Bob Romanik, who for years used the radio airwaves in St. Louis and the Metro East area to terrorize his political enemies and endear himself to underdogs and loyal listeners, has died.
The self-described “Grim Reaper of Radio” lost his long fight with cancer, passing away at his Belleville, Illinois home at age of 72.
“He was a mixed bag; an agnostic, misogynist, racist, homophobe who was consistently and deliberately obnoxious.”
Knowing Bob, he wouldn’t want our sympathy. If nothing else, he was a proud guy. That’s not necessarily intended as praise for this complex shock jock.
As his radio intro song “Bad to the Bone” by George Thorogood so aptly described, he could be a scoundrel. His words could be as irritating and annoying as a hemorrhoid. He frequently used the “N-word” during broadcasts. He was a character, to say the least.
I spent hours with him on his radio show debating race, politics, and other topics. It became clear to me that he was a mixed bag; an agnostic, misogynist, racist, homophobe who was consistently and deliberately obnoxious.
However, Romanik was not a hypocrite. He genuinely believed the venom and vitriol that he spewed. But there was a softer side that he concealed, probably to maintain his sinister reputation.
I was always greeted with a warm handshake, as he looked me in the eye, as if to size me up before doing battle on-air. I also witnessed his generosity toward poor Black folks and others who couldn’t bury their deceased loved ones or were in dire financial straits.
He even drove around with a bag of dog food for stray dogs that he’d encounter.
He was complex, infamous, pugnacious, and relentless in his verbal assaults on those whom he detested. His main targets were those he considered power brokers in St. Clair County, Illinois, and St. Louis.
He had a chip on his shoulder, referring to himself as “poor white trash from the Roosevelt housing projects of East St. Louis.” He detested the “elites” whom he felt looked down their noses at him during his formative years.
He fancied himself a “patriot,” wearing America flag patterned suits and attire. Yet that patriotism never translated into volunteering for service in Vietnam when he had the opportunity.
It was contradictory, but Bob was a walking contradiction.
He railed against his wealthy detractors, including St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern. But he wasn’t exactly poor himself. He amassed millions of dollars though his various endeavors.
He spoke on-air about investment savvy, but his wealth seems to have been acquired through his reluctance to snitch on childhood friend, attorney Amiel Cueto and his client Thomas Venezia.
Venezia was convicted in 1995 on federal gambling and racketeering charges connected to a $48-million video gambling ring that he operated during Romanik’s days as the Washington Park police chief.
In 1997, Romanik pleaded guilty to federal charges for obstruction of justice, after allegedly having served as the muscle behind Venezia’s empire.
Feds claimed that Romanik lied 150 times to a grand jury investigating Venezia. By his own admission, Romanik said “I probably lied 600 times.”
He served 16 months in federal prison, only to emerge and rebound as the secret owner of several strip clubs and radio stations under a shell company called Entertainment Media Trust.
That party ended for Romanik in 2020 when the FCC permanently denied his stations’ license renewal applications. This followed a myriad of complaints about his on-air racist and bigoted diatribes, his refusal to appear at FCC hearings and his attempts to conceal ownership of radio stations.
But Bob Romanik, as despicable as he was, still managed to live and die on his own terms, unapologetically. I guess that’s a positive thing, even for the Grim Reaper.
