Well, that didn’t last long. After six weeks, Dino Costa is leaving 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis.
In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Costa says he’s leaving after learning that ownership were in talks with others about a potential takeover which could result in a restructuring of management.
“There have been strong rumors over the last couple weeks that there could very well be an ownership restructuring for 590 and I have made it clear to Randy Markel — that I’m not interested,” Costa said. “I have nothing but great things to say about Randy. But I indicated to him that I have no desire to work under a restructured ownership paradigm with the station. I made it clear before I came to St. Louis that I was not looking necessarily to get back into commercially run radio with just any person or any group or any station. It had to be a tremendous fit across the board. I perceived this to be a perfect situation with Randy. I told them that if there is going to be a change and someone else will be coming into the organization to run the day-to-day operations that I have no desire to work for anyone else.”
Costa entered St. Louis creating an immediate stir. He delivered verbal jabs to the station’s local competitors, and even had choice words with one of his own teammates Kevin Slaten. The KFNS morning host said he would crawl back to Wyoming on his hands and knees if he didn’t dominate the market within a year.
Ironically, Tim McKernan, who was one of the recipient’s of Costa’s wrath, is at the center of Costa’s decision to exit. KFNS management have had talks with McKernan about potentially operating the radio station. Markel and McKernan though both say that Costa has jumped to conclusions.
“Starting in early February, we were contacted by several media outlets about opportunities,” McKernan said. “We continue to have conversations, but at this point, we have no deal in place with any of the stations.”
Markel added, “There is no sale, there is no anything,”. “Have we talked about partnering up at some time? Absolutely. I talk to people every week. There is always talk in this business about, ‘What if we do this, what if we do that?’ But there is no deal to announce at this time.”
Costa wanted a guarantee that he’s in the radio station’s long-term plans, and would be unaffected by any regime change, but Markel couldn’t provide one for him. As a result, Dino took Thursday off to make sure he was comfortable with his decision to leave. He planned to do one final show on Friday.
Markel though says that despite Costa leaving the door open for a possible return, his days at KFNS are over.
“I like Dino, he’s like your crazy brother you have to bail out of jail,” Markel said. “I believe in Dino. He’s very talented. But it’s the BS that comes along with him that’s hard to take. He came into this area with a scorched-earth mentality and it just didn’t work. It’s the way he wanted to do it, I wasn’t about to stop him. You hire somebody to do what they do, he tried it. It didn’t work. It was a constant uproar. Me for one, I’m tired of the drama.”
Jason Barrett is the President and Founder of Barrett Media since the company was created in September 2015. Prior to its arrival, JB served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He also spent time programming SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY. Jason also worked on-air and behind the scenes in local radio at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years on the national stage, producing radio shows for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. Among them included the Dan Patrick Show, and GameNight.
You can find JB on Twitter @SportsRadioPD. He’s also reachable by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
