Rich Dalton. Courtesy of the "Bring Back Radio Rich," Facebook page
This isn’t a report about the departure of “Radio” Rich Dalton from the KSHE 95 airwaves as such, though we’d welcome comments from both Emmis Communications and Dalton should they choose to get in touch. Instead, it’s story about fandom, about buying into what a radio station’s about, how it represents a lifestyle and provides a deep reserve of memories.
Yesterday, Rick Cheney put together a Facebook page, “Bring Back Radio Rich.” Within hours, the piece had attracted hundreds of Likes. As of this writing, just prior to noon, it sat at about 2,400 Likes, the piece being passed around and around on social media circles. To Cheney, the page isn’t just about making a statement. It’s, quite literally, about getting KSHE’s attention and adding Dalton back to its roster of on-air personalities. It’s something that he doesn’t just think is possible, it’s something that he thinks will happen if listeners force the station’s hand.
“I absolutely do,” he says. “If there’s a big public backlash, they would have to. Coke changed its recipe back to the original, didn’t they? There’s absolutely a chance they’ll realize this was a major misstep. I think we would all love to hear him back on KSHE.”
To Cheney, and to many of the folks who’ve responded—often in very emotional terms—to his page, Dalton represents one of the last ties to the glory days of KSHE. Dalton, though spending time at other, area rock 'n’ roll stations, is one of the flag-bearers for the KSHE brand and, with John Ulett, has been viewed (well, heard) as a key link to KSHE’s glory days. Cheney himself has a longtime connection to the DJ, having first advertised his collectibles shop, Forever Young, on the KSHE Klassics show in 1989.
“It was mind-blowing, what he did with the commercials,” Cheney remembers. “At the time, my rent was $650 a month. And my radio ads, run four times a month for 30-seconds, was $850. You can’t wrap your brain around that, until you go from a $50 Monday to a Monday of $1,000 in sales. We went from a place that was off the beaten path to a store that got visitors from Arkansas, who’d heard our ads and wanted to check us out.”
These days, Cheney operates The Really Cool Stuff Shop. His store is (very literally) the only one left in Jamestown Mall, but he plans to open a second location on the Loop this spring, at the personal behest of Joe Edwards. (With youth violence breaking out in The Loop over the weekend, he “gave pause” to the expansion, but now is planning the expansion to two stores.) He planned on contacting Dalton to voice ads on his long running “7th Day” program on Sunday nights.
Instead, this weekend, Cheney had seen online notes via longtime St. Louis (and Houston) radio personality JC Corcoran, who relayed that Dalton was part of a small putsch at the station, with a half-dozen staffers given their walking papers. Cheney thought on it, but only for a touch, before blasting Facebook with his newly built page.
“I hadn’t talked to Rich in a bit, maybe seven months,” Cheney recalls. “It just happened that over the weekend it came to the public’s attention, through JC Corcoran, who said he and five other people had been let go. KSHE didn’t make an announcement, so I decided to do a page. He is KSHE. He and John Ulett. They’re the backbone of KSHE. He was kind of like a gentle giant, so calm and low-key; he had a calming effect on people. His knowledge of rock ’n’ roll was second-to-none. He plays in a band. He could sit and talk music with you for hours. But he wasn’t just about music. You could talk about anything with him.
“It’s just atrocious that they would let him go without some type of big farewell,” Cheney continues, adding layers to the Dalton legend. “He’s been such a major, major part of KSHE’s success and whole image. The 7th Day became such a thing of his. Radio Rich and John Ulett were the faces and voices of KSHE. When the DJ plays a song and it’s just been on your mind, that’s magical. Radio Rich was one of those DJs who played the right song at the right time. He would educate you about the song and you’d end up educated and entertained at the same time. I’ve learned a lot about music from him over the years.
“To take him out of the equation is blowing peoples’ minds,” Cheney concluded. “[Respondents] are posting that, that it’s really unsettling. It’s almost too much for people to believe is true.”
And while Dalton’s presence on the terrestrial version of KHSE had lessened in recent years—his time shifting to the station’s digital programming arm—the broadcaster can still be heard daily in the St. Louis market through the miracle of digital streaming; he hosts a classic rock show on 93.5 Rocks the Lake, originating from Osage Beach, MO, every morning from 6 a.m.-noon. Find him here.
As noted above, we’ll reach out to Emmis Communications and to Dalton and will append comments if/when they arrive.
