590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis has told its staff it will end all local programming after tomorrow’s shows. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, owner Dave Zobrist is trying to find a buyer for the radio station. As he pursues a sale, KFNS will air national shows on the station starting Monday July 1st. The Fox Sports Radio lineup will be utilized to offer programming to local listeners.
Many of the station’s hosts talked about the situation today on the air.
Morning host and former NHL player Cam Janssen summed up his time with the radio station saying, “A lot of ups and downs, but…I had a damn good time. Yesterday was just a godawful long day…I feel proud of the audience. We started this thing, and they stuck by us….I had a great time trying to entertain all you guys. Yesterday was weird, it was like a club to the head. Everything always works itself out I feel, it always does….in my life, in my experience everything works out, you keep working hard, you’re nice to people things just take care of itself…but it does suck.”
Co-host Jim Hayes said, “590 has a rich history. I know there’s been a lot of ups and downs, but I hope somebody buys it. Not necessarily for our show…but 590 should be still standing.”
Frank Cusumano, who is sports director at the NBC affiliate in St. Louis and has had his show on KFNS for most of the last 30 years, said, “I am really disappointed because it has been a really cool almost 30-year run. The only people that I am thinking about are the people now who need to find work and stay in this industry.”
“It was tough hearing the news yesterday…I love both my jobs, but this has really been fun. TV, you get four minutes to tell the world about sports. Here, you get to tell the world about your life and life in general, and food, just everything. You can let it all hang out on AM talk radio, so I have enjoyed the heck out of it.”
Midday host Kevin Slaten who announced his show will continue on his website said it came down to a sales problem. “It’s an age-old maxim, if you don’t sell you can’t win. And you’ve got to be able to sell. You’ve got a great lineup, great content but if you can’t sell it, you can’t make money. And the sales staff, sorry, was just never that good. It never developed and if you don’t develop a sales staff you don’t win. As simple as that.
“Hopefully we can find some guys or women who want to buy the station. And that’s what we’re trying to do. I know everybody’s working towards the same end, everybody would like to see that as the end result…so that’s what we hope for.”
