Brian Feldman, who had been 101.1's baseball reporter, is out and Howard Balzer, who now appears from 1-3 p.m. on KSLG (1380 AM), is coming over.

Fedman is being replaced by Brian Stull, who had been the station's Rams reporter. Stull's old slot will be filed by Tony Softli, a former Rams personnel man who was an NFL analyst for 101.1 this season.

"Simply put, it's about breaking stories,'' WXOS program director Jason Barrett said of the Feldman-Stull move and said it had nothing to do with the pending sale of the station. "‘Stully' has a real good nose for news. I like (Feldman) personally, but this just wasn't the fit for him.''

Balzer will join WXOS in early February to run its website and the amount of on-air time he will have is undetermined.

"His editorial judgment is something we desperately need,'' Barrett said. "His first priority is the website. Anything he does on the air is to support that.''

Meanwhile, WXOS is in the process of being sold by Bonneville International to Hubbard Broadcasting - as are many other Bonneville stations nationally including its other St. Louis properties (WARH, 106.5 FM, and WIL, 92.3 FM). John Kijowski, who runs Bonneville's local operations, said he has been assured that no major changes will occur and is encouraged because several of Bonneville's key executives are being hired by Hubbard.

"If we had to be sold (to) anybody, this is a great match,'' Kijowski said. "Hubbard is privately owned, Bonneville is privately owned. So there is no stock-market situation to deal with.

"We were told absolutely no changes operationally or system wide. We keep all employees, all salaries. No changes whatsoever based on ownership change - absolutely zero.''

Sports-talk is an expensive format when done in the traditional manner, the approach WXOS takes, with a lot of contributing support personnel in addition to the high-profile on-air personalities.

"They love the way we're poised for the future,'' Kijowski said of the station that just began its third year in the sports format. "They're very aware of what it takes to operate this kind of a radio station - with reporters, insiders and analysts and they are absolutely good for it. What a perfect time for them to buy us - Year 1 they may have scratched their heads. But they're not now. Their exact quote was - ‘You are poised for the future.' ... I'm feeling good.''

Also on the business front, Kijowski said the station hopes to hear back soon from the Rams on its bid to renew its contract to carry their games, which 101.1 has done for the past two seasons.