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KFNS Returns To The St. Louis Airwaves

Jason Barrett

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We’re only a week or so removed from Halloween and a made-for-TV exorcism attempt at a home in St. Louis County, so it seems appropriate that the ghost of St. Louis sports-talk radio’s onetime stalwart has reappeared.

KFNS (590 AM) returned to the local airwaves late Thursday after a nearly yearlong absence following its collapse under a maze of unpaid bills, employee unrest and even fisticuffs at the studio.

KFNS as well as KXFN (1380 AM) has been owned by Grand Slam Sports, which has been the target of several lawsuits — including one in which Triad Bank claims the company defaulted on loans totaling $1.1 million. “I always do the show that I do, and that’s what they want,’’ he said of management.

A St. Louis County Circuit Court recently appointed a receiver, Detalus Consulting, to oversee Grand Slam’s assets and the action gave Detalus the authority to do as it sees fit, including sell the stations.

Triad told the court that Grand Slam’s federal broadcast licenses, which it called the company’s “most valuable asset,” were in danger of being forfeited on Nov. 12 — next Thursday, a year and two days after the station stopped broadcasting. That deadline thus made action a priority.

So an agreement was reached this week for the receiver to lease KFNS to Markel Radio Group, an enterprise of Randy Markel and Scott Gertken. Markel owns the two local Chuck’s Boots stores and Gertken owns talkstl.com, which has been broadcasting mostly sports talk on 1380 under a previous lease arrangement with Grand Slam. The 1380 content now will be simulcast on 590.

The weekday lineup includes longtime St. Louis broadcasters J.C. Corcoran, Howard Balzer, Kevin Slaten and Charlie “Tuna” Edwards, and the addition of 590 is important to Markel Radio because it has a much stronger signal than 1380 — which does not have a license to broadcast after dark and thus is signing off before 5 p.m. now, which cuts off Slaten’s program in midstream.

KFNS is to be on around the clock.

“We’re very excited,” Gertken said.

Current hosts are energized.

“We’re on our way,” Corcoran said. “I think there are going to be defections from a couple of other stations in town as this thing rolls out in several phases.”

And contrary to what some might think, 590 isn’t actually the combined number of times that Balzer, Slaten and Edwards now have been on KFNS. It’s six for Balzer, five for Slaten. And Edwards said it will be “three or four” for him.

“Fifth time’s a charm,” joked Slaten, who is on from 3-6 p.m.

“This is as good a resolution as could be,” said Balzer, who appears from 11 a.m-1 p.m. “They are really committed to this.”

Corcoran, who is on from 7-9 a.m., is excited even though he doesn’t do a strictly sports show. It does cover athletics, but also focuses on entertainment and topical news — a format he has owned for three decades.

“When I signed on with these guys, I’ve always done a show that is top-heavy with sports,” he said. “But I’m not really interested in doing a sports show per se, nor am I the kind of guy … who can tell you what day of the week Rocky Bleier was drafted in 1970 or whatever. That is not what I do. And they don’t want that from me … so that’s going to work out.”

Edwards, who will be on from 6-8 weeknights (though he is off this Friday), is ecstatic.

“For the first time in years I’m really looking forward to being on the air,” he said. “This is management you can trust, which is hard to find in radio now.”

The move is the latest chapter in the wild saga of KFNS, the once-strong station that broadcast in the sports format for 20 years — until it began wilting under Grand Slam and was shifted to “guy talk” in 2013 (with 1380 moving from jock talk to female-oriented shows).

But guy-talk was a disaster in the ratings, with advertisers fleeing. Last year 590 and 1380 went back to sports, but 590 was too far gone to be salvaged and finally went to static. But now the static there will be coming from the hosts, not the crackling of dead air.

To read more visit STL Today where this article was originally published

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Jason Puckett Launches PuckSports.com

“I am super motivated right now and I can’t wait. I have probably been busier now than I’ve ever been in the last 48 hours.”

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Logo for PuckSports.com

Jason Puckett, who decided to walk away from a contract offer from iHeartMedia’s KJR in Seattle after finding out his partner Jim Moore had been laid off, has launched a new venture – PuckSports.com. ‘Puck’ has a baseball opening day show posted on the Puck Sports YouTube page and also posted an introductory message about his new venture and what led to creating it.

“I wanted to talk to you guys, the listeners out there, the viewers out there, sorry for all of this,” an emotional Puckett said. “Sorry for what has happened and what has taken place. Thank you for all of the comments and the well-wishes and what you have said about myself and Jim.

“It has been a whirlwind of a last few days, for sure and I do want to say that I feel for the people that we used to work with. “I know it’s not easy to go through that, I have been on that side of it many, many times in this industry when someone is let go and you have to sit there and answer all the questions about them and for them…It’s unfortunate and it shouldn’t be that way, but the reality of this business is it’s like that.”

Puckett then told his fans that PuckSports.com and YouTube are where you will be finding his content along with Moore. “I am going to take what I have learned over the years and apply it to a new age of media,” he said and noted this was a direction he had been thinking about for a while.

