Longtime sports talk duo Bob Lutz and son Jeff decide to end their radio show on KFH
For nearly 24 years, sports fans in Wichita have been able to tune into KFH radio and hear Bob Lutz’s take on local and national sports — as well as any number of other topics.
But that era will come to an end in about a week.
Father-and-son co-hosts Bob and Jeff Lutz say that they decided after their show on Tuesday that their weekday sports talk show — titled “The Bob & Jeff Show” — will air for the last time on Feb. 7.
“We knew we were coming to the end,” Lutz said. “That was the right time.”
Lutz, who is also the founder and executive director of League 42, said that the show might have continued “indefinitely” if it had been able to keep airing from 2-4 p.m., as it has since 2022.
But the duo was informed late last year that Jim Rome, a nationally syndicated sports talk show host based in Los Angeles, wanted to move to that time. “The Bob & Jeff Show” was given the 5 to 7 p.m. time slot.
The hosts weren’t thrilled about the change, which didn’t fit well with their work schedules. Bob Lutz spends most of his time running his League 42 baseball league, which serves hundreds of inner-city and low-income youth, and Jeff is a full-time digital producer at KWCH.
The two tried for a few weeks a plan that had them recording the show earlier in the day then airing it during the new time slot. But the magic was gone, Bob Lutz said.
“It doesn’t have the same appeal,” he said. “We don’t like not going on live where we can interact with callers.”
KFH program director Tony Duesing said the station was sorry to lose the Lutzes. Their show has traditionally received good ratings, he said.
After “The Bob & Jeff” show ends, he said, the station will fill the extra air time with a syndicated show. It might search for different local sports talk talent in the future, though.
He pointed out that “Sports Daily,” which now is hosted by Jacob Albracht and Tommy Castor, is still on the air weekdays from 7 to 11 a.m.
“With sports talk, traditionally local shows do very well,” Duesing said.
Bob worked as a sports reporter at The Wichita Eagle and then, later, as a sports columnist from 1974 until he retired in 2017. He first started doing radio in 1996 he said, partnering for a year with Steve Dennis on KZSN-FM (which became KQAM.)
Then, in 2001, Bob Lutz joined television anchors Bruce Haertl and Jarrod Bartett on their just-started “Sports Daily” show, where he remained as a co-host until deciding to leave in 2014.
On Dec. 1, 2015, Bob Lutz and his son, Jeff, launched a new KFH sports talk show called “The Drive,” which aired during the evening drive time of 4 to 6 p.m. In 2022, the Lutzes asked KFH to let them move their show to 2 to 4 p.m. to better accommodate their busy schedules.
The Lutzes have mostly been recording from Bob Lutz’s home since the pandemic in 2020.
“It took a long time for us to make this decision, and once we made it, I felt pretty good about having a little extra time in my life,” Bob Lutz said, adding that he’ll miss playing a role in local sports media.
Jeff Lutz said that he’ll miss having a daily excuse to talk to his father. The two have actually gotten to know each other better through their show.
“I just like getting to see a different side of his personality, and maybe him getting to see a different side of my personality,” Jeff said. “I think there were times where one or both of us felt like we took the banter a little bit across the line. But for the most part, we felt like it was therapeutic and good to say what we wanted.”
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