Meet the Team

The St. Louis Classic Rock Preservation Society was founded in January, 2016 as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, by Randy Raley, John Sebben and Ron Stevens, but its story began well before that. Both Randy and John had been operating online radio stations for several years. The annual St. Louis Classic Rock Trivia Night fundraised for local charities since 2014 as well. Upon incorporation, the Society was able to do more for local organizations, musicians and other individuals, and have assembled a great team to make KEEP LIVE ALIVE SAINT LOUIS a successful AND entertaining event.

Our team members listed below have been part of many of our events and efforts over the past five years including our Trivia Night and Hall of Fame inductions, archiving history, promoting local artists, documentaries and musical events.

The Society moved its home base to Crestwood, MO on November 7, 2017 and since then we have continued to grow. We now have nine commercial-free internet stations with over 46,000 unique tracks in combined rotation. Last fall, our membership surpassed 300 individuals. And, we continue to seek out new ways to have events, even during Covid-19.

The Society's mission - "to preserve, promote and honor St. Louis' unique classic rock heritage and its place in music and pop culture history" - has never been stronger. The commitment of our members to that cause, and to our local musicians and others in the entertainment field shows that.

Below, please "meet" our team members for KEEP LIVE ALIVE SAINT LOUIS, and join with us to help as many individuals as possible.

Tom Block is a lifelong Northwest County guy and graduated from Normandy High School in 1973. His biggest music influence was the Beatles who he watched with his family on February 9, 1964. He dabbled in singing and later playing guitar, but pursued baseball in high school and college.

In 1977, Tom started working at McDonnell-Douglas, now Boeing. His career began in astronautics, and now he works as a manufacturing engineer with fighter aircraft specializing in titanium on the F-4, the Harrier, the C-17, the redesigned F-15 and F-18. He was music minister at Carsonville Baptist Church from 1980 to 1982 and married his wife Donna in 1980, now going on 41 years. They have three children and one grandson Aidan.

He has been a big sports fan - especially the Cardinals and Blues - and has coached Little League Baseball through American Legion Baseball from 1990 to 2014. He is a KSHE KLASSICS Facebook administrator since 2015 when the group had 7,000 members. The group have grown immensely and are now the largest St. Louis-based music fan page with over 17,000 members. KLASSIC Rock has been Tom's outside passion since KSHE-95 began its rock era on November 7, 1967.

Tom became involved with Ron Stevens and many other old school KSHE and music folks from his youth after not seeing them for over 40 years in 2017. All this was possible with the premiere of NEVER SAY GOODBYE: The KSHE Documentary. This has been a great outlet and hobby as volunteers to help the St. Louis Classic Rock community and to "Keep Live Alive Saint Louis" whenever time allows.

Greg's experience in the live entertainment marketing industry ranges from being a national and regional record promotion executive to producing one of the world's most watched entertainment spectaculars.

Co-Executive Producer of the world-wide BLUE MAN GROUP – Megastar World Tour

Executive Vice President and CEO of Clear Channel Entertainment's (now Live Nation) Latin American division.

SVP/General Manager of Clear Channel Entertainment’s Special Events division in St. Louis, Greg's areas of responsibility, including serving as the Executive Producer of one of the single most watched NFL Super Bowl Halfime shows –- the critically acclaimed performance of U2 in New Orleans.

As co-founder of Contemporary Productions (now Live Nation) award-winning marketing division, Contemporary Marketing, Inc. the agency created and executed national awardwinning consumer promotion programs for Fortune 100 clients including Anheuser-Busch, Nestle Purina, Unilevera and The Coca-Cola Company.

Greg served as Senior Vice President and partner of St. Louis based Contemporary Productions (now Live Nation). At the time, Contemporary was one of the top five producers of live entertainment and event marketing programs in the United States. While at Contemporary he headed up the company's consumer marketing and promotion efforts for the 750+ events produced each year along with the company’s portfolio of concert and entertainment venues including the consistently top-rated 20,000 capacity venue, Riverport Amphitheatre (now Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre) in St. Louis.

Greg is currently with St. Louis-based Contemporary Productions. The company develops and produces some of the most creative and dynamic live and virtual events for corporate America.

Greg is also on the Board of Directors of the St. Louis Classic Rock Preservation Society.

