Radio HOF

George Logan – 2017

George “The Rockin’ Mr. G” Logan began his career in Mounds, Illinois, where he announced high school basketball games. A graduate of SIU Carbondale, Logan moved his family to St. Louis, and in the early ‘50s, he could be heard on KXLW. In two successive years, he won trophies as the listeners’ favorite disc jockey. He was also heard on KATZ in the late ‘50s, and was remembered by many for his gospel and spiritual show, “Lest We Forget.” One competitor DJ said that when G played that gospel and read those poems, the whole town heard him. Logan was active in the Civil Rights movement, travelling to Little Rock and reporting on the desegregation of their high school. When he left radio in the 1960s, he worked with the Head Start program and later helped senior citizens find employment.

George Noory – 2017

George Noory turned his hosting job on an overnight talk show on KTRS into a springboard to national prominence when he became host of Premier Network’s “Coast To Coast AM.” Known here as “The Nighthawk,” Noory succeeded Art Bell on the national broadcast in 2003, reaching the overnight audience over some 600 radio stations. Much of the program’s focus centered on discussions of paranormal, alien abduction, time travel and unexplained phenomena. Noory authored three books and often conducted his broadcasts from his home in St. Louis.

George Rueppel – 2017

Brother George Rueppel, S.J., took the experimental wireless station at Saint Louis University, 9YK, and turned it into radio station WEW. 9YK had been broadcasting weather information by Morse Code since 1912, and Brother Rueppel was working as director of SLU’s meteorology department. When WEW was licensed for voice transmission in 1922, Rueppel headed the operation and did most of the initial announcing. He brought a Victrola into his makeshift studio and played music into the microphone to fill the time. His work will forever establish him as one of the founders of radio in St. Louis

Gene Roberts – 2018

Gene Roberts is remembered as the voice of bluegrass music in the St. Louis area, a position he carried out for many years as a bluegrass disc jockey on WGNU and on non-commercial radio stations KDHX and KCLC, incorporating many records from his personal collection into the shows. He got his start in broadcasting in 1947 at Armed Forces Radio in Okinawa. In 2003 Gene was named to the Who’s Who list of country DJs in St. Louis, and he was a charter member of the International Bluegrass Music Association and received the Pioneer of Missouri Bluegrass Award.

Bob Burnes – 2014

Bob Burnes, “The Benchwarmer,” was the first host of KMOX’s “Sports on a Sunday”, the hugely popular roundup of the previous week’s sports highlights. In addition, he was a host several times per week of the station’s “Sports Open Line” call-in show, and it is believed he hosted the premier broadcast of that program as well. Burnes often shared the microphone with other sports reporters on the show, which he hosted through the mid-1980s. In addition to his long stint on KMOX Radio, Burnes was a legendary sports reporter and columnist for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

Bob Whitney – 2014

In 1959, Bob Whitney was hired by Balaban Broadcasting as a programmer for its Dallas station and was subsequently promoted to National Program Director of the company’s radio group. Shortly thereafter he moved to St. Louis and began work on transforming Balaban’s WIL from an MOR station into a top 40 outlet.

Whitney hired on talent like Dan Ingram, Ron Lundy and Bob Dayton (Robin Scott) to jumpstart the new format, and added Gene Hirsh and Nelson Kirkwood to the newsroom to bolster that department.

WIL, under Whitney’s leadership, held its own in the early Top 40 wars of St. Louis. Later in the decade, he worked for other broadcasters at other stations around the nation before beginning a career in video production. In 1970, local independent station KDNL-TV began broadcasts of his syndicated musical video program, “The Now Explosion.”