Not long ago on Twitter, KFI AM 640 newscaster Aron Bender was singing the praises of Katherine Timpf, a one-time intern at the station making a big splash at Fox News with her exclusive coverage of some Facebook foolery. Today, a separate KFI-to-FOX success story continues.

Araksya Karapetyan (pictured), who started out during her college years interning at both KFI and KABC-TV, has been promoted to full-time anchor with the FOX 11 Morning News.* She joined the station last year as a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor, where she had been contributing to the 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. weekday newscasts as well as Studio 11 LA.

The Newhouse School grad will anchor weekday newscasts from 4:30 to 7:00 a.m. and again from 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., as well as continue to contribute to Good Day LA. From today’s announcement:

“Araksya’s smart and in-depth reporting is matched by her exceptional commitment to the community,” said Kingsley Smith, FOX 11 vp and news director. “She has an extraordinary work ethic and has quickly made a name for herself in this area as a reporter who tells compelling stories about everyday people.”

Read more

The only problem with Randy Wang’s big announcement on the June 20 edition of The Tim Conway Jr. Show is that because he has engaged over the years with the host in various on-air gags, many listeners thought he was joking that night too. But Wang was not. When he jumped on at 9:30 p.m. to tell Conway Jr. and newsman Aron Bender that he was gay, he was being completely sincere.

“A lot of people asked me after the announcement, ‘Seriously!? That wasn’t just a joke?’” Wang (pictured) tells FishbowlLA via telephone. “And to this day, people still occasionally come up to me and say, ‘Oh, I thought that was a bit.’ It kind of makes sense, because Tim has made numerous, non-stop gay jokes about me on the air for years. And it’s been hilarious.”

Wang was with the KFI AM 640 evening program until May 9, when he left to join show sponsor 1-800LoanMart as event marketing coordinator. After his big personal announcement, Wang returned with Pretty Good Podcast partner Gina Grad to guest host a week’s worth of shows July 9-13 while Conway Jr. was on vacation in the Pacific Northwest. It all adds up to a very eventful few months.

“Me realizing I was gay all happened pretty organically,” Wang says. “Literally a few days before I made the announcement, I had an encounter with a woman that did not go so well. I came to the realization that I was gay and decided I had to tell the world.”

Read more

Tim Conway Jr. (pictured) has been on the air at KFI AM 640 for several years now. During that time, he has fielded many phone calls, but he insisted the one received last night from an anonymous West Adams area resident was the best such conversation yet. So much so that he chose to repeat it later on during his Wednesday program.

The African-American, adult male caller – who asked to remain anonymous and later said the show could refer to him as “Jungle Kid 55″ – provided Conway Jr. and newsman Aron Bender with unverified but entirely believable information about the brutal Wednesday morning murder of two foreign USC graduate students:

- He said the incident was not a failed carjacking but rather a robbery, during which the victims refused to surrender possessions including an iPhone;

-He suggested that “word on the street” was that the perpetrator was African-American and a recent parolee;

Read more

In recent weeks, KFI AM 640 evening personalities Tim Conway Jr. and George Noory have become much chattier at the cusp of the 10 p.m. PT hour. That’s when Conway checks in with Noory, host of Coast to Coast AM, to find out what choice topics lie ahead. Noory’s syndicated program is bigger than ever, having just welcomed its 560th station affiliate; on any given night, the inquisitive host (pictured) is broadcasting from either LA or St. Louis.

It started when Noory—whose father recently passed away—talked very intimately one night about his personal life (wives, ex-wives, etc.) After that particular segment was over, Tim Conway Jr. Show newsman Aron Bender marveled that he had learned more about their KFI stablemate from that one conversation than from all previous chats combined.

Read more

For the most part, KFI 640 AM radio personality Tim Conway Jr. (pictured) modulates his anger. But last night, during his show’s “News Bender” feature with announcer Aron Bender, he went on a tirade against recently released American hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal.

Upon learning that the pair, together with previously freed border trekker Sarah Shourd, had made a supportive appearance at Occupy Oakland, Conway Jr. launched into it:

“Oh God… I wish they were back in Iran. You know, this is unbelievable. We spend so much time and so much money trying to get those ungrateful F’s out of Iran, and they come back here and the thanks we get is [for them] to join those other losers at Occupy Wall Street. Screw them! I hope they go back to Iran… God I hate ungrateful people, I really do. Punks. Punk-ass b*tches.”

Read more

The entire AM radio dial continues to feast on the Charlie Sheen media tour, picking apart each and every interview with play-pause-play glee. Leading the way at Burbank based KFI 640 AM are Tim Conway Jr. and his newsreader partner-in-crime Aron Bender (pictured).

Bender has ingeniously manipulated some of Sheen’s signature mantras and turned them into cell phone ringtones. The first offering elongates the words “bring it” into a very convincing sounding Sheen-powered rotary phone. Listen-download here.

Read more