Meet The Man Who Brought Russian State Radio To Kansas City

The man responsible for broadcasting Russian state programming in the Kansas City area says he always dreamed of owning a radio station.
Today he owns two, plus a small fleet of radio transmitters across the Kansas City metro.
But money remains tight, he laid off his staff years ago and the stations sell airtime to local residents and religious organizations at cut-rate prices. He hasn’t given himself a paycheck in months.
So Pete Schartel’s ears perked up a while back when he heard that Radio Sputnik pays $30,000 a month to broadcast its programming in Washington, D.C.
“I’m going, ‘Oh my Lord, that’s twice what my whole budget is,’” he told KCUR in a two-hour interview at his flagship station, KCXL, last week. “They must have some money. Let’s investigate this.”