Payton Hutson is part of KLA's social media marketing team. He is a 2018 graduate of St. Pius X High School and is currently a student at Webster University. His major is Management (with an emphasis in Marketing) and a minor in Finance. In his free time, he enjoys playing guitar, reading, writing and watching movies with friends and family. He also plays harmonica and writes original music! Some of his favorite music artists are The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, and Eric Clapton. He has played guitar for over ten years now and has played in both jazz and rock bands.

Payton is an Eagle Scout with Troop 484, located in Festus, Missouri. He is also the on-air host of "Payton's Picks" a classic rock radio show at Webster University's student-run station, The Galaxy Radio.

Gayle Leonard has worked in Live Entertainment marketing & promotions for 38 years. Most of that time has been spent at the Fabulous Fox Theatre – first doing concert promotion in the mid-80s through the 90s and then returning in 2001 to market touring Broadway shows.

Gayle started her career at the Checkerdome in 1983 working on family shows and NCAA sporting events. She promoted Sesame Street Live in multiple cities and was the road manager for the national tour of Voltron Teamforce Live. She helped open the St. Charles Family Arena and also worked for a short time at Kiel Center.

Brian Krueger has worked in and around the broadcast business for more than 30 years with stops in St. Louis at KMJM "Majic-108", KATZ AM-FM, Mix 97, Radio One, WMRY, KHITS, KMOX and All Star Radio Networks. Currently, he is working with a nonprofit group developing affordable housing within the Normandy School Collaborative. Brian and his wife Sharie live downtown in St. Louis Place Neighborhood where he is an active part of the community. He enjoys aging gracefully (for the most part) with his bride, spoiling their German Shepard Gretchen and is an avid tomato gardener.

Ken Krueger is a St. Louis native and graduate of Cleveland High School (if you’re from St. Louis, you know why this is important). He attended Washington University on scholarship and dropped out after one year to pursue a career as a rock star. His parents resumed speaking to him in 2006.

Ken has spent his entire life in the entertainment field. As his school's first two term Student Council President, he booked and produced his first rock show, Ted Nugent and Head East. That was in 1975. From that point forward, the die was cast.

Ken continued working both on stage and behind it until retiring from a successful performing career at age thirty-three. He was immediately hired by Contemporary Group, by then one of the nation's leading entertainment companies, where he learned the ropes and progressed to the role of national talent buyer and promoter. During this time, he also hosted a weekly radio show on KDHX, showcasing local original music. After a stint in the event marketing business, working as production manager on projects for VH1, Cartoon Network, The Family Channel and other entertainment outlets, Krueger returned to his first love, music.

In September of 1997, he formed his own concert and event production company, K Square, Inc. K Square provides complete event services including theme development, creative design, talent buying and production.

Ken was the executive producer and talent director of Phases of the Moon Music & Art Festival, a multi-million dollar, four day extravaganza. The festival featured "A" level acts and garnered national exposure, and Krueger's company took it from inception to market. He was also behind the creation of a complimentary web radio station, Phases of the Moon Radio.

Ken brings that same high level of enthusiasm and expertise to every project on which he works.

Ken was inducted into the St. Louis Classic Rock Hall of Fame in 2018 as a recipient of the Jerry M. Cook Memorial Award and is on the Board of Directors of the St. Louis Classic Rock Preservation Society.

Sue started her affiliation with both OnStl and StLouisClassicRock.com, with its very small crew at the time, and the precursor to St. Louis Classic Rock Preservation Society - and hasn't turned back since.

Born and raised in St. Louis, and growing up as the kid of a Gaslight Square alumni, no less, music is as much a part of our - and her - lifeblood as growing up on the Mississippi.

As a board member of the St. Louis Classic Rock Preservation Society, she has contributed to NEVER SAY GOODBYE: The KSHE Documentary and A Long Way From Neverland - A Conversation with Pat and Danny Liston as well as the numerous Classic Rock Trivia Nights and Hall of Fame inductions.

As keeper of the footprint of St. Louis' influence on music ranging from Classic Rock, Jazz, Blues, R&B/Soul, StLouisClassicRock.com's natural progression was to form St. Louis Classic Rock Preservation Society. Whether growing the community of other passionate music officianado's, holding special events, helping area musicians "furloughed" due to the pandemic, recognizing and preserving St. Louis' passion for music and the live entertainment industry is a life-long endeavor - one in which Sue is happy to serve and proud to represent.

David has been collecting, researching, and archiving all things rock 'n' roll since the late 1950s relying solely on what was available on local AM radio stations such as KXOK and WIL along with following local bands. On November 7, 1967, his senior year in high school, his focus shifted to KSHE where a whole new world of progressive, classic album rock presented itself.

