We told you this was on the grill ...

Tim Dorsey (and, presumably, his son and his brother) are O-U-T at KTRS/AM550, with an exit date of October 2011.  He says he'll be retiring but will retain his ownership stake in the station.  There are a lot of details that have not been released, but, as you might imagine, we have access to a lot of stuff.  We'll keep you posted!

My main question is why did it take so long to dismember this Ponzi Scheme and why are the Board Members waiting eight months to make it end?

From the STL Business Journal.

From Jerry Berger.

From the Post-Dispatch.

KTRS press release:

TIM DORSEY STEPPING DOWN AS PRESIDENT AND GM OF KTRS, RETIRING AFTER 35 YEARS IN ST. LOUIS RADIO INDUSTRY

St. Louis, Feb. 28, 2011 – Tim Dorsey, the founder of KTRS 550 AM, today announced his decision to step down as president and general manger of the radio station effective in October, when he will retire following 35 years in the St. Louis radio industry.

Dorsey announced his decision last week to the KTRS board of directors. He will retain an ownership role in the locally owned radio station.

“The St. Louis radio industry and the good people who make radio their profession and life have given me many more blessings and memories than I would have thought imaginable 35 years ago,” Dorsey said. “My decision to retire but keep a stake in the radio station speaks to the fondness I have for radio in St. Louis and KTRS in particular, but also the recognition that it is time to retire and spend time with my family and the many friends I have been fortunate to make in radio and throughout the St. Louis community.”

Along with a group of investors, Dorsey purchased WIBV-AM in 1996 and KSD-AM a year later. WIBV was sold to the Disney Corporation and KSD was renamed KTRS-AM 550 and turned into a news/talk station with the largest daytime signal in the United States . In the years that followed, Dorsey acquired the rights to carry the games of the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League and the AM rights to air games of the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League, positioning KTRS as the premier sports voice in the Midwest.
In 2005, Dorsey and his KTRS investors sold 50 percent of the radio station to the St. Louis Cardinals, who moved their broadcasts to “The Big 550” after more than five decades on KMOX. Dorsey was named president of the new ownership group, St. Louis Sports Radio LLC, and is a member of its board of directors. At the time, KTRS was one of only two radio stations in the United States to own the broadcast rights to teams in Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and the National Hockey League.

As a local station supported by local investors, it has always been important for KTRS to serve our St. Louis area listeners and our family of sponsors extremely well, and Tim D orsey more than met that mandate during his tenure as our president and general manager,” said Dan Dierdorf, a member of the KTRS ownership group. “We are grateful for Tim’s outstanding service to KTRS and St. Louis . We applaud him for his accomplishments and wish him all the best in the future. He will always be a valued friend of KTRS.”

Dorsey originally studied for the priesthood at St. Louis Preparatory Seminary for four years, and graduated from Saint Louis University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. He went to work in marketing and advertising for Proctor & Gamble, the Ford Motor Company and American Motors before beginning his radio career as an advertising salesman at KMOX in 1975.

For the next 16 years he occupied many positions at the CBS-owned station under the legendary general manager Robert Hyland Jr., who died of cancer in 1992. Dorsey was the founder and station manager at KLOU-FM (formerly KHTR) and rose to the position of vice president and station manager of both KMOX-AM and KLOU-FM.

Dorsey left KMOX in 1991 to head The Cable Advertising Network, which sells advertising on the top cable networks in the metropolitan St. Louis area. In 1996 Dorsey resigned his position at Cable Advertising and put together a business venture which purchased WIBV Radio in Belleville , Illinois and KSD in St. Louis.

A native of St. Louis , Dorsey has been active in numerous St. Louis civic organizations. He was the Chairman of the Old News boys for 2000. He serves or has served on the board of directors of the Boy Scouts, Backstoppers, Catholic Charities, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Kids in the Middle, Heat Up St. Louis, Midwest BankCentre, St. Louis Crime Commission and Crimestoppers, March of Dimes, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and The Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Andrew Dowd
KTRS-Radio
314-488-4045

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