hugh hewitt larry elder Split - Getty - H 2016
Getty ImagesHugh Hewitt, famous for co-moderating some of those highly rated GOP presidential debates of late, is getting a plum morning drive time for his nationally syndicated radio show on the East Coast, but relegated to 3 a.m.-6 a.m. at his home base at KRLA AM in Los Angeles.
Hewitt’s move from nighttime radio in about a week is part of a revamp in the schedule at KRLA, one of the top conservative radio channels in the country, and more broadly at parent company Salem Media Group’s radio division.
The changes have Larry Elder joining the permanent lineup live from 6 to 9 p.m. on the East Coast and at the same time via tape-delay on the West Coast.
Related Stories
Elder, a 25-year veteran of talk radio, is perhaps known best for routinely ripping the entertainment industry for what he considers a liberal bias, though he still manages to attract some of the industry’s progressives as guests to talk politics on his show, including Cher and Bill Maher. He also battled MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on his show for 15 minutes once, and the audio later went viral on the Internet.
William Bennett, the former U.S. Secretary of Education who has hosted a national Salem Radio Network show for more than a decade, will become “host emeritus,” showing up only sporadically for specials and such.
The shake-up won’t affect the Los Angeles KRLA morning crew that pits liberal Brian Whitman against conservatives Ben Shapiro and former Sean Hannity staffer Elisha Krauss.
Shapiro, whose taped interviews of Hollywood insiders admitting liberal bias caused a stir five years ago, has been in the midst of a national Donald Trump-related controversy of late. Shapiro quit his role as an editor at Breitbart News because he says the outlet didn’t support former reporter Michelle Fields when she accused Trump campaign aide Corey Lewandowski of manhandling her.
“This is the Trump campaign,” Shapiro said on Megyn Kelly’s Fox News show Tuesday night, “where lies are told and then lies are told to cover up the lies, and then finally new lies are told in order to cover up the lies that were told about the lies.”
Like many others in talk radio, Hewitt has also sparred with Trump, asking him a slew of questions about the Middle East and getting muddled answers in return. Trump then went on MSNBC to call Hewitt a “third-rate radio announcer,” and Hewitt later went on CNN to defend himself against Trump’s attacks.
