Dino Costa’s first week on the air at St. Louis’ KFNS was marked to some degree by the growing feud between himself and the station’s incumbent afternoon host, Kevin Slaten. After a testy exhange between the pair on March 11, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Dan Casesar reports both broadcasters have been ordered by station owner Randy “Money” Markel to cease the bickering, but not before Costa, as unimaginative a misogynist as you’ll find, wondered, “since when has this alleged king turned into the queen of St. Louis radio?…if he left our station tomorrow, there’s not a station in this market that would pay him to be on their airwaves.” That’s a funny position to take given there’s zero evidence Costa has generated ratings anywhere or that any of his whistle stops across the radio landscape have suffered even the slightest dip in advertising revenue after his termination. Or as Slaten puts it, “I’ll put my W-2s up against his any time of the day…unlike Donald Trump, I’ll show mine.”
“If I couldn’t get hired in this town, how come I’ve been hired everywhere I’ve wanted to be hired?”, Slaten said. “I don’t come into a strange town and attack teammates. He does. I don’t come into a town trying to destroy what people have built up. He does. I don’t get into his sandbox and play juvenile games. He does. Anytime he wants to take me on, try it again. I guess if you didn’t learn your lesson the first time, there’s always a second time.”“He somehow thinks it’s good radio if he attacks me. It’s not good radio, it never has been to attack people you work with. It’s juvenile radio, and that’s the tactic people use who have no talent. … He’s a psycho.”