KFTK was a commercial

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

that was licensed to

East St. Louis East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

at 1490 AM, and broadcast from 1972 to 2020. KFTK's transmitter was located in East St. Louis. From 2016 to 2020, KFTK and low-power

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

K254CR (98.7 FM) were operated by both

Emmis Communications Emmis Communications is an American media conglomerate based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Emmis, based on the Hebrew word for Truth (Emet) was founded by Jeff Smulyan in 1980. Emmis has owned many radio stations, including KPWR and WQHT, which h ...

and

Entercom Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corporation, it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning 235 radio stations across 48 media ...

as a full-time simulcast of

KFTK-FM KFTK-FM (97.1 MHz) is a commercial talk radio station licensed to Florissant, Missouri. Owned by Audacy, Inc., KFTK-FM services the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area, and is the local affiliate for several nationally syndicted programs: '' T ...

(97.1). The station's license was revoked by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

after it was revealed that its principal owner, Entertainment Media Trust (

doing business as A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

Insane Broadcasting), was set up as a shell company for a convicted felon. The cancellation also included three other AM stations in the

Greater St. Louis Greater St. Louis is a bi-state metropolitan area that completely surrounds and includes the independent city of St. Louis, the principal city. It includes parts of both Missouri and Illinois. The city core is on the Mississippi Riverfront on t ...

metropolitan area: KQQZ,

KZQZ KZQZ was a commercial radio station that was licensed to serve St. Louis, Missouri at 1430 AM, and broadcast from 1922 to 2020. As WEB it was one of the first radio stations to have been established and licensed in the Greater St. Louis metro ...

and

WQQW WQQW may refer to: * 570 WWRC, Bethesda, Maryland, which used the call sign WQQW from 1946 to 1951 * 1590 WQQW (Connecticut), Waterbury, Connecticut, which used the call sign from 1972 to its deletion in 1996 * 1510 WQQW (Illinois) WQQW was a c ...

History

The station was first licensed in 1972 as WESL. 1490 AM in East St. Louis was previously occupied by

WAMV WAMV is a Southern Gospel and Talk Radio formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Amherst, Virginia, serving Amherst and Eastern Amherst County, Virginia Amherst County is a county, located in the Piedmont region and near the center o ...

, which operated from 1935 until 1964. In July 2007, WESL changed its format from

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as ...

sports talk Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on-ai ...

and its call letters to WFFX. In July 2009, WFFX dropped Fox Sports Radio, including

Dan Patrick Dan Patrick may refer to: * Dan Patrick (ice hockey) (born 1938), Canadian ice hockey player * Dan Patrick (politician) (born 1950), Lieutenant Governor of Texas and political and sports radio journalist * Dan Patrick (sportscaster) (born 1956), Ame ...

and

Jim Rome James Phillip Rome (born October 14, 1964) is an American sports radio host. His talk show, ''The Jim Rome Show'', is syndicated by CBS Sports Radio. Broadcasting from a studio near Los Angeles, California, Rome hosts ''The Jim Rome Show'' on ...

, and changed to "urban sports talk" as what may be the nation's first sports talk format with only

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

hosts. Richard "Onion" Horton is a veteran of St. Louis radio. On January 19, 2010, the station again changed call signs, this time to WQQX. In February 2010, WQQX changed formats from sports talk to adult standards. In December 2011, WQQX flipped to a

rhythmic oldies Rhythmic oldies is a radio format that concentrates on the rhythmic, R&B, disco, or dance genres of music. Playlists can span from the 1960s through the 2000s and, depending on market conditions, may be designed for African-American or Hispanic ...

format. In March 2014, the station returned to the sports format. During its second incarnation with the format, WQQX aired local shows, Fox Sports Radio, and the Big Ten Network's ''BTN Live Radio'' show. WQQX began simulcasting

news/talk Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

station

(97.1 FM) on September 15, 2016; concurrently, WQQX added a translator station, K254CR (98.7 FM) in St. Louis. The translator had been acquired by Emmis Communications, KFTK-FM's owner, from Cornerstone Community Radio earlier in 2016 and relocated from

Atlanta, Illinois Atlanta (formerly Xenia) is a city in Logan County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,692 at the 2010 census. History The community was incorporated on March 26, 1853. Geography According to the 2010 census, Atlanta has a total area ...

to be used by WQQX. The simulcast allowed KFTK-FM (whose transmitter is located in

O'Fallon, Missouri O'Fallon ( ) is a city located along Interstates 64 and 70 between Lake St. Louis and St. Peters in St. Charles County, Missouri, United States. It is part of the St. Louis metropolitan statistical area. As of the 2020 census, O'Fallon had ...

, west of St. Louis) to improve its coverage of the Illinois side of the market and downtown St. Louis. The call letters were changed to KFTK on September 16, 2016. In 2012, St. Clair County board chairman Mark Kern challenged the license renewals of then-WQQX and its sister stations. Kern charged that Robert Romanik, a convicted felon who is also known as the "Grim Reaper of Radio", was controlling the stations in violation of FCC rules that prohibit felons from owning broadcast stations and had been involved in creating the local marketing agreement between Emmis and EMT/Insane to operate the 1490 frequency. According to a 2012 article in ''

Riverfront Times The ''Riverfront Times'' (''RFT'') is a free progressive weekly newspaper in St. Louis, in the U.S. state of Missouri, that consists of local politics, music, arts, and dining news in the print edition, and daily updates to blogs and photo gall ...

,'' Romanik was officially listed as a "consultant" to EMT/Insane, but held the real power. On June 5, 2019, following a seven-year investigation, the

's Media Bureau designated all four EMT stations' licenses for hearing. The FCC found Romanik had established EMT, provided all the funding to acquire its stations, and identified himself as a radio station owner on forms disclosing political donations even though he was not a party to any FCC applications. On March 20, 2020, the station's license was deleted by the Federal Communications Commission; K254CR would serve as a direct rebroadcast of KFTK-FM until March 22, 2021, when Entercom converted it to an FM translator for

KMOX KMOX (1120 AM) is a commercial radio station in St. Louis, Missouri. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it is a 50,000 watt Class A clear-channel station with a non-directional signal. The KMOX studios and offices are on Olive Street at Tucker Bouleva ...

FCC Auction 109

The FCC announced on February 8, 2021, that the former EMT-licensed AM allocations in the St. Louis market, including KFTK's frequency, would go up for auction on July 27, 2021. The day after the auction process started, blank applications for new stations, using the facility ID numbers for KFTK and WQQW, appeared in the FCC database. No bids were received for any of the four frequencies during the eight-day auction.

References

External links

{{St. Louis Radio *KFTK (AM) Defunct radio stations in the United States East St. Louis, Illinois Radio stations established in 1972 1972 establishments in Illinois Radio stations disestablished in 2020 2020 disestablishments in Illinois *