During the mid 1980s David served as the phone bank coordinator on the annually televised Sammy Davis Variety Club Telethon - a volunteer assignment that he found to be extremely rewarding and allowed him the opportunity to meet some very interesting people.

Some of David's most recent notable projects include:

• Producer, Historian/Archivist, and Subject for the film documentary Gypsy: Rock and Roll Nomads
• Associate Producer, Classic Rock Historian and Subject for the film documentary NEVER SAY GOODBYE: The KSHE Documentary
• Associate Producer and Camera for the film documentary A Long Way From Neverland - A Conversation with Pat and Danny Liston

In 2015, David joined the board of the St. Louis Classic Rock Preservation Society. Since then, he has displayed a genuine interest and desire to assist in the preservation of the rich musical heritage that has existed in the St. Louis area for all these years.

David was inducted into the St. Louis Classic Rock Hall of Fame in 2019 as a recipient of the Jerry M. Cook Memorial Award.

Cindy began her live entertainment career at the Goldenrod Showboat as Marketing Director, while singing on weekends with a local wedding band. But meeting Steve Schankman shortly thereafter led to twenty years as Vice President of Ticketing for Contemporary Productions (now Live Nation). As Contemporary entered the venue management arena, Cindy also became theatre manager of The American Theatre, Westport Playhouse and Riverport Amphitheatre (now Hollywood Casinos Amphitheatre).

After Contemporary, Cindy did stints with JS Touring (Jerry Seinfeld), managing sponsorship ticketing for the Tim McGraw/Faith Hill and Dierks Bentley tours for Anheuser Busch, and Kicking Cow Productions, an experiential marketing company working with great clients like Nestle Purina, Hallmark, and the Pilsner Urquell Blues Traveler Tour.

In 2007, Cindy became Executive Director of INOBTR (I Know Better) a 501(c)(3) charity aimed at protecting children and families from the dangers of the Internet. INOBTR was awarded over $2 million in Federal grants to create a nationwide bi-lingual multi-platform program. Working with law enforcement, schools and community groups, INOBTR reached over 110 million children and families. INOBTR also produced radio & TV PSAs and events with recording artist Nick Lachey including Internet Safety Nights in St. Louis (Busch Stadium- Cardinals) and Kansas City (Arrowhead Stadium-Chiefs). A big shout out to St. Louis radio and television for their support as media sponsors!

John is the co-founder of the St. Louis Classic Rock Preservation Society with Randy Raley and Ron Stevens. Prior to that he ran one of the founding stations, now called SLCR1: Klassics Plus, and started the St. Louis Classic Rock Trivia Night in 2014, and Hall of Fame Inductions in 2013.

As a St. Louis native, and, like Mr. Block, as someone who dabbled in bands and instruments, John has always had an ear for local history and the music that accompanied it. By day, he is the Manager of Financial Reporting at Thompson Coburn LLP, and by night...if he's not listening to music or archiving local artists going back to the 1920s, he's trying to play it. "Trying" is the key word there.

John currently lives in Crestwood, MO with his wife Angela and dachshunds Nugget and Noël (RIP SLCR mascot Noob). They live in the house his grandparents had been original owners of (since 1965). Besides the Society and its involvement in Crestwood, he is also locally involved with the Thomas Sappington House Foundation, Christmas in Crestwood, is on the Crestwood Public Works Board, and is a candidate for Alderman of Crestwood's Ward 4.

Ron Stevens owns the distinction of being "creative" for over 700 radio station morning shows at once, with his highly successful All Star Radio Networks, which he ran for 30 years. He and his wife, Joy Grdnic, along with their creative staff, provided audio and scripted material for radio stations around the globe.

Their work reached from Los Angeles, to New York, to Europe, Australia and even Saudi Arabia. Prior to syndication, Ron was program director of what is now the longest standing rock station in the world, KSHE-95, in St. Louis. The amazing story of KSHE is told in the documentary recently produced and directed by Ron, called NEVER SAY GOODBYE: The KSHE Documentary.

Ron and his wife Joy also hosted a morning radio show on New York's HOT 97, wrote for network television and released two comedy albums as Stevens & Grdnic.

Ron was inducted into the St. Louis Classic Rock Hall of Fame in 2018 in the DJ category and is on the Board of Directors of the St. Louis Classic Rock Preservