Rob Weingarten
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Rob Weingarten is a veteran sports talk radio programmer and talk show host. He most recently was the Program Director of KFNS (AM) radio in St. Louis, Missouri. He served in that position from 2004 until resigning in March of 2006.
Rob's sports radio involvement began in 1990 as a part time board operator and producer at WFAN (AM) in New York. He left WFAN in 1992 to take a full-time position with WTEM in Washington, D.C..
Within three months of the inception of WTEM, Weingarten moved from board operator to overnight talk show host. He spent two years in the overnight chair developing a significant cult following after WTEM began to syndicate much of its programming nationally.
The overnight show was ahead of its time. Weingarten used sketch comedy, poetry readings, offbeat game shows and had an assortment of oddball regular callers. "The Undertaker", "Giant Mike", and "Kevin the Musical Postman" were reportedly among his favorites. The show was much different from the standard phone call Q&A stuff that was on the station the rest of the day. It a forerunner of the guy-talk genre that is now prevalent in sports-talk.
The show had a loyal following. Early in WTEM's history, they stopped doing live overnights and replaced the program with nationally syndicated Ron Barr. The uproar was loud enough that Weingarten's show was back in a few months. However, he was eventually let go, along with Kiley and the Coach, Ira Mellman, Mitch Levy and others as part of a massive budget cut a few years later.
In 1995 he accepted the Program Director's position at WZTM in Tampa, Florida. He also co-hosted the afternoon drive talk show with former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Scot Brantley. The station performed well until being sold off as part of the Clear Channel/Jacor merger in 1998.
In 2002, Rob moved to Atlanta as Program Director for WQXI (AM). In 2004, the owners of that station acquired KFNS AM-FM in St. Louis and asked him to head up programming there.
He is also an accomplished play-by-play announcer. Weingarten served for five seasons as the radio and television voice of the MLS Tampa Bay Mutiny. He was also the play-by-play announcer for the Atlanta Beat of the Women's United Soccer Association. His radio work with the fast pitch softball Tampa Bay Smokers was featured in the award-winning documentary film "Fast Pitch".
Weingarten is also an editor for SportsPages.com.
