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The proverbial “seven year itch” is about to be scratched.

It has been seven years since Kevin Slaten, the bad boy of sports-talk radio across much of its three decades in the market, last hosted a show in that format on a St. Louis station.

But the outspoken broadcaster, who uses George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone” in the introduction to his show and is known for his stinging critiques of the area’s teams and athletes, is about to reappear. He’s set to return to KFNS (590 AM) next week for his sixth stint with the station. Some of his previous stays ended by his choice, others did not. But he vows to be as tough-talking as usual and still is energized at age 69.

“I’m excited to be back,” Slaten said this week, adding that he was interested in returning because “I like” the job. “I’m happy to hold people accountable, that’s what we do. And people can hold me accountable as well. To me that’s the way it always should be and always will be. If people aren’t ready, here we come anyway. If I were (Missouri football coach) Eli Drinkwitz or (Cardinals manager) Oli Marmol, I would be on my toes.”

Beginning Monday he’s heading to KFNS’ noon-2 p.m. weekday slot, which currently is occupied by Nate Lucas and Bob Ramsey. Lucas will be paired with Slaten and produce the show, then Ramsey and Lucas will be on from 2-3 p.m. (Lucas sometimes is the solo host there now). Slaten and Ramsey were among the original hosts when the all-sports format debuted locally in 1992, on KGLD (later KASP) 1380 AM.

Say what you want about Slaten, who has built his reputation as being a controversial lighting rod since the get-go. But he is consistent.

His last stay at 590 ended when he elected to leave, on his own, in a change of management structure. Another KFNS stint concluded when he was ousted after making comments in 2012 about racial voting patterns in the presidential election won by Barack Obama. An additional run there ended in 2008 when he was fired following a confrontation with Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan, who didn’t know he was on the air and thought he and Slaten were having a private conversation. Slaten sued over his dismissal and eventually reached a settlement with Big League Broadcasting, which owned the station then.

He was ousted from another station after his broadcast partner, former Cardinal Jack Clark, alleged on the air that Albert Pujols had used steroids. Both were out a short time later after Pujols threatened to sue.

Current KFNS owner Dave Zobrist was not involved in any of those instances but is aware of Slaten’s colorful history.

“From what I’ve gathered nearly every radio host in town has been dismissed at one time or another,” Zobrist said. “I’m focused on today and Kevin is expected to work together with our team and produce entertaining sports radio.”

Zobrist said that Slaten’s occasional appearances on the station in recent months played a role in the decision to bring him aboard.

“We had a positive response with Kevin being a call-in guest on various shows and decided to add him to our lineup,” Zobrist said. “Our goal is to acquire more listeners for our advertisers and I believe this will achieve that without removing any of the current talent.”

Zobrist bought KFNS from Randy Markel in a deal finalized about a year and a half ago. Slaten’s most recent stint there was under Markel, ending in 2016.

“Kevin didn’t leave under the best of terms because we had a disagreement on the direction of the station,” Markel said this week. “But I’m man enough now to admit the biggest mistake I made there was letting Kevin walk. And I made some big mistakes, let me tell you!”

Markel later introduced Zobrist to Slaten.

“I’m the matchmaker — for better or worse,” Markel said, chuckling.

Sticking to sports

After departing KFNS in 2016, Slaten went to another station to do mostly political talk for a while and now has a podcast, “The King’s Court, in which he expounds on politics from a conservative viewpoint. He said that show will continue but his KFNS program, which will have that same name, will be “strictly sports.”

Zobrist said that is part of the deal with Slaten, who along with the station will be selling advertising for the program.

“It’s understood that his show will be strictly sports and entertainment,” Zobrist said of the ground rules.

Slaten seems fine with that. “I answer to Dave Zobirst, but he’s given me a very open hand to run the show any way I see fit,” Slaten said. “That’s always good to have from management.”

Slaten plans to air more production elements than in the past, including playing clips of comments people made when an issue relate to those remarks is being discussed.

“I enjoy putting things in that make it fun,” Slaten said. “I like to let people’s own words indict them. You let somebody else doom themselves, and they usually do.”

Blunt words

Slaten also plans to have interviews with sports figures, and can be both cordial and confrontational. An interview he had on his podcast with Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III early in the baseball season became highly contentious as Slaten asked pointed questions about many aspects of the operation, including the team’s commitment to winning, personnel decisions and the direction of the front office. DeWitt, who has been interviewed by Slaten numerous other times, clearly was uncomfortable with the blunt, jackhammer-style approach in this one.

“Kevin, you’re just venting on me,” DeWitt said at one point after being heavily questioned, sometimes lectured, about the team re-signing Adam Wainwright for this season.

Slaten responded: “I’m not venting on you. I’m asking you a simple question.”

DeWitt: “I don’t appreciate it.” Slaten: “Appreciate what? …I asked you a question you can’t answer.”

The exchange continued, with DeWitt eventually saying: “If you want me to give you some informed information about what we do and how we do it, fine. But I’m not going to sit here while you yell and bash at the team.”

Slaten responded: “Are you done venting? I’m not venting, I asked you a simple question and you launch into this tirade about me venting.”

The tense conversation then moved on to other topics, with Slaten continuing his aggressive line of commentary and questioning.

“That was the first time it’s gotten testy between us,” Slaten said this week. “I just wanted accountability. To his credit, he’s always come on, he answers every question I ask him. I might not like the answers but he answers every question. He’s never shied away. If more executives were like him, the world would be a lot better place.”

In addition to conducting interviews and having “a rant,” Slaten plans to return to another central element of his pervious shows — taking phone calls, a rarity in the format now.

“That’s always been a staple of my shows,” Slaten said. “I’ve always liked involving listeners.”

That includes arguing with them, as part of his repertoire has been telling the board operator to “turn him down,” referring to the volume on the caller’s feed if Slaten thought that person was being insulting, unreasonable or droning on.

He calls that part of “all the fun stuff that makes it worthwhile.

“I think we can make a difference,” he added. “We’ll be the lone voice in the wilderness, but that’s OK. That’s what we’ve always been, and it will be enjoyable.”

Dan Caesar • 314-340-8175 @caesardan on Twitter dcaesar@post-dispatch.com