Volunteers from the now-defunct 88.1 KDHX have launched a new station called Community Radio St. Louis.
Station volunteers founded the new outlet this month after KDHX abruptly ceased operations in September. In a statement,volunteers said Community Radio STL will initially operate as an internet station but did not say whether it plans to move back to traditional radio airwaves.
Unlike its predecessor, the new outfit is staffed entirely by volunteers. It is operated by the nonprofit League of Volunteer Enthusiasts, or LOVE, of Community Radio STL. The organization evolved from LOVE of KDHX, which formed in an effort to save the old station from bankruptcy.
DJ Ital-K said the new station inherits KDHX’s legacy as a generational stalwart of the local music scene.
“It's a place where the old generation welcomes and meets the new generation,” Ital-K said. “This radio station is here, going forward for the community, just like how it was before.”
KDHX turmoil
Before KDHX stopped broadcasting entirely in September, it fired most of its volunteer staff and ended live programming in January. KDHX and its governing nonprofit, Double Helix, faced widespread criticism and multiple legal battles with volunteers over the station’s management.
Last January, 16 volunteers asked a judge to oust seven of KDHX’s eight board members, alleging the board retaliated against DJs who were critical of leadership and introduced financial woes that eventually led to the station’s collapse. In 2024, a KDHX member sued to make the station’s records public, saying it failed to provide financial and governing documents it was required by law to keep.
Two years ago, hundreds of local and national musicians called for board members to resign over 2019 allegations of racism and harassment and a string of abrupt volunteer firings in 2023.
Longtime KDHX DJ Ital-K said getting back on air validates the volunteers’ efforts and frustrations during the old station’s closure.
“There's no board, there's no big wigs,” Ital-K said. “It's all run by volunteers, people who want to donate their time to add a little bit of cultural creativity and expression to St. Louis.”
Conservative radio network Real Talk Radio inherited the KDHX call letters in November. Gateway Creative Broadcasting took over the radio frequency in January to establish 88.1 Worship One, the third Christian music station operated by the company in the St. Louis region. The company also owns 99.1 JOY FM and BOOST Radio.
“It’s gross,” Courtney Dowdall told STLPR after KXEN took the old call sign, “but these days I am mostly thinking about the future of the new station being built by amazing, talented, dedicated former KDHX DJs.”
