‘The Drive with Steve Jaxon’ casual, yet sad last day on KSRO

It was all fond farewells, with a bit of rueful humor, as longtime Sonoma County talk radio host Steve Jaxon closed out the last segment of his show “The Drive” Friday afternoon on KSRO, in his trenchant and slightly raspy style.

The popular radio show, “The Drive with Steve Jaxon,” a mainstay on KSRO for the past decade and a half, has been canceled by station management, the host said Friday.

“It wasn’t my idea, after 15 years,” Jaxon said. “They canceled us. We’re talking to other stations.”

The show is produced by Jaxon and his partner Cathy Ratto through their company Vicario Productions. (“Vicario is my real last name,” Jaxon said.)

The show aired in its regular time slot, 3 to 6 p.m., on Friday for the last time on KSRO. Both local and national regular contributors to the show visited the studio or called in.

Callers included attorney Lanny Davis and comedian Paul Mecurio, while studio visitors included Ky Boyd, proprietor of Rialto Cinemas in Sebastopol, who has made weekly appearances on the show for the past year.

“I pitched what movies are opening and give away tickets,” Boyd said of his weekly appearances. “Sometimes we had a filmmaker guest. This is not your typical radio talk show. It’s loose, fun, fast and fluid.”

Many of the calls were from regular listeners, unhappy with the show’s cancellation.

“The phone lines are lighting up,” said Ratto, co-producer of the show. “Steve had to tell them to keep it clean.”

The station’s management spoke of plans to fill “The Drive’s” weekday afternoon slot with a nationally syndicated news show, with local news added.

“With one of the most contentious elections in history coming up in 2024 and numerous critical issues on the table both locally and nationally, we are intentionally moving KSRO into a more consistent political news-and-talk mode, and we are working diligently to increase local news coverage outside of (the) morning drive,” said Michael O’Shea, president of Amaturo Sonoma Media Group, which owns KSRO, in a statement released Friday.

In a follow-up phone interview, O’Shea said he would not rule out finding a spot later for “The Drive” on one of Amaturo’s nine North Bay radio stations.

But, he added, “nothing has been finalized.”

Jaxon said he hopes to bring back the show on a different station with different owners.

“I own the show and we ran the show. Technically, I don’t work for KSRO. We’re talking to other stations about moving the show,” he said.

KSRO is not Jaxon’s first local station. During his broadcast he told his listeners, “I’ve been on the air since 1986” in the North Bay.

O’Shea said Jaxon is technically an employee under the law, although Ratto, Jaxon’s partner, handles the advertising for the show.

“I am not going say anything negative about Amaturo today, although some of my guests might,” Jaxon said before his final broadcast Friday.

“The Drive” features a large number of regular contributors with segments on beer, live theater, local music and more, and well as Jaxon’s many contacts, who he calls “The Drive Hall-of-Famers,” speaking on local issues and national politics.

For the past two years, Harry Duke has served as co-host of “The Drive” and has hosted the show’s “Theatre Thursday” segment since 2015. He also has been the theater critic for the Bohemian and Pacific Sun weekly newspapers for five years.

“If the show moves, Harry will go with it, more than likely,” Jaxon said.

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.