Goodbye to "The Answer"

This Sunday marks the final broadcast of "The Answer Radio Show," thus ending a 35 year run for St. Louis Christian radio pioneer and good guy Stel Pontikes,

According to Stel, he had a great run, and is glad to have weekends off for the first time in 35 years!

Stel continues on with CBS late nights at KEZK and Y98, as well as programming 102.5 HD-2 "The Spirit" which is akin to a Christian Contemporary version of "The Arch." For those without HD, "The Spirit" can be heard online HERE.

UPDATE from Mike Anderson: Stel sent this along:

Well, after 35 years, it looks like it's time to hang up my headphones for the show! This coming Sunday morning's show will be the last one.

CBS corporate programming folks were in town last week from NYC and Boston to take a look at all 3 stations, Y98, KEZK, and KMOX. They had some final stuff to handle with KMOX and their new agreement with the Cardinals (a 5-year deal that brings them back to KMOX, where they had been for 52 years before leaving for KTRS-AM 5 years ago).

I talked with KEZK's program director Mark Edwards last Wednesday night, after the meetings were over (the CBS folks were going up to Chicago), and he said that they decided that The Answer Radio Show will finish at the end of this month of September. Mark said that the CBS folks couldn't justify keeping the show on KEZK when this market is already being served by 2 fulltime and fullpower stations with contemporary Christian music formats, and one of them is our own KEZK-HD2, The Spirit. And The Spirit's format is essentially the same as The Answer's format (rock-based Christian adult hits, as I call it). The other station is JoyFM (99.1FM), and they're a straight adult contemporary format. And the CBS folks know that I also program The Spirit. So I think, from their perspective, they couldn't justify giving up 3 hours of KEZK's regular format for a show like The Answer, and I understand that.

I think you've probably heard a little bit about the new radio ratings system with the personal people meters (they look like pagers). A lot of markets, including St. Louis, don't have diaries anymore. They've adopted the PPM system from Arbitron. PPM ratings have pushed stations to stay within their format, even to the point of music stations getting rid of air personalities (especially talk-oriented morning shows) who had been there for years. I know that the PPM stuff had some influence on their decison.

On the personal side, I feel that God is saying that it's time to close this chapter of my life. I'm comfortable with the decision to end the show. Kathie and I put it in God's hands, and I trust that this is what He wants. It's a much different media landscape these days, both on-air and online.

Besides that, I've never had real weekends for the past 35 years! And that covers the years we've been married, since The Answer began on KADI-FM a few weeks after we got married. So now we can actually do stuff together on weekends. And I'm looking forward to that. This change doesn't affect my job. I'll switch to 5 straight nights, which includes other fill-in shifts when needed. Essentially, it'll be Sunday night (Mon. AM) through Thursday night (Fri. AM).

So this is bittersweet. But I'm fine with it. Had The Spirit not been available, I might feel differently. But I'm comfortable knowing that The Spirit will continue, and it embodies the essence and the mission of The Answer Radio Show that began back in 1975. Where'd the time go?! KADI-FM for 3 years, then 32 years on KSLQ/Y98, and 8 months on KEZK.

I'm not sure if I ever shared the story with you regarding the frequency of 102.5FM here in St. Louis, it's beginnings back in the early '60's, and how it ties in with the church we've been going to for quite a while, Church of St. Louis at Compton and Lafayette in South City. If not, I'll share that with you sometime. The final outcome of that portion of the story back in 1965 (initial FCC approval of 102.5FM for the church; a petition-to-deny filed by 2 guys from Seattle...one of whom grew up in Clayton; the FCC hearings that summer, the reversal of the original license allocation in the fall of '65, etc.) has relevance to what exists today with The Spirit, because it's broadcasting on that same frequency of 102.5 (KEZK-HD2).

I know the folks back in '65 would've been amazed to see what we've got now in 2010, with The Spirit as a fulltime Christian music format broadcasting on 102.5-HD2, thanks to digital technology and the ability to broadcast multiple signals on the same frequency. On top of that, there's nationwide access to The Spirit online at www.kezk.com. They had no clue about something like this back then. It's really an amazing story that concludes with the fact that you can now listen to The Spirit anytime on-air here in St. Louis on KEZK-HD2, and listen online anytime here:

http://player.radio.com/player/RadioPlayer.php?version=1.0.0&station=8748

And listeners can get The Spirit online with the Listen Live button on KEZK's homepage, www.KEZK.com. It's been neat getting emails from listeners around the country.

I'm guessing that we'll also start up a separate website for The Spirit sometime in the future, because I don't think the corporate folks want all the Spirit info (videos, playlists, concert info, etc.) on KEZK's webpages.

One thing a senior pastor at New Covenant Fellowship shared with us, a few years after we got married, was that God moves you through the book of your life, ending one chapter and beginning the next one. I guess the chapter that includes The Answer Radio Show ends this coming Sunday. It was a long chapter! It's a little bit saying goodbye when your kid goes off to college...except this one's been around the house for 35 years, instead of 18. Ha!

I'm grateful that the next chapter in the book will continue with The Spirit.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers. I really appreciate it.

Stel

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