R.I.P. KDHX Radio! Long Live CRSTL.FM!

I came late to the community radio appreciation party, but I've listened to KDHX radio for much of my life. I didn't always like the genre that was being featured from one hour to the next, but they had slots dedicated to Ska, Blues, Reggae, Folk, and World music. There were times for Country, Bluegrass, Classical, and everything in between. A central feature was the local music events and artists featured. It wasn't always my favorite radio station, but I knew people who claimed it as such. And I was always happy to have it saved in my radio dial, and to have a community resource here in my home town.

Well, as of 2025, the holding company that owned and operated the radio station decided to sell the rights to the frequency or whatever to a different company. So when the parent company went to sell, the employees, DJs and a number of volunteers worked on getting a court injunction together to stop them and take over ownership to keep this community resource. But their case was lost. And rather than continue to fight appeals, they decided to pivot their efforts in a different direction. For a brief time, when you tuned into 88.1 FM here in St. Louis, you got a very generic 90s dance music station with no DJs. It wasn't too bad. But that didn't last. Eventually, the parent company sold it to a Christian radio company and they started churning out contemporary Christian music over the airwaves. And I deleted it from my favorites list on the dial. In the general theme of things getting worse in these late-stage capitalistic times, this is one more log on the metaphorical dumpster fire.

As of today (at noon central) the team of DJs, management and volunteers who were part of making KDHX tick launched their new project; an Internet streamed community radio station called CRSTL.FM. You should tune in, but first off, lets take a history trip.

What the HELL happened to KDHX?

You can also learn more about the community being built at LOVE of Community Radio STL.

KDHX is dead. What's next?

The new station launched today and I was listening at noon when the first song played. They started with a really good set of Bluegrass, which is always new to me, and then had a live band in studio perform for a good time. It's worth tuning in and checking the posted schedule.