of the personality and talent contracts today are so tight you sometimes can’t say things. And I think listeners have got to know that there are reasons you can’t say anything. There are a lot of circumstances surrounding why we did this. There doesn’t need to be a lot of things said on either side.”

Neal stressed that a radio station has the right to hire and fire without making public its reasons.

“The reasons are a lot more complicated than simply ratings, or money or personality,” said KFI program director David Hall. “If it were simply that Tom was asking for too much money or we simply didn’t get along, we’d say that. The problem we’re up against is it was a really complicated decision that was truly based on a lot of things.”

Neal and Hall said that the opportunity to hire Gates--who filled in at KFI for three days in August--was too good to pass up. Gates retired in late June after 14 years as chief and a tumultuous final 16 months that began with the police beating of Rodney G. King and culminated with the Los Angeles riots.

Hall said the station was looking for “the most stimulating local person we could find. There’s only one thing that we look at that stands out more than anything else: Will the talk host be controversial? Will he be entertaining and stimulating? We thought Daryl proved himself on each of those points. If there’s one person in Los Angeles that literally knows where all the bodies are buried, it’s him, and it’s that strength that we’re going to rely on.”

Hall said that he was also inspired by the success of Watergate co-conspirator G. Gordon Liddy, who has a popular talk show in Washington, and by the talk programs of former New York Mayor Ed Koch and San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock.

Gates will be on the air weekdays from 3 to 6 p.m. Leykis had been on from 3 to 7 p.m. The 6-7 p.m. slot was given to Barbara Whitesides, who is now on from 6 to 9 p.m.

Even before Tuesday’s developments, there had been speculation in the radio industry that KFI was preparing for a personnel change. New Jersey radio personalities John Cobel and Ken Champeau have said in interviews that they are coming to work at KFI, and KFI officials have not denied it.

But Hall and Neal did refute the suggestion that Gates was only filling the afternoon slot until Cobel and Champeau arrive. Gates is their permanent afternoon host, they said.