KXLY picking up Ben Shapiro’s conservative radio show

KXLY has announced plans to air Ben Shapiro’s syndicated radio show, a month after the conservative political commentator was barred from speaking at Gonzaga University.

Starting Jan. 7, “The Ben Shapiro Show” will run on weekdays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on 920 AM and 100.7 FM in the Spokane area. The show, which went into syndication in April, borrows content from Shapiro’s popular podcast of the same name.

“His podcast has had tremendous numbers, especially with younger people, and we just thought that this was a great opportunity to bring in a younger audience,” said Bud Nameck, KXLY’s radio program director.

Shapiro, a former Breitbart editor who now runs his own conservative news site, the Daily Wire, rails against political correctness and “victim culture” and has been vilified by progressives for his opposition of gay marriage and demeaning comments about transgender people.

A Jew who has been critical of President Donald Trump, Shapiro has also been a target of anti-Semitic vitriol from the so-called alt-right, which he has called “a garbage movement composed of garbage ideas.”

Some of his speaking engagements, including one at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2017, have sparked protests. In November, Gonzaga officials denied a request from the school’s College Republicans chapter to let Shapiro speak on campus.

Nameck, with KXLY, acknowledged that Shapiro has “been met with derision at certain places” but said his conservative views resonate with many people.

Shapiro’s show has already aired on radio stations across the country, including in Seattle, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C.