Kyle Felling
Program DirectorKyle Felling was born in the rugged northwest Missouri hamlet of St. Joseph (where the Pony Express began and Jesse James ended). Inspired from a young age by the spirit of the early settlers who used St. Joseph as an embarkation point in their journey westward, Kyle developed the heart of an explorer and yearned to leave for adventures of his own. Perhaps as a result of attending John Glenn elementary school, young Kyle dreamed of becoming an astronaut, but was disheartened when someone told him that astronauts had to be good at math. He also considered being a tow truck driver, and like the heroes of his favorite childhood television shows (The A-Team and The Incredible Hulk) he saw himself traveling the country, helping people in trouble and getting into wacky adventures. He still harbors that dream.
Kyle's love of television also brought him into contact with a show called WKRP in Cincinnati. That show's fun depiction of a small Cincinnati radio station coupled with frequently being told that he had a "face for radio," planted the seeds of a broadcasting career in Kyle's head. (To this day Kyle considers WKRP's vision of radio to be eerily accurate, most notably in its depiction of sales staff.) Kyle began volunteering at KBIA during his first semester at the University of Missouri, and has been on the air on a regular basis ever since. His first air shift was 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., playing the Smooth Jazz likes of Kenny G, Russ Freeman and Candy Dulfer. In 1999 he began serving as the local host of All Things Considered, and has recently taken on added responsibility as KBIA's Program Director.
In his spare time, Kyle enjoys reading H.L. Mencken and T.S. Eliot, listening to the Violent Femmes, watching the Power Puff Girls and spending time with his niece Kylee Johnson. Kyle is a St. Louis Cardinals fan, a Macintosh partisan and can recite from memory Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues," R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World As We Know It (I Feel Fine)," and the St. Crispen's Day Speech from Henry V. He hopes to one day be an astronaut, Senator, or to marry the monarch of a small principality.
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This week on Discover Nature, watch for white-tailed deer in rut, and celebrate 75 years of modern deer hunting in Missouri.In the fall, fawns lose their…
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This week on Discover Nature, listen for the eerie calls of bobcats in the wild.Several hundred years ago, bobcats lived throughout the United States.…
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This week on Discover Nature, get outside and enjoy a show of fall foliage, fruits, fungi, and flowers. Fall color in Missouri’s trees has been off to a…
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This week on Discover Nature, keep an eye to the sky after midnight and in the predawn hours, as the annual Orionid meteor shower peaks. In autumn each…
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This week on Discover Nature, we’ll look for one of Missouri’s late-blooming native wildflowers. The New England aster is the tallest of Missouri’s native…
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Discover Nature this week, and listen for the sounds of autumn, as a sonorous chorus of crickets carries across the night air. Frogs such as spring…
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It’s an October surprise! Views of the News is back on KBIA after a six-month hiatus. Join Missouri School of Journalism professors Amy Simons, Earnest…
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This week on Discover Nature, watch for a swift-flying migratory duck traveling through Missouri from the north. Blue-winged teal breed all across North…
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Celebrate the arrival of autumn this week, and watch for a variety of ripening tree nuts falling to the ground. Many Missouri native trees produce this…
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This week along Missouri waterways, watch for one of our state’s bright-red wildflowers in full bloom. Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) grows in wet…