Gene Baxter Returns To ‘Kevin & Bean’ Show

Gene 'Bean' Baxter  was back on the air Monday at 106.7 KROQ LA. after successfully donating a kidney to 106.7  FM KROQ’s Chief Engineer Scott Mason.

Scott Mason, the station’s chief engineer of 30 years, had been on dialysis and never told anyone.

Mason told CBS News reporter Lee Cowan, “I didn’t want anyone to think I was less capable than anybody else at work.”

Bean did notice a difference in Mason recently. “He’s moving kinda slow … didn’t look that great and I thought ‘Whoa what’s going on?’” Mason confessed — he was on a waiting list for a kidney transplant. And he also said it could take upwards of eight years to get one.

Giving it a second of thought, Bean told Mason he would be willing to be a donor. “It wasn’t a big emotional decision for me. I don’t think that my part of this decision is all that big a deal. I’m not the one who has to do the hard work. All I have to do is go to sleep.”

Mason received what he called “The Kidney Bean.”

And to describe Mason as appreciative would be an understatement. “I haven’t figured the right words out that are three or four levels higher than thank you. What are those words?” Bean’s co-host Kevin marvels at his on-air partner. “What he’s doing is more than I would do you know? He’s the better man than I am.” Mason and Bean had two different blood types. A new procedure, offered at only four hospitals in the country (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is one) makes it possible for the organ transfer even with people of different blood types.