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Mike Rice
- Thread starter Kent
- Start date
Rice entered the broadcast field in 1968 when he reactivated the dormant 1460 frequency in St. Charles, Missouri as KIRL. The predecessor station on that frequency, KADY, went off the air in 1965 and eventually lost its license. Unusually in the 1960s, KADY's FM station, KADI, was sold but KADY couldn't be sold for some reason.
KIRL was a Top 40 station aiming after KXOK's audience, but was a daytimer. It went to country in 1978. Rice sold it to Bronco Broadcasting, a group of former St. Louis Cardinals football players, in 1979-80. KIRL then became a Black gospel station for the next couple of decades. It's now KHOJ, a Covenant Network (Roman Catholic) station.
KFMZ was the second station Rice put on the air, and was actually Columbia's first FM station in stereo. It was basically Top 40 during the days and AOR at night, with a terrible automation system. It became something of a local joke that songs always came together in pairs: if you heard a certain tune, you knew what the next would be. The station's format was targeted toward University of Missouri students, who tolerated it more than liked it, due to lack of other choices.
When I went to work in Warrenton (about 30 miles west of St. Charles) in 1976, people at the station warned me about Rice: nothing explicit but a lot of dark hints. A few years later, I was at a Missouri Broadcasters Association meeting and met Rice briefly. Meh.
In the 1990s, as stations in central Missouri tried to upgrade their facilities, Rice often fought those upgrades and made some enemies. After Rice's 12 felony convictions in 1994, one of those enemies tipped off the Commission to the convictions and that Rice was still involved with the stations even while serving his prison sentence. The Commission found that there had been no unauthorized transfer of control but "concluded that, although there was no unauthorized transfer of control, Rice's felony convictions and the licensees' misrepresentations and lack of candor regarding his role at the stations constituted grounds for the disqualification of the licensees. The Commission found that Rice had been engaged in consultative and programming activities at the stations, as well as in the hiring of their personnel, demonstrating misrepresentation and a lack of candor on the part of the licensees." (From https://transition.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Mass_Media/News_Releases/1998/nrmm8020.txt). Rice ran out of appeals and was ordered to take his stations off the air on October 3, 2001. I heard the last day of KFMZ was something, with F-bombs being dropped all over the place. As far as I know, no recordings exist of that day.
I honestly debated whether or not to post anything about Rice's passing because he was obviously a bad guy. I ultimately decided to mention it since he launched a lot of careers in the Midwest. Plus, if any of his victims were to read this, maybe it would give them a sense of finality and some peace in knowing he can’t do anything to anyone now.
I know there was no love lost between Al Germond and Rice. In the early days of message boards, Rice made clear his disdain for Al and his company. Guessing Al was one of those people he tussled with in the 90’s, especially since both were engineers. He seemed partial to Zimmer, though I always wondered if that changed after Zimmer essentially got his Columbia and Eldon allotments.
I had always hoped that Rice's stations could be sold under the FCC's distress policy so we wouldn’t lose a service or two, but I was told Rice wasn’t agreeable to that. He thought he would be able to keep operating, and he also felt like he didn’t want anyone else to have those stations if he couldn’t have them.
The C&D for him to take his stations off-air was issued on October 3, 2001, and they were taken silent the next day a few minutes after 8:00 AM. The morning guy on 98.3 The Buzz worked with me a couple different times the following years. He said none of that happened during his shift.
Indeed. Mr. Rice owns the tower where his former 107.5 WZZQ/Terre Haute broadcast from. There are now several stations/translators on there paying rent, including the new 107.5, a non-comm running 3ABN.
Rice also had a somewhat close indirect link to WAPZ 1250 Wetumpka, AL back around 2005=6 for many years
The station at that time was owned by a running back coach from the new orleans saints and someone from the st louis area.. and i dont recall at this time how i figured it out, but after reading the public file at WAPZ in person when the sale wqas announced to mike rice directly.. i was able to put two and two together.
The sale was approved, but he appealed and the previous owners J & W kept the station till they sold it to its current owners.
The station at that time was owned by a running back coach from the new orleans saints and someone from the st louis area.. and i dont recall at this time how i figured it out, but after reading the public file at WAPZ in person when the sale wqas announced to mike rice directly.. i was able to put two and two together.
The sale was approved, but he appealed and the previous owners J & W kept the station till they sold it to its current owners.
I understand the reluctance, and I had to think about this a few times, too. But he was a moderately significant figure in Missouri broadcasting, putting three stations on the air and on his way to putting a fourth one into operation at Huntsville when the charges were filed against him.
I didn't mention earlier that he was also one of the applicants for 1030 kHz when that possibility opened up in 1981. His proposal, 5 kw-D, 1 kw-N, directional, would have been licensed to Hallsville, northeast of Columbia. I went to the Hallsville city hall, where the application was available for public inspection. There would have been an eight-tower array near Centralia, northeast of Hallsville, with a very tight pattern to avoid interference with WHO, and shooting south to cover Columbia and Jefferson City. That allocation ultimately went to Blue Springs, in the Kansas City area. There were several applicants for it at various locations in Missouri and Arkansas.
