R.I.P.: Kris Phillips, Owner of WFOY St. Augustine

Kris Phillips

Kris Phillips, owner of WFOY Radio in St. Augustine, has died, reports St.Augustine.com citing a station Facebook post.

"With profound sadness, we announce the passing of Kris Phillips. She loved her family and friends and she loved owning and running WFOY," the station wrote.

The station did not announce the cause of her death. 

WFOY is St. Augustine’s oldest radio station. It is now at 102.1 FM and 1240 AM.  Named after the Fountain of Youth, the station began broadcasting in the mid-1930s.

Phillips was born in Chicago on September 17, 1959. She graduated from Butler University in 1981 and earned a Broadcasting Certificate from the Broadcast Center in St. Louis in 1982. Kris began her career as an on-air television reporter for the number one station in Little Rock, KATV, the ABC affiliate. As senior reporter she specialized in covering politics and high-profile court cases. She also became a meteorologist, earning her AMS designation while a weekend weathercaster. Kris produced several documentaries for Arkansas Public Television, and moderated Arkansas Week, a statewide public affairs program on legislature and statewide political issues.

She resettled in St. Augustine, Florida in 2008, and ran her own business, Phillips Broadcasting, which operated Newstalk WFOY 1250 AM / 102.1 FM and WAOC 1420 AM /  96.5 FM. 

Before becoming a radio station owner and operator, Phillips worked as a television reporter. Her background also included work as a communications director in the U.S. Senate.

Her death is the second to hit WFOY within a week. Talk host Greg Larson, who impacted sports media on the First Coast for nearly 50 years, died on Saturday August 7, 2021 at his home at the age of 73.