Sports Talk, Springfield area radio show, ends after 35 years
“Sports Talk,” a Springfield area afternoon sports radio staple, will abruptly end after 35 years on the air.
Tom Ladd and Logan Weber, who have hosted the show since March 2023, announced during Friday’s show that it would be its last.
“We do want to let people know that this will be the final Sports Talk show,” Ladd said during the second hour of the show, which ran Monday through Friday from 4 to 6 p.m.
The pair did not disclose a reason for the show’s end. Friday’s show was set to be Weber’s last on the air, as he recently accepted a radio job at Kansas City’s 96.5 The Fan.
Sports Talk’s legacy was built by Art Hains
For 27 years, the show was led by Art Hains, the beloved play-by-play voice of Missouri State. He took over as its host in 1995 and served until the fall of 2022 when he was diagnosed with the West Nile virus, which threatened his life. Months later, he returned to the booth to call Bears games but did not return to Sports Talk.
In its prime, Sports Talk featured Hains interacting with callers and interviewing athletes and coaches from around the Ozarks. No one could forget Hains’ interactions with “Alan from Mountain Home,” who called in frequently and sometimes threw the show off the rails. Also serving as the studio host for the Kansas City Chiefs, Hains also discussed national and regional topics.
Hains is scheduled to make his final call for Missouri State athletics when the football team hosts SMU at Plaster Stadium in its first-ever home game as an FBS program. The game is scheduled for Sept. 13.
What will replace Sports Talk on the radio?
The show, which ran primarily on Jock 96.9, will be replaced by national ESPN programming, with “Freddie and Harry” taking its place from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. The show is hosted by Freddie Coleman and Harry Douglas.
“The Sports Reporters,” hosted by Ned Reynolds, Jay Spoonhour and Ladd from 7 to 9 a.m., will be the only daily local programming from the station, which was acquired by Zimmer Communications when it bought Meyer Communication in 2020.
Since Zimmer purchased Meyer, local sports programming on its airwaves has dwindled. Its group of Springfield stations no longer carry Springfield Cardinals baseball games or Drury men’s and women’s basketball.
Before signing off, Weber said he hoped the show would someday return in some capacity.
“This is the final edition of Sports Talk; I don’t want to go as far as to say ever, right?” Weber said. “Stranger things have happened and maybe that brings Sports Talk back to the airwaves. But for the foreseeable future, this will be the final edition of our show here.”
Disclaimer: News-Leader sports reporter Wyatt Wheeler, the writer for this story, served as a co-host of “Sports Talk” for nearly three years from 2020-23.
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