So this is how KDHX ends — not with a bang but with dead air.
After a month of radio silence on 88.1 FM, the community radio station’s leaders announced this week that the 38-year old station “has ceased operations.”
Former DJs and volunteers announced Friday they will launch an online-only station from space at Lindenwood Park Place, the former Emmanuel Congregation church. A post on online blogging platform Substack from activist group LOVE of Community Radio STL — formerly the League of Volunteer Enthusiasts of KDHX — said the group hopes to launch its station in December but is not yet ready to announce firm plans.
KDHX 88.1 FM had been broadcasting music from its library since ending live programming in January, before the music ended abruptly in September.
Fans of the eclectic radio station will have to wait to hear anything from the online reincarnation promised by the board of Double Helix, the nonprofit corporation that owns the station’s remaining assets.
“Double Helix plans to take time between now and the closing sale of the FM license to solicit advice and feedback for the next set of programs that we seek to bring to life in late 2026 or 2027,” the statement reads.
Double Helix continues to operate the station’s building and studio in Grand Center, the statement says.
End of a radio station
The board of Double Helix agreed to sell KDHX’s broadcast license to evangelical Christian radio network Gateway Creative Broadcasting for $8.75 million earlier this year. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kathy Surratt-States approved the sale in June over vociferous opposition among longtime station listeners, programmers and volunteers.
KDHX leaders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, after holding an unpublicized vote to sell the station. Neither board President Gary Pierson nor Vice President Paul Devers mentioned the upcoming vote at an annual meeting weeks before.
In January, the board had dismissed about 120 station members and made an unpublicized change to the organization’s bylaws to remove the requirement that at least 17 associate members vote to approve a license sale.
The eight board members then approved the sale through two votes. They voted first acting as the board, and then — joined only by Ryan Spearman, Executive Director Kelly Wells’ husband — as the station’s nine remaining associate members.
Surratt-States said in her June ruling that Double Helix had acted appropriately and that a conversion to digital-only format would fulfill the nonprofit's mission.
Public battles and bankruptcy
Station argued the sale was the only way to satisfy the station’s $2 million debt.
Fundraising had cratered in recent years, following accusations of racism and sexual harassment at the station in 2019 and an ugly public dispute between longtime DJs and station leadership that resulted in multiple lawsuits and dozens of DJ departures since 2023. Station leaders also pointed to lingering debt incurred in the organization’s move to splashy new studios in 2013. KDHX leaders denied the 2019 accusations.
Volunteers and DJs argued the board was exerting complete control over the station and complained that the board stopped allowing any public comment at meetings and even determined who was on the ballot for elections of the only two board members directly chosen by station members. Hundreds of St. Louis musicians and business owners signed open letters in 2024 calling for leadership changes at the station.
Pierson said the opposition came from a small group of critics who stood in the way of efforts to bring more voices to the airwaves. The addition of 26 new DJs in 2023 brought the percentage of programmers from “historically underrepresented backgrounds,” according to Double Helix, from 23% to 58%.
New programs included “Tanzago” from host/producer Hank Thompson, which included frank discussions about issues facing African Americans of a sort that was not frequently heard on KDHX in the past.
What’s next
Gateway Creative Broadcasting provided a digital HD radio signal as part of the sale. Listeners can access digital radio stations online or with a special tuner.
But the shape of KDHX’s next incarnation on digital radio and online is unknown.
“Early next year, we will share information about ways to get involved in the future work with Double Helix,” the corporation’s statement this week reads.
Wells said in bankruptcy court that the sale would net about $6 million after the station settles its debts, and that the sum would fund a digital-only operation for at least its first five years.
LOVE of Community Radio STL has been holding monthly open meetings and fundraising events for a new online station since shortly after the KDHX sale was approved. It will stage a fundraising vinyl record sale on Dec. 6 at its new home at Lindenwood Park Place.
