Johnny Rabbitt

Johnny Rabbitt (Ron Elz) has been on the air since the summer of ’54 – longer than any other local broadcaster. He’s just signed on with KMOX as host of the Saturday night “Route 66” show and as a general fill-in talk show moderator for the station. He’s regularly heard announcing and appearing for a legion of advertisers and organizations such as Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, YMT Vacations and the Good Feet Store.

His Johnny Rabbitt’s Unusual St. Louis features have aired on KSDK’s “Show Me, St. Louis” since that show started 12 years ago. He’s hosted the weekly Belles & Beaus Show at the Argosy Casino for the past 15 years, making it the longest running show of any casino in the country. His daily column appeared for 5 years in the daily St. Louis Globe-Democrat and his two St. Louis trivia books have been best sellers. Through much of the ‘90s he was a professor of communications at St. Louis University, faculty adviser for KSLU the campus radio station, and on the advisory board of SLU’s University News.

Among his long list of achievements: Rabbitt/Elz co-founded the Media Archive at the Missouri Historical Society; served on the board of directors of the St. Louis Public Library Foundation; is as adviser to the Mercantile Library, was two-term president of AFTRA, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and was honored in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. He’s also in both the St. Louis Radio Hall of Fame and St. Louis Media Hall of Fame.

He created the name Johnny Rabbitt in 1961 at KXOK and in ‘67 was the developer of the KSHE Real Rock Radio format when he was General Manager of both KSHE in St. Louis and WABX in Detroit. He then became VP of Programming for Communications Fund, a 5-station chain, where he was the first person to program a radio station (KADI in 1971) completely by computer (a Washington University IBM 360). Concert Productions, a company he co-founded and headed, was the first rock concert production company in St. Louis, presenting acts such as Cream, Steppenwolf, Three Dog Night and Procol Harum.

For the past 21 years Rabbitt was affiliated with WIL AM & FM and WRTH owned by Bonneville International. He also served that company by assisting with their website ToastedRav.com.. The Rabbitt has been married for 44 years and he and his wife Gwen, along with Mazie The Dog, live in St. Louis Hills. They have two grown children: Amy, who’s in marketing with Shaw-Company and Eric, a theatrical lighting designer for International Technologies Corporation. Our Rabbitt is currently updating The Legacy Room at the Chase Park-Plaza Hotel, a room he designed to showcase that inn’s great history.

He’s has participated in over a dozen St. Louis related books and is now writing 4 books for release in either late ’08 or in ’09. Rabbitt also makes countless appearances, programs and presentations for a multitude of organizations such as The St. Louis Artists Guild, The Little Sisters of the Poor, CBC High School, Cardinal Ritter Senior Services, St. Louis Altenheim, The Pink Sisters, etc.

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