St. Louis Radio: FCC Pulls KQQZ License

The signal seems to be fading on the radio days of vitriolic St. Louis radio shock-talker Bob Romanik.

The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday issued an order terminating license renewal efforts by stations connected to the broadcaster.

Romanik was suspected of deceiving federal regulators into hiding his ownership of four radio stations, the Tribune-Ledger-News reports.

Billing himself as the “Grim Reaper of Radio,” Romanik is the host of “Kool Killer Kountry Radio” on KQQZ 1190 AM in Fairview Heights. KQQZ and the three other stations all are involved in the FCC dispute.

Romanik has been regularly criticized for making racist, homophobic and misogynistic slurs on his shows. He has claimed his monologues fall under constitutional free-speech protections.

The FCC action, however, did not focus on what Romanik has said, but rather on paperwork.

The FCC probe into Romanik’s licensing issues began in 2012 when St. Clair County Chairman Mark Kern filed a complaint. Kern renewed his complaint in 2016.

The complaint alleged that although the licenses for the four stations were issued to Entertainment Media Trust, headed by lawyer Dennis J. Watkins, Bob Romanik was the de facto owner.

The FCC noted that Romanik has filed campaign records with Illinois and Missouri election officials in which he identified himself as a radio station owner.

As a convicted felon, Romanik effectively is prohibited from being the licensed owner of a radio station.

A former Washington Park police chief, Romanik admitted obstructing justice in a federal investigation into organized crime in the 1990s and later was convicted of bank fraud.

Jane H. Halprin, the administrative law judge in the FCC case, chastised the trust and Watkins for defying and ignoring several court orders since the proceeding began in July.