WASHINGTON, D.C. — From House Members Michelle Fischbach and Brad Finstad to even Ilhan Omar and Sen. Tina Smith, it is a day on Capitol Hill where at least one of the nearly 600 NAB State Leadership Conference attendees had direct access to leaders that have yet to vote on the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act.
The legislation, despite overwhelming support in both the House and Senate, is stuck in a quagmire. Automotive industry lobbying and the Consumer Technology Association’s efforts to block a vote on the “mandate” appear to be doing the trick. At risk is the loss of a local voice for consumers.
That’s just happened in the Gateway to the West.
Big Toe Media LLC, owner of KLIS-AM 590 and “LouInfo.com” in Wood River, Ill., has surrendered the station’s license. As such, the KLIS call letters have a “D” in front of them, reflecting their cancellation.
Company President David Greene made the filing on Tuesday (3/3), effectively silencing a Class B facility engineered to serve metropolitan St. Louis with 1kw from 4 towers during daylight hours and 3 towers at night.
KLIS boasted a largely local lineup of talk programming, aside from the syndicated Dave Ramsey Show. The ambitious goal of Greene was to offer “content that reflects what people in St. Louis are talking about, including current events, sports, local culture, food, entertainment, and business, while also highlighting those making news and driving change in the city.”
Less than a year after purchasing the former KFNS-AM, Greene’s dream has succumbed to the challenges of being a kHz-only broadcast facility with live streaming unable to lure those unwilling — or, in some cases, lacking knowledge of how — to tune to an AM radio station.
With KMOX Radio now on FM via the former WHHL-FM 104.1 in Hazelwood, Mo., since March 2025, the KMOX-AM 1120 signal — audible from coast to coast at night — has greatly diminished in use and importance for parent Audacy, mirroring moves in San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles at big-signal AM spoken word stations once part of CBS Radio.
The result in St. Louis is that iHeartMedia’s KATZ-AM “Hallelujah 1600” is now the top-rated kHz-band station, according to Nielsen Audio’s publicly accessible data.
In fact, KATZ-AM was the lone AM radio station to appear in the January 2026 Nielsen Audio ratings for St. Louis, market No. 25.
Big Toe Media announced that it was acquiring what is today KLIS from Zobrist Media in July 2025, agreeing to pay $250,000 for the facility. A Promissory Note was put in place.
What’s next for Greene? He is also the head of “Podcast Heat,” a sign that some shows could continue in the digital on-demand space.
For AM radio fighters, the license surrender is another sign that Congressional movement is vital and necessary, and could prevent similar situations from unfolding in other markets.
