St. Louis Radio: Sports WXOS Wins Sports-Talk War

From Media Writer Dan Caesar, Stltoday.com:

It took a lot longer than he had hoped, but John Kijowski now stands alone as the champion of St. Louis sports-talk radio wars. 

It was January 2009 when he converted 101.1 FM from a dance-music station that catered to women, a relatively safe format from a business standpoint, to a much riskier jock-talk outlet that became known as WXOS — for the X’s and O’s in basic sports strategy, keeping with the station’s objective of relatively straightforward sports talk. And 101.1 was bursting into an already-saturated field of athletic chatter. There were four other stations, all on AM, broadcasting in the format. One even had an FM branch to reach some suburbs. 

John Kijowski

But Kijowski was undaunted, saying at the time that his mission was to conquer the sports-talk field within two years by combining a top-notch, no-nonsense lineup with a powerful FM signal and an affiliation with sports media powerhouse ESPN. 

“There’s not room for multiple (sports) stations here,’’ he said. “Our goal is to be the only one.’’ 

It didn’t take long for Kijowski to reach one goal — becoming the ratings leader in sports chat — and another milestone in being the first such local outlet to rank in the top five among all stations, regardless of format, in the key men age 25-54 audience. 

The more obscure AM stations that carried primarily syndicated sports fare (at 1190 and 1490) didn’t last long after WXOS arrived. But the mainstays, KFNS 590 AM and KSLG 1380 AM carried on, although problems grew. KSLG at one time had a powerhouse lineup of well-known local talent but eventually evolved into a second-tier outlet in which hosts were paying for their airtime and the signal often was off the air at non-peak times. KFNS, the longest running station in the sports format, also had major changes and financial problems — including an inoperative website for months. 

But 101.1 might not be the only game in town for long. 

Tim McKernan, whose morning show is being ousted at KFNS when its contract expires in July, is working with others to try to buy a station that could focus at least in part on sports. Dave Greene, who formerly ran KFNS and KSLG and still is a Grand Slam owner, could get back into the business. 

In a broader scope, there have been rumblings that one of the six St. Louis stations owned by Clear Channel Communications — or even KMOX (1120 AM) or one of the two other local CBS Radio outlets — could move to a sports format.

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