St. Louis Radio: Kevin Slaten Set To Return to KFNS

Kevin Slaten

It has been seven years since Kevin Slaten, the bad boy of sports-talk radio across much of its three decades in the market, last hosted a show in that format on a St. Louis station.

But, according to Dan Ceaser at stltoday.com,  the outspoken broadcaster, who uses George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone” in the introduction to his show and is known for his stinging critiques of the area’s teams and athletes, is about to reappear. He’s set to return to KFNS 590 AM next week for his sixth stint with the station. Some of his previous stays ended by his choice, others did not. But he vows to be as tough-talking as usual and still is energized at age 69.

“I’m excited to be back,” Slaten said this week, adding that he was interested in returning because “I like” the job. “I’m happy to hold people accountable, that’s what we do. And people can hold me accountable as well. To me that’s the way it always should be and always will be. If people aren’t ready, here we come anyway. If I were (Missouri football coach) Eli Drinkwitz or (Cardinals manager) Oli Marmol, I would be on my toes.”

Beginning Monday he’s heading to KFNS’ noon-2 p.m. weekday slot, which currently is occupied by Nate Lucas and Bob Ramsey. Lucas will be paired with Slaten and produce the show, then Ramsey and Lucas will be on from 2-3 p.m. (Lucas sometimes is the solo host there now). Slaten and Ramsey were among the original hosts when the all-sports format debuted locally in 1992, on KGLD (later KASP) 1380 AM.

His last stay at 590 ended when he elected to leave, on his own, in a change of management structure. Another KFNS stint concluded when he was ousted after making comments in 2012 about racial voting patterns in the presidential election won by Barack Obama. An additional run there ended in 2008 when he was fired following a confrontation with Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan, who didn’t know he was on the air and thought he and Slaten were having a private conversation. Slaten sued over his dismissal and eventually reached a settlement with Big League Broadcasting, which owned the station then.