KFTK was a commercial

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

that was licensed to East St. Louis,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

at 1490 AM, and broadcast from 1972 to 2020. KFTK's transmitter was located in East St. Louis. From 2016 to 2020, KFTK and low-power

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

K254CR (98.7 FM) were operated by both

Emmis Communications Emmis Communications is an American media conglomerate based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Emmis, based on the Hebrew word for Truth (Emet) was founded by Jeff Smulyan in 1980. Emmis has owned many radio stations, including KPWR and WQHT, which ...

and Entercom as a full-time simulcast of KFTK-FM (97.1). The station's license was revoked by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisd ...

after it was revealed that its principal owner, Entertainment Media Trust (

doing business as A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

Insane Broadcasting), was set up as a shell company for a convicted felon. The cancellation also included three other AM stations in the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area: KQQZ, KZQZ and WQQW.

History

The station was first licensed in 1972 as WESL. 1490 AM in East St. Louis was previously occupied by WAMV, which operated from 1935 until 1964. In July 2007, WESL changed its format from oldies to sports talk and its call letters to WFFX. In July 2009, WFFX dropped Fox Sports Radio, including Dan Patrick and Jim Rome, and changed to "urban sports talk" as what may be the nation's first sports talk format with only

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

hosts. Richard "Onion" Horton is a veteran of St. Louis radio. On January 19, 2010, the station again changed call signs, this time to WQQX. In February 2010, WQQX changed formats from sports talk to adult standards. In December 2011, WQQX flipped to a rhythmic oldies format. In March 2014, the station returned to the sports format. During its second incarnation with the format, WQQX aired local shows, Fox Sports Radio, and the Big Ten Network's ''BTN Live Radio'' show. WQQX began simulcasting

news/talk Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

station KFTK-FM (97.1 FM) on September 15, 2016; concurrently, WQQX added a translator station, K254CR (98.7 FM) in St. Louis. The translator had been acquired by Emmis Communications, KFTK-FM's owner, from Cornerstone Community Radio earlier in 2016 and relocated from Atlanta, Illinois to be used by WQQX. The simulcast allowed KFTK-FM (whose transmitter is located in O'Fallon, Missouri, west of St. Louis) to improve its coverage of the Illinois side of the market and downtown St. Louis. The call letters were changed to KFTK on September 16, 2016. In 2012, St. Clair County board chairman Mark Kern challenged the license renewals of then-WQQX and its sister stations. Kern charged that Robert Romanik, a convicted felon who is also known as the "Grim Reaper of Radio", was controlling the stations in violation of FCC rules that prohibit felons from owning broadcast stations and had been involved in creating the local marketing agreement between Emmis and EMT/Insane to operate the 1490 frequency. According to a 2012 article in '' Riverfront Times,'' Romanik was officially listed as a "consultant" to EMT/Insane, but held the real power. On June 5, 2019, following a seven-year investigation, the

's Media Bureau designated all four EMT stations' licenses for hearing. The FCC found Romanik had established EMT, provided all the funding to acquire its stations, and identified himself as a radio station owner on forms disclosing political donations even though he was not a party to any FCC applications. On March 20, 2020, the station's license was deleted by the Federal Communications Commission; K254CR would serve as a direct rebroadcast of KFTK-FM until March 22, 2021, when Entercom converted it to an FM translator for KMOX.

FCC Auction 109

The FCC announced on February 8, 2021, that the former EMT-licensed AM allocations in the St. Louis market, including KFTK's frequency, would go up for auction on July 27, 2021. The day after the auction process started, blank applications for new stations, using the facility ID numbers for KFTK and WQQW, appeared in the FCC database. No bids were received for any of the four frequencies during the eight-day auction.

References

External links

{{St. Louis Radio *KFTK (AM) Defunct radio stations in the United States East St. Louis, Illinois Radio stations established in 1972 1972 establishments in Illinois Radio stations disestablished in 2020 2020 disestablishments in Illinois *