Top Vegas rock stations say ‘Good Riddance’ to band after rant
A pair of prominent Las Vegas rock stations are yanking the plug on Green Day.
KOMP 92.3 FM and KXTE 107.5 (X107-5) announced announced Wednesday they would no longer play Green Day music. No timeline was offered in the messages posted on social media.
KOMP was launched in 1966 as KULA. X107-5 debuted in 1986 as KLVV. Both have been predominant rock stations in Las Vegas for decades.
The reason for the stations’ Green Day boycott, of course, is Billie Joe Armstrong’s blasting of Las Vegas during his on-stage rant at Oracle Park in San Francisco last Friday night.
The Green Day front man and East Bay native said, “I (expletive) hate Las Vegas. It’s the worst (expletive) hole in America.”
This was during a rant against A’s ownership, as the team plans to move to Las Vegas. The A’s final home game is scheduled for Thursday afternoon against the Texas Rangers.
KOMP morning DJ and Vegas comic Brandon “Gooch” Hahn had previously posted a barbed counter-point to Armstrong’s tirade on Tuesday.
Hahn, a Las Vegas resident since 1991, explained some only-in-Vegas memories — being caught cutting class in 1997 to ride the Manhattan Express at the just-opened New York-New York and stumbling out of bars at 6 a.m. because the taverns never made a last call.
Gooch talked of the Golden Knights’ ascension to the Stanley Cup Final in the season after the Route 91 shootings. He said if VGK were to move out of Las Vegas, he would curse the owners, “but I would never call the city they were moving to a (blank) hole.”
Gooch went on to say Las Vegas has supported Green Day concerts since the early 1990s but then ripped the band’s more recent work: “The last four or five albums weren’t art; they were paint-by-numbers garbage.”
The DJ said the 52-year-old Armstrong was “old and bitter,” and ended the clip by flipping the bird, saying, “This is for you, Billie Joe, from Vegas, with love.”
Gooch’s next stand-up gig is midnight Saturday at Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club. He heads a lineup of club veterans Spiro Adam Siavelis, John Hilder, Jozalyn Sharp and Bobby Wayne Stauts. A $20 ticket, and no last call.
Morning and midday X-107.5 host Carlota Gonzalez announced 10 a.m. Wednesday the station was “cleansing and scrubbing” any Green Day from their records. The entire station was sanitized from Green Day songs. Referring to Armstrong, she said on-air:
“Maybe he should take a look at the city and the people involved in that transaction than talking SMACK about the city of Las Vegas,” Carlota said during her announcement. “And hey, I hate to say it and as much as the Raiders suck but when they were in Oakland, they were worth a billion or two. Now they’re worth six. It was a good business decision and the A’s want some of that and I don’t blame that.”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.