For decades there were two conservative talkers in the STL. KMOX 1120 AM and KFTK 97.1 FM. Things changed early in 2021 with the death of Rush Limbaugh. KMOX ran the Rush show for a while after his death but opted out of political talk in the 11 A to 2 P slot and decided to put on a local non political show. Around the same time KMOX and KFTK switched afternoon hosts. Conservative PM drive talker Mark Reardon was moved from KMOX to KFTK. And not so conservative Dave Glover moved over to KMOX to afternoon drive. The result was the conservative talk block on KMOX from 11 AM until 5 something PM was gone. And KFTK became even more conservative (don’t tell Tracy that!!!!) with Reardon being on from 3 until 6 PM.
But that was just the start of conservative talk mania in the STL. Two more conservative talkers were gearing up to compete with KFTK on FM. And then seemingly out of nowhere a fourth conservative talker hits the airwaves.
Frist the Refugees made their appearance in early July on 101.9, a translator that used to run the Boost Christian format. With the exception of Vic Porcelli the Refugees are all former staffers from KFTK head by Jeff Alien and Joe Rush (the former xylophone player from the group Rush that still bears his name). Jeff and Joe were both execs with 97.1 when Emmis owned 97.1. Joe got axed when 97.1 was sold to Entercom (now Audacy) and Jeff got blown out about a year after the sale.
And then in early August the Newbees started broadcasting on 93.3, an infamous station originally started by Randy Wachter in the 80’s Back in the day it was KNSX running a new rock format. The station would go on to win the award for most fines by the FCC for a single station in a single day (4 major fines of $7K each!!!). Randy lost the station in a court battle and for years the station was operated (when they were actually on the air) by a court appointed receiver. The Newbees are headed by Rick and Tracy Ellis, a husband and wife multi-millionaire real estate team. Rick and Tracy did a weekend real estate show on KFTK for years. But they became increasingly upset that KFTK was becoming too liberal for their tastes under Audacy. The Grand Poopah asks the question: Marc Cox, Brian Kilmeade, Annie Frey, Mark Reardon and Sean Hannity are liberal? Kinda like saying the ladies on stage in Sauget are wearing too much clothing. Well anyway, Tracy and Rick decided they were going to go ULTRA conservative.
And then in mid August a FOURTH conservative talker appeared on the scene. John Beck, who also lost his gig as Grand Poobah when Emmis sold off their STL stations, flipped KMJM-FM (now KTLK-FM) from urban music to conservative talk branded as 104.9 The Patriot. It’s interesting to note that Jeff Alien, Joe Rush and John Beck had worked on putting a conservative talker on 101.5 but couldn’t get the financing nailed down. That’s when I Heart offered Beck the Grand Poobah job for their STL cluster and left Jeff and Joe to fend for themselves. Confused? I’m trying to make this simple. But it’s not.
Over the next few installments here on Radio Poop your Grand Poopah will take a look at each of the four conservative talkers and give you the pros and cons of all four stations.
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