STLMHF

Jim White – Legacy

Jim White held forth at KMOX as a fixture in the nighttime hours for 20 of his 30 years at the station, retiring in 1999.
Because KMOX enjoyed clear channel status with 50,000 watts of power, his show was often heard over much of North America.

White came to St. Louis from KDKA in Pittsburgh in 1969, and like many people at KMOX, he worked many different jobs and shifts. At one time, he was program director, news director and program host.

He made irascibility a mainstay of the overnight show, often cutting off callers in midstream if he considered them boring.

White even gave himself an on-air nickname, “The Big Bumper,” which he said was due to his size and airshift – a not-so-vague reference to things that go bump in the night.​

Lou Thimes – Legacy

Lou Thimes’ strong college background in business and music served him well during his nearly 50 years in St. Louis radio. Known to all his listeners as “Fatha,” Thimes’ deep voice graced the airwaves of many stations and was synonymous with the rhythm & blues music scene.

His resume paints a picture of a man well-known for his musical knowledge and legion of loyal listeners: KATZ, KADI, KXLW, KKSS, KMJM, WESL and a specialty show on community radio KDHX. In the mid-1950s, Lou was the first African-American ring announcer at the local Kiel Auditorium boxing matches.

It is a tribute to Lou Fatha Thimes that local blues musicians held him in such high esteem that they performed concerts in his honor over the years. ​

Bob Shea – Legacy

​Bob Shea (Schoeneberg) became a part of the St. Louis radio scene when he moved to the market in 1948, taking a job at WEW as a newsman. Two years later he moved across town to KXOK, where he stayed until his retirement in 1985.For about a year at KXOK, Shea was called Victor Fontana in an unsuccessful effort to give all on-air staffers memorable multi-syllabic names.

​Much of his time at KXOK was as the station’s news director, although he was on the air through his entire career there.

​For a couple years in the 1960s, he hosted a Sunday night call-in show called “Hotline,” in which Mr. Shea took the devil’s advocate position and disagreed with callers’ opinions. According to his family, he received several death threats because of the show.

​He was active in the St. Louis chapter of AFTRA and served as its president. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award, which is known as the Nellie Booth Award, from the group.

John Roedel – Legacy

John Roedel was one of the KSD folks who worked at the radio station when television came to St. Louis, which meant he was required to wear several hats in the Pulitzer broadcast operation.

Roedel came to St. Louis from WISH in Indianapolis in 1946. As he told it, his uncle in St. Louis had lunch at the Missouri Athletic Club and KSD’s general manager George Burbach mentioned he needed radio announcers. A call was made and John Roedel was on the next train to St. Louis. The relationship that ensued was a long one. John Roedel served as a staff announcer and newsman at KSD until 1975.

In his initial position as staff announcer, Roedel “did just about everything,” from disc jockeying to news to commercials, not to mention the station IDs between network shows.

When KSD-TV signed on in February 1947, staff announcers were also expected to perform similar chores in the television studio. Roedel was the voice of morning news on KSD for 25 years. In 1996 he was made a member of the NATAS Silver Circle.​

Roy Queen – Legacy

​Roy Queen’s career as a hillbilly singer and broadcaster began in 1929 when he was 16. He hitched a ride on a freight train from Pilot Knob, MO., to St. Louis and auditioned at the KMOX studios in the Mayfair Hotel. He got the job and was soon yodeling and playing his guitar on a daily basis on KMOX. He was an entertainer on KMOX and WIL and later worked as a disc jockey on KXLW and on KWRE in nearby Warrenton, MO.

Early on at KMOX, he had a namesake program, “Roy Queen and His Ozark Mountaineers,” that was fed to some network affiliates. KMOX later moved him to the wildly popular “Uncle Dick Slack’s Barn Dance.”

Like many of the young performers in those days, Queen did many personal appearances in addition to his musical performances at the station. It was during the return trip from one of those appearances that he was gravely injured in an auto accident.

The recovery period for his two broken legs was lengthy, but that didn’t keep him from working. The station set up a remote microphone in Queen’s hospital room while engineers ran the records at the station.

Roy Queen, KMOX, 1936

Don Pietromonaco – Legacy

Don Pietromonaco, in the ears and eyes of thousands of St. Louis radio listeners was the definitive Johnny Rabbitt, holding forth at KXOK with that air name from 1964 to 1968. He commanded the nighttime radio scene, inviting his listeners to phone in and “blab it to the Rabbitt.”

There were other characters on his show with whom he would converse, but none was as popular as Bruno J. Grunion, who was Rab’s alter-ego. Often, Pietromonaco would get to the studio early and record his Bruno drop-ins before the show, then converse with the pre-taped voice on the air. Other times he did both voices live.

Don Pietromonaco motivated his listeners to donate millions of dollars for medical research during his stint here. He ran a couple teen-oriented nightclubs in St. Louis – Bruno’s Bat Cave and Cloud Nyne – and his audience came to believe that Johnny Rabbitt was an adult who understood them and would go to bat for them.

Even today, several decades later, his baby boomer fans can recall intricate details from humorous bits he did on the air, even though they were only broadcast once.

As an indication of his fame in St. Louis, Pietromonaco was recognized by Billboard magazine in the 1980s as the Johnny Rabbitt the listeners remembered and the one who was known nationally for his ratings successes. ​