Tonight marks the long anticipated return of Larry Conners. The revered St. Louis broadcaster is set to debut his new radio show, “Larry Conners USA,” which will air each weeknight from 9 p.m. to midnight on the St. Louis news/talk KTRS-AM 550. Conners has been off the air for just over a year following his controversial exit from KMOV-TV Ch. 4, ending a 27 year run as news anchor.
Since Conners made the KTRS announcement June 18th, I’ve been excited about how this new late evening news-centric talk show may pan out. I have never lived in St. Louis nor have I ever watched a Conners newscast, but I’ve been following him via Facebook since his KMOV exit and often find his commentaries to be interesting, whether I agree with him or not.
While I would expect some of the news and political topics on his show to be relevant to only St. Louis, I get the sense there will be plenty of national news and politics, in addition more off-the-wall topics that may not necessarily be of the norm. I’m hoping that the later hours will also allow for less commercials and more time for extended conversation.
I hope Conners brings well-reasoned and thought-provoking discussion of the day’s most relevant news issues to night time radio. Conners, who admits to being more to the right of center, describes himself as sometimes being too far to the left for conservatives and too far to the right for liberals.
One area of Conners’ show that has me slightly nervous already is tonight’s third hour, where he will have a guest that discusses UFO abductions. Will Conners provide a forum for such paranormal nonsense to go unchallenged or will he hold the guest accountable? I admit, much of my optimism for his show may be squashed if he lets this guest spew on unchallenged.
For Chicagoans still displaced following the loss of Milt Rosenberg’s “Extension 720” on WGN-AM 720, Conners’ show may be worth sampling. While I don’t expect he’ll match the level of variety of discussion and intellect Rosenberg brought to his one of a kind program, I do hope Conners provides a fresh and lively show that allows me to break away from the podcasts and various radio replays that I’ve had no choice to be content with.
For more about Larry Conners, you can visit his new website, LarryConnersUSA.com.