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Jeff Allen’s got a square jaw, burnished voice, and competitor’s chutzpah. “Evidently, our idea was a good one,” he says, seated in the still mostly empty suite of offices and studios at NewsTalkSTL 101.9 FM, which recently set up shop near Union Station. “Everybody is rushing to fill what’s a perceived void in the market.”
By “market” he means conservative talk radio in St. Louis—and by claiming there’s a “void,” he’s subtly trash-talking. For years, St. Louisans had only one conservative talk option on the FM dial, the long-running KFTK 97.1, currently owned by Audacy. Then, in July, Allen and his business partner, Joe Rusch, launched their rival station. A month later, iHeart Radio joined the fray with its own offering, 104.9 The Patriot. That same month, to the west of St. Louis County, a fourth station, RealTalk, emerged and can now be heard locally on 100.7.
When I ask Allen what’s driving this flurry of market entry, I expect him to point to a swell in audience demand, powered by fear and loathing of Democrats’ control of the White House and Congress. But Allen tells a different story, one that’s partly business and partly reveals conflicting definitions of “true conservatism.”
Two decades ago, Allen himself was at KFTK. He and his colleagues first conceived of it as a “female talk” station (hence the “F” and “T”) and ran advice programs by Joy Browne and Laura Schlessinger. But by that time—and thanks to “dumb luck,” Allen says—firebrand Rush Limbaugh had blazed enough of a trail on AM to have inspired new shows by Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham. KFTK began drawing on that content as it steered rightward, nurturing homegrown talents such as Dana Loesch and Dave Glover along the way. According to brand manager Steve Moore, KFTK is still solidly conservative and had one of its biggest years in 2020.
Allen, however, sensed an open lane. Having been laid off in a corporate reshuffling, he joined forces with other KFTK alumni to take on their former employer, whom they felt had become too corporate and tame. Thus NewsTalkSTL was born. As of October, both stations were broadcasting local on-air talent about 78 percent of the time from 5 a.m.—7 p.m. (This differentiates them from The Patriot, which was created by another KFTK alum, John Beck, and which, aside from Jamie Allman’s morning show, is proudly chockablock with iHeart’s nationally syndicated stars, such as Hannity.) But Allen et al. are trying to brand themselves as the guys who brought conservative FM radio to town in the first place. Their slogan: “Welcome Home!”
That slogan fills a banner in their lobby and is visible from the studio, where the afternoon show is in full swing. Standing at his microphone in a powder-blue camo shirt, host Tim Jones, the former speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives, is decrying what he views as Democrats’ abandonment of working-class values. His co-host, Chris Arps, a regular Newsmax contributor, agrees, adding that the Dems turned to “transgenders,” “Hispanics,” and “people that feel oppressed and discriminated against” because the party can no longer depend on blue-collar union workers. “So I think that’s why they went to the Star Wars bar scene, saying, ‘We’ll take anybody, as long as you’re not Republican.’” Jones chortles.
Ironically, a realignment in the right’s own coalition helps explain why this station and its rivals exist. From the ’90s on, according to the book Talk Radio’s America by University of Pennsylvania scholar-in-residence Brian Rosenwald, Limbaugh and his successors whipped up a desire among conservatives for a fighter candidate who would attack the left. This fertilized the ground for the pugnacious Trump presidency.
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But Trump in turn showed a tolerance of (and sometimes enthusiasm for) folks whom the coalition had previously marginalized—namely, populists and the far right. As a result, “conservative” is an especially contested term these days, and talk radio is reacting by filling different lanes.
Consider RealTalk, launched by real estate agents Tracy and Rick Ellis. “I know we are the furthest to the right,” Tracy boasts. The Ellises paid to do their own real estate program on KFTK but departed after management reminded them not to stray into politics—for example, into Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2020 election, which Tracy believes have merit. (Trump filed more than 60 such claims in courts nationwide, but nearly all failed.)
At one point, the Ellises considered teaming up with Allen and Rusch at NewsTalk but ultimately decided against it and set up their own studio in Chesterfield. While both sides take pains to avoid criticizing each other personally, Rusch says RealTalk appears to be in the “black helicopter” and “big conspiracy theory” lane. Ellis disputes that description and finds it “odd” that NewsTalk is willing to be located in (and pay tax dollars to) a staunchly Democratic city that “obviously doesn’t support their message.” She disagrees with their idea of conservatism but says she hasn’t listened to their shows yet.
The NewsTalk hosts don't have uniform beliefs, but Allen says they were all hired for the same reason: They’re good storytellers. “You can be informative, correct, and educating,” he says, “but if you’re not entertaining, no one will hear it.”
Inside the studio, the vibe mellows as the topic turns to the imminent homecoming of a young Marine from Wentzville who was killed during the Afghanistan withdrawal. In a quiet voice, Jones recounts how a soldier from Eureka (where Jones lives) was killed in Iraq, and how his return home drew an outpouring of support. Jones predicts a similar scene in Wentzville. Then he perks up and previews the next guest, ending with, “All that straight ahead here on NewsTalkSTL.” Which is followed by the doop bop, doop bop, doop-bop bah of the Star Wars bar band.
