Dino Costa is a former American talk radio host, mostly recently with KFNS 590 "The Fan" in St. Louis, Missouri.[1] He is the former host of The Dino Costa Show broadcast over Sirius XM Radio from 2009 to 2013.

Dino Costa
OccupationRadio personality

Career edit

Costa entered the radio business full-time in 1997, when he became the lead play-by-play broadcaster for a Houston Astros affiliate in the Class A Midwest League in Davenport, Iowa. Costa has done talk radio in various markets, including Huntington and Wheeling in West Virginia.[2] Additionally, Costa has hosted his own radio shows in Jacksonville, Florida, and Denver, Colorado, where he broadcast a statewide show concurrent with hosting his own television sports show on FSN Rocky Mountain (Raw Sports With Dino Costa). Costa was an in-studio post-game show analyst for Colorado Rockies telecasts on FSN, appearing on 40 telecasts per season for the 2006–07 seasons. Costa hosted a 10-part series on The Madison Square Garden Network in 2011; 'Who Wore It Best.' The show was the recipient of a New York Emmy Award.[3]

The Dino Costa Show debuted nationally on SiriusXM Radio in September 2009. While at SiriusXM Radio, Costa was named one of the best sports talk hosts in America by Sports Illustrated magazine, and one of the top 100 sports hosts in America by Talkers Magazine. In July 2012, he defied SiriusXM management and moved his show from Manhattan to Cheyenne, Wyoming. In October 2012, Men's Journal printed a feature story about Costa, "the Angriest Man on the Airwaves," describing how Costa mixed white bigotry and male sexism with Tea Party politics and conservative religious morality to arrive at his successful formula for an angry sports-talk-radio personality.[4] In October 2013, Costa was fired from SXM because of philosophical differences with management about the direction of the show, as well as friction caused by what Costa complained was a lack of promotion and visibility for his show.[5]

Costa put together his own version of the Dino Costa Show, to be broadcast from a studio in Cheyenne, Wyoming, funded by $250,000 provided by two investors who were former listeners. Subscribers would pay fees of $72 per year, and Costa predicted that 2500 subscribers would allow the project to break even.[6] The show was based on the website dinocostaproject.com which went live on May 5, 2014.[7] In December 2014, the primary investor, Anthony Menicola, closed down the project, deleted the website and issued a statement saying that the show had been difficult to operate, unsuccessful in making money, and that there were only 543 subscribers at the maximum.[8]

Costa joined St Louis sports talk station KFNS (AM) "The Fan" in early 2016 but was fired after just six weeks. Station owner Randy Markel said about Costa, "I like Dino, he’s like your crazy brother you have to bail out of jail... He’s very talented. But it’s the BS that comes along with him that’s hard to take."[9]

Costa worked for Portland's KXTG "The Game" during the afternoon commute slot starting in June 2017, but he was fired two months later after suggesting that his listeners could run their cars over Black Lives Matter protesters.[10][11]

On January 2, 2018, it was announced on the WNYM website that Costa would be broadcasting Sports Overnight four days a week from midnight to 3 am Tuesday through Friday.[12] Costa left the New York gig when it failed to bring him the money he was expecting. In November 2018, he was back at KFNS in St Louis.[13]

Personal life edit

Costa says he had a tough childhood, with a violent father. He has worked a variety of odd jobs. Costa has been married three times. He has a son with his third wife.[4]

References edit

  1. ^ ""Media Views: Things Churn Again at KFNS as Costa out, Trupiano Might Be In" by Caesar, Dan - St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO), July 5, 2019". Archived from the original on June 25, 2020. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
  2. ^ Roberts, Michael (17 April 2009). "DenverSportsRadio.com prepares to launch ambitious online station". Denver Westworld. Archived from the original on 10 July 2009. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  3. ^ "Google" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-05-13. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  4. ^ a b Michael Hastings (October 25, 2012). "Dino Costa, the Angriest Man on the Airwaves". Men's Journal. Archived from the original on June 27, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
  5. ^ Van Riper, Tom (27 March 2014). "Sports Talker Dino Costa Is Going Rogue. Will Others Follow?". Forbes. Archived from the original on 16 February 2015. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  6. ^ "Sports Talker Dino Costa is Going Rogue. Will Others Follow?". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2017-05-01. Retrieved 2017-12-02.
  7. ^ Dino Costa (May 2014). "About". Dino Costa Show. Dino Costa Project. Archived from the original on May 21, 2014. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
  8. ^ "$200K and Eight Months Later, Dino Costa's Biggest Benefactor Admits He Didn't do His Homework – Can't Stop the Bleeding". Archived from the original on 2020-06-27. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  9. ^ "Dino Costa Flames Out at KFNS in St. Louis". 22 April 2016. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  10. ^ "Monday, January 8, 2018 | TALKERS magazine : TALKERS magazine – "The bible of talk media."". Archived from the original on June 23, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
  11. ^ "KXTG Portland Dismisses Dino Costa". 17 August 2017. Archived from the original on 2020-06-27. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  12. ^ "AM 970 The Answer | AM 970 The Answer - New York, NY". am970theanswer.com. Archived from the original on 2020-06-01. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  13. ^ "Media Views: Another saga involving rabble-rousing outsider unfolds at KFNS". Archived from the original on 2020-06-27. Retrieved 2020-06-25.

External links edit