In the 1970s, Rice tried to get the 97.1 allocation that was intended for St. Charles but ended up in Florissant. That was a curious allocation: though in Zone II, the tower height was capped at Zone I limits, i.e. 500 feet with 100 kw.
It wasn't just Germond; there were others who had reason to strike back.
I had not heard that. Technically, the replacement Columbia station at 98.3 isn't owned by Zimmer, but word on the street was that Zimmer helped make it happen and is now operating the station under an agreement. The University of Missouri also made several plays for the frequency but didn't succeed. It was clear that an operator already in the market wouldn't get approval for an additional license in either Columbia or the Lake of the Ozarks area (Eldon, etc.)
You may recall that EMF put a translator on 98.3 for a while until the frequency was awarded to the present licensee.
The main FCC order from 1997 revoking the Rice stations' licenses isn't available online any more, it seems. It went into considerable depth regarding Rice's influence over the stations even after his convictions. I have a paper copy and a partial soft copy that ends at page 52 that looks like a scan rather than a direct export from Word or whatever to PDF.
The Tribune article from that date (the Trib was still an afternoon paper then) doesn't indicate anything untoward along those lines.
I worked for Mr. Rice's company in Terre Haute. When I was hired I had NO IDEA about his past nor did I know that the licenses were likely to be revoked. I cannot stand the thought of he allegedly did to his victims but I can tell you that the man loved radio and was very good to work for. When I was hired it was the best paying job I had ever had. I remember that Mike bought a brand new Omnia 6 processor months before the stations went off the air. I asked him years later why he would do that and he said that his stations were a great source of pride for him and he wanted them to he great all the way to the bitter end. It's arguable as to whether or not the stations actually were great, but it can't be argued that he cared a great deal about them. To this day, I have never worked in a nicer studio. I wasn't in love with the old mccurdy console, but he maintained it very well and the studios were actually soundproof... Not just some sound insulation, pour carpet on the walls... They were soundproof. People upstairs could feel vibrations in the floor but they still couldn't hear what was happening.Three of those speakers in the studio... And they were massive speakers. Even back then, we had a rather robust automation system But we were live twenty four hours a day, playing cds. I will not argue with anyone about what a great person. Mike was or was not but he did love his radio stations. On a side note, WBOW was one of the best sounding a m stations I have ever heard. Mike Rice fired me personally just a little while before his stations went off the air and even after that, we stayed in contact on a random and occasional basis. I cannot attest to what kind of man Mike Rice was, but judging by his convictions and the allegations against him, perhaps not a very good one. But, he was a knowledgeable and and thoughtful broadcaster. This is a radio discussion board and no doubt. Mike's personal conduct plays a role in his story but I just wanted you to know that he wasn't completely bad. At the very least, he had one wing in the fire, but as a young man growing up in the radio business, i'm glad that I had a chance to work there.
I believe the old KHOG 1440 was also one of the recipients of that 1030 allocation. As I mentioned on another thread, KHOG got a modification to operate at 1030 out of Farmington, AR after a three or four year fight. It originally ran 10 kw-D/1 kw-N (now running 6 kw-D/1 kw-N), but it fought to get that 1030 allocation for longer than it actually operated there. It had owners who didn’t believe in FM and were scrounging for crumbs once it was clear they had missed the boat. Broadcast Associates gave up the effort and exited Fayetteville after operating KHOG on 1030 for only a couple years. KFAY 1250 engineered a deal getting 1030 for KFAY, moving KHOG to 1250, and sending 1250 to an area Baptist minister, who took 1250 religious as KOFC.
When I ran the Missouri Radio Message board, Rice ended up spending many years messing with me on a personal level, going down as low as paying someone who worked with me to plant porn on a computer at the RadioShack store I managed 25 years ago nearly getting me fired. He used to pay people to steal signs and do petty things when I had a business in Bowling Green, where he had friends from being involved with the ownership of KPCR through a man who owned it as a front for him while he was in prison from what I understand. He lived only a few miles from me and I ran into him a couple times over the years, once at Shop N Save and he gave me a drop dead look like he wanted to kill me and I dropped my cart and left. The last time was not all that long ago not very long before he passed when I ran into him at the Post Office, and he was strangely nice, cordial, and everything but apologetic. Maybe at the end of his life he was regretting some of the bad decisions that he made, and stuck out an olive branch, probably because we had a couple mutual friends who told him to let it go, It spooked me honestly the last time I met him. He looked old and not well though and I could tell he probably didn't have a ton of time left. Even so, I felt a sense of relief when I heard of his passing.
Thats how he had a close indrect contact and relationship with WAPZ, @mbatchelor .. i cant seem to find the guys name in FCC LMS Files, and i cant seem to remember what it was either
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