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Profile: April Winchell, KFI, Los Angeles
Talk Radio Is Officially In The Hands Of People Your Parents Told You Not To Hang Around With
Corey: To me, your radio show is like listening to a lab experiment that includes DNA samples from Judy Tenuta, Dr. Demento and chickens. But, that's me. Where am I wrong?

April: Well, you left out the yodeling, which is key.

More of this Feature
Part 1: How did you get into Talk Radio?

Part 3: How Come You Haven't Been Fired?
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Official April Winchell Website

KFI AM 640, Los Angeles

Corey: I've only heard your shows from your web site archive. Do you get a lot of response from the Internet?

April: Yes, and I'm so glad you asked that question. I realized very early on that I couldn't promote my show in traditional ways. My show has no budget. That's not an exaggeration, by the way. I know people say that and they mean they have a small budget, but I have nothing. And I think you can hear every penny. The only thing I had was the internet.

I know many people dismiss the internet as small potatoes in terms of reaching people, but I think that's short sighted. I get almost 2 million hits a month, and I think that matters. I think anytime you can bring progressive, younger, forward-thinking people to talk radio, you're breathing new life into it. And that matters to me, because I love the medium, and I want it to live.

So I have tried to milk that baby for everything its worth. I'm linked on many sites I respect, I update my web site every week, I offer free archives of the show, and I've even incorporated the internet into the show itself, to give it a visual and interactive component.

For example, I have a live chat that goes on during the show every week, and I jump on during commercial breaks. Sometimes people will throw out great jokes about news stories I'm reading, and the show becomes sort of group participation, which I really like.

KFI also has a web cam in the studio and streams the show live, so a lot of people have found me that way. I actually have fan clubs in Holland and Korea. A woman who works at a theme park in India won the Ethel Merman Disco Album from me, and she plays it over the public address system. That's power.

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