It was in July that legacy AM St. Louis sports-talk radio station KFNS (590 AM) dropped local programming in a cost-cutting decision amid a search for a buyer. Now, nearly 3½ months later, owner Dave Zobrist said little progress has been made in trying to sell.
“There’s not much to report,” Zobrist said this week, adding that despite having hired a national broker, there have been “no serious leads.”
“It’s pretty discouraging,” he said.
He said he thinks a big hang-up is that the station still has 2½ years to go on a 10-year lease former owner Randy Markel executed with the landlord of the building in Kirkwood that houses KFNS’ studios and business operations.
“It’s pretty exorbitant,” Zobrist said. “That’s one of the reasons (the station) failed.”
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After the local programming was pulled over the summer, Markel expressed interest in reinvesting in the operation that he considered unfinished business personally.
“It’s the only thing that I started in that I didn’t finish,” Markel, a local businessman who was the longtime owner of the Chuck’s Boots operation, said then. “As people can testify, once I start something, I get it done.”
But his view has changed now.
“It’s out of sight, out of mind with me,” Markel said this week. “I had it all set before.”
His intended lineup included Kevin Slaten moving from middays to morning drive time, followed by Frank Cusumano remaining in the late-morning slot.
Who he would have in the midday slot had not been determined, but Markel had planned to fill the key afternoon drive-time block with Dino Costa — a firebrand who had brief stints at the station in 2016 and 2019.
But Cusumano since has moved to KTRS (550 AM), and Slaten is set to start Monday on KSGM (980 AM).
“I don’t have any interest now,” Markel said. “If somebody came to me and asked if I want to be part of (a group involved in ownership) — maybe. But I really don’t want to be putting any more money into it.”
He said his financial focus now is on Ballparks National, a youth sports complex near the Lake of the Ozarks. Markel has said he and auto dealer George “Skip” Weber are the co-lead investors of that endeavor.
“I’ll be 69 in a couple weeks,” Markel said. “Why do I need this radio (expletive)? If everyone wasn’t so neurotic in that business — they all are jealous of each other and so insecure. Petty.”
But his tone turned as the interview continued.
“The more I talk about it, the more I get that itch again,” he said. “I had more fun losing $2 million while running (KFNS) than I did making $20 million when I had Chuck’s Boots.”
Slaten also previously expressed interest in being part of a KFNS ownership group and sounds as if he still is — provided there is a group to join.
“I’m at that point where I would probably explore any options that made sense to me,” he said.
But that would not include being the lead investor or running the station.
“My experience would help; I’d have a lot to offer,” he said. “I could put together a lineup. But I’m not qualified to run a business like that, with payroll” and related responsibilities.
He remains a big booster of Zobrist.
“Dave’s the best guy I’ve ever worked for,” he said. “... No ego involved.”
Slaten also sounds convinced that KFNS eventually will be revived.
“Somebody’s going to breathe life into it,” he said. “I’ll be there with the oxygen tank.”
Meanwhile, Zobrist said the plan is for KFNS to continue indefinitely by airing national shows from Fox Ƶ Radio as well as Illinois football and basketball contests plus some games played by the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies.
“I want to keep it sports,” Zobrist said while adding that his deal with Fox Ƶ Radio is flexible and would allow a return to local programming. If that happens, it could be with a gradual buildup, not what basically had been a sunrise-to-sunset lineup of the station’s own shows.
But Zobrist made it clear that he wants to sell the station.
“I don’t want to run it,” he said, adding that he’d like to be a minority investor — as he originally was. But he eventually took over and said since then it “has cost a lot of money.”
He remains hopeful of finding a buyer despite the pitfalls.
“Maybe it's AM. Maybe people are waiting until after the election or the new year,” Zobrist said. “I have not had serious discussions; it’s been slow.”
Tigers time
Whatever luster there might have been for Missouri’s football game Saturday at lowly Massachusetts was significantly diminished by the Tigers’ blowout loss last week at Texas A&M.
That significantly dashed Mizzou’s playoff hopes and put a big nail in a tire on the MU bandwagon.
But MU will be back on a major national television network for the second week in a row for this one, ESPN2 for the 11 a.m. (St. Louis time) kickoff.
Roy Philpott has the play-by-play, with Sam Acho providing commentary and Taylor Davis serving as the reporter.
The Tigers were on ABC (KDNL, Channel 30) last week, and that telecast was seen in 4.7% of the market, according to viewership-tracking company Nielsen. That’s a decent but not great rating. It was hampered not only by the early start but by the Tigers being down 24-0 at halftime and 34-0 midway through the third quarter.
Ratings generally build as a game progresses, but the opposite was the case for this one. The first hour and 45 minutes of the telecast averaged a 4.9 rating. The final 1:45 was at 4.5 and dipped to 3.5 for the final 15-minute segment.