St. Louis Radio: Sponsors Bail After KFTK's Jamie Allman Tweets

KFTK 97.1 FM radio and TV personality Jamie Allman has landed in hot water with a tweet about his desire to assault Parkland student David Hogg with a hot poker, reports stltoday.com.

Hogg has been a subject of criticism from pro-gun rights advocates since he and other Parkland students began speaking out and organizing rallies. The students are advocating for stronger gun laws after 19-year-old gunman Nikolas Cruz took the lives of 17 people at the school.

Allman's Twitter account is now "locked," which means anyone who wants to see his tweets first has to request his permission to follow him.

A screenshot of the controversial tweet, sent at 9:56 p.m. on March 26, began making its way around social media this week and was the subject of a story in the Riverfront Times, the St. Louis alt-weekly, on Friday.

In the tweet, Allman wrote: "I've been hanging out getting ready to ram a hot poker up David Hogg's ass tomorrow." The context for his comment was unclear.

Response to Allman's tweet has caused several businesses — including a Ruth's Chris Steak House franchisee, The Gellman Team and PALM Health — to pull advertising from Allman's show on conservative talk radio station KFTK (97.1 FM), according messages posted on Twitter by the companies on Friday and Saturday.

The station, which bills itself as FM NewsTalk 97.1, is owned by Emmis Communications, but is being sold to Entercom Communications.

Meanwhile, Allman has lost his job with KDNL (Channel 30). A spokesman for the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns the ABC affiliate KDNL, confirmed Monday evening that Allman’s show is finished.

“His show is canceled and he is off the air immediately,” Ronn Torossian, the CEO of the PR firm 5W, said by email.

Torossian did not provide any other details.

The tweet about Hogg prompted calls for Allman’s firing as well as a boycott of his sponsors.

Among those leading the boycott call was state Rep. Stacey Newman, D-Richmond Heights.

Newman said that her “efforts will continue” as long as Allman has airtime on the radio.

Allman has been a fixture in St. Louis media for many years. He was a reporter with TV station KMOV for 15 years before being appointed chief spokesman for then-St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke and executive director of communications for the archdiocese in 2004. He resigned in June 2005, six months after he was hired.