As for what took place that led to his decision to not sign his contract and talk away, he said, “I just want to take you briefly back to last week. I don’t want to get too much in the weeds, I’m not here to lay any blame or point any fingers at anybody…there’s too many good people that I have worked with that I don’t want to drag into this. It was a process that was at times handled fine, handled perfectly, and at other times it got to a point where it just went on too long. But that’s corporate media and that’s what happens.”

Continuing on Puckett said, “…I had been without a contract since about January…when I was away from the station that was something that we and the station agreed upon…to see if we could get something done and we were all hopeful that we would…I was only supposed to be gone a couple of days…unfortunately as these things sometimes happen, it just went a little bit longer…We received the deal and it was what we wanted, but unfortunately with that news a few hours later came the news from corporate that Jim had lost his job. Obviously there was a mix of emotions with that from me.

“I wrestled with that and the decision and what I would do. It was hard for me to move forward…I couldn’t fight the perception more than anything that I had received a new deal while at the same time, my partner and good friend, guy I love to death, who I grew up reading…it was a hard reality…The loyalty I have, I couldn’t live with myself even though Jim knew what the truth was.”

Puckett said he was aware Moore was planning to step away from the radio show at the end of the year and was looking forward to the nine months they would have left to work with one another. Then, when iHeartMedia made the decision to make Moore a casualty of their latest round of layoffs, Puckett knew he needed to revisit the idea of starting his own venture.

He said, “It has kind of changed my timeline as far as what I wanted to do and where I felt I was at…I am super motivated right now and I can’t wait. I have probably been busier now than I’ve ever been in the last 48 hours.”

Puckett said several of the show’s regular guests would stay with the show and he thanked several sponsors who he said would remain supporters of the show with the new venture. ‘Puck’ noted that starting next week, “…We get underway in full force…I’m going to continue to try and make people laugh and entertain you and talk about sports…and all of the other things you have become accustomed to with this show.”

As he started to wrap up, Puckett said, “I’m jumping into the deep end of the pool and I am going to see if I can swim or sink.”

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Kirk Minihane: WEEI is “Going to be Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb in Afternoons”

“It’s going to be Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb in the afternoons, which is going to be so awful.”

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Photos of Kirk Minihane and Rich Shertenlieb

As the speculation continues on where Boston sports talker Rich Shertenlieb will end up, one former WEEI host said he has the scoop on what is going to happen. Kirk Minihane, now with Barstool Sports, said, “What I heard was, initially, was they were moving Rich Keefe from nights to middays, moving Adam Jones from afternoons to middays and keeping Fauria there, and moving Andy Gresh to afternoons…But now it appears Rich Shertenlieb is going to do afternoons with Andy Gresh.”

On Wednesday, Boston Globe sports and sports media columnist Chad Finn put out a post on X, saying, “Didn’t think Rich Shertenlieb would end up at WEEI after leaving Sports Hub. I do now, most likely in afternoon drive. Audacy management has been telling people to expect changes.”

Minihane continued commenting on the matter, saying, “It’s going to be Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb in the afternoons, which is going to be so awful. Maybe the two most sensitive c***s in the history of radio. That’s a show we are going to ruin…we haven’t done that in a while, we are going to take that show down…Once that show starts, we are just going to blitz them with phone calls because Gresh can’t handle that.

“What they don’t understand, because they are so dumb, is that…Rich Shertenlieb has no fan base…no fan of [Toucher and Hardy] in the morning is going to be like ‘I’m not going to listen to Felger in the afternoons, I’ll now listen to Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb.’ It’s going to be dreadful.”

Recapping what he has heard the rest of the WEEI lineup will be, Minihane said, “…And then in middays you have Adam Jones, failed afternoons. Rich Keefe who has now failed middays, drivetime, nights and is now going to fail again in middays… and Christian Fauria who has never drawn a rating in his life.”

WEEI has not commented on any of the speculation. BSM will have more as the story unfolds.

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Former 670 The Score Host Tommy Williams Has Died

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Photo of Tommy Williams
Courtesy: Lakeshore Public Media

Tommy Williams, who was heard for a decade on 670 The Score, died on Wednesday at the age of 66.

Williams began his broadcasting career in his hometown of Gary, Indiana in 1982 at WLTH before moving on to The Score. In 2003, Williams became the PA Announcer for the Gary Southshore RailCats of the American Association where he had his signature call to get the attention of the fans, “People, People, People.”

A story in The Times of Northwest Indiana said, “The longtime RailCats public address announcer and Lakeshore Public Media sports journalist was known for broadcasting countless games, interviewing countless athletes and covering Region sports at all levels. The Gary native and co-host of “Prep Sports Report,” “Prep Football Report,” and “Lakeshore PBS Scoreboard” often signed off shows saying, “Gary, Indiana, you know I love you.”

“The cadence he had in his voice echoed across the Region in a way we may never see again. He was widely known and widely loved,” Tom Maloney, vice president of radio operations at Lakeshore Public Media told the paper.

“He’d want to be remembered as the voice of Lakeshore sports,” his Regionally Speaking co-host and producer Dee Dotson told The Times. “Most people will remember him for covering prep sports all the way up to semi-pros. He’ll be remembered for treating each of his subjects like they were world champions. His depth of knowledge of sports at all levels is commendable. He was a walking encyclopedia of stats.” 

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