Marc Germain (born May 28, 1967) is an American Talk radio host. He was previously known as Mr. KFI and Mr. KABC on his radio shows on their respective stations. He currently hosts his own internet radio show, The Marc Germain Show.
Early life and education
Germain was born and raised in
Los Angeles,
California and was raised mainly in Woodland Hills and Tarzana.
From ages 2 through 8, he lived in
San Diego near San Diego State University.
He graduated from El Camino Real High School.
He attended California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California after being rejected from the University of California, Santa Barbara twice.
Radio career
Start in radio
Germain’s first venture into radio came at twelve years old in 1979. His father, wanting a hobby for each of his sons bought Germain a
ham radio. Taking the amateur radio test twice, he was unable to pass the algebra content of the test due to his age (although he did pass the
Morse code portion "which was very easy"). He was only able to use the radio to receive and not to transmit. However this was also the time of the citizens' band radio boom, so he obtained a citizens' band radio, and was able to acquire a then-necessary license for that. As stated by Germain, he was mostly active on channel 19 and went by the handle of “King Cobra”.
[ Archive of podcast from Jan 28, 2010 Timemark 30:18]
While completing his degree at UCSB, Germain felt drawn to the business of talk radio.
Move to KFI
Germain returned to
Los Angeles and landed a job at radio station
KFI.
After assignments screening phone calls for the station, Germain was given his own weeknight show,
Ask Mr. KFI.
[ LA Radio Guide 1995. americanradiohistory.com. Retrieved 2025-07-24]
When KFI moved Phil Hendrie's show into Germain's time slot in 1996, the station offered him a different time slot, which Germain refused and led to him departing KFI.
Mr. KABC
In January 1997 after a 3-month contractually mandated non-competition period, Germain brought his show to KABC as
Ask Mr. KABC.
As part of promoting his show on the new station, newspaper ads ran in Los Angeles area papers claiming that Mr. KABC had been switched at birth and that explained his time as Mr. KFI. Later he would sometimes be known simply as "Mr. K". Initially, the show received poor ratings due to inconsistent time slots.
The show was frequently preempted by Los Angeles Dodgers games while Germain also spent time filling in as a morning talk show co-host with
Brian Whitman.
Germain's show began to blossom in March 2000 when KABC management dropped Stephanie Miller's syndicated show and increased the run-time of Ask Mr. KABC from one hour to three hours, occupying the two hours that Miller's show previously held.
Midway through 2006, KABC pushed the start of his show back an hour to make room for a syndicated show from New York hosted by Mark Levin. In early 2007, KABC wanted to push Germain's show later in the evening for another hour of Levin's show.
KTLK
It was announced in March 2007 that Germain had joined a revamped
KEIB lineup, which had just dropped its Air America affiliation.
However, Germain's stint with KTLK was short lived with his show being cancelled in December 2007.
Talk Radio One
In July 2008, Germain launched Talk Radio One, an internet-only "radio" show.
At first the shows were "Skype-cast" and he mainly talked to others around the world via
Skype. When
Skype ended that aspect of service on September 1, 2008, Germain transitioned to a mixture of live shows and
.
Other projects
In November 2008, Germain filled in at KGO.
In February 2010, Germain joined Doug McIntyre and Red Eye Radio. The production, a part of Cumulus Media Networks, was heard nationally. The show ended in December 2011 when Cumulus handed the show over to two different hosts.
Personal life
His wife, Ann, is from
Long Island, New York. The two met after she hired him to work at
KFI.
They have been married since July 1992, and have a daughter and a son. Germain and his family left the Los Angeles area and relocated to
Las Vegas,
Nevada.
Germain is the youngest of four sons. His brother, Paul Germain, is an animation screenwriter and producer best known for Rugrats, Recess, and Lloyd in Space.
External links
