Halls of Fame

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.

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. ​

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.​

Ed Wilson – Legacy

Ed Wilson’s St. Louis radio career spanned 30 years, with a brief hiatus for a trip to California.

In May of 1942 he moved to St. Louis from a radio job in Chicago and became a folksy-talking disc jockey at KWK, a job he held for 16 years. He had a huge fan base among teenagers and also hosted a local teen dance show on television, the weekly “St. Louis Hop.”

A change in KWK’s ownership was the motivation for Wilson to move uptown to KSD in 1958, where his popularity continued. When he went to Hollywood to try his hand at movies, Wilson’s voice was still heard here. He appeared on KSD via recorded programs and still voiced many local commercials.

Returning to St. Louis in 1962, Ed Wilson admitted movies were not for him, and he took a disc jockey job at WIL. After two years there, he took a job at WEW, only to return to WIL in 1970.

Thomas Patrick Convey – Legacy

Thomas Patrick Convey was, first and foremost, a promoter. In 1925 he helped organize a group of major business owners who financed the building of KMOX, which Convey then managed for a short time. He then used his own money to buy a local station that had gone off the air. KFVE’s call letters were soon changed to KWK, and Convey and his family managed their station over a couple decades. He was also frequently heard on the air as “Thomas Patrick” providing play-by-play of Cardinals’ and Browns’ games on the station. His son Bob took over management of the station after his death in 1934.

Wiley Price, Jr. – Legacy

Wiley Price, Jr. got his first job in radio in 1944, when he was 31 years old. WTMV, licensed to East St. Louis, gave Price a regular, daily program, thus making him the first African-American in this market to host a radio show. A military veteran, Wiley Price was responsible for selling the ads on his program and was expected to pay the station for the airtime. He had subsequent shows on KXLW and KSTL under similar financial arrangements. Calling himself “Mrs. Price’s boy Wiley,” Price focused on what was then called “race music,” but he left the radio business when the station owners insisted he play the new music form, rock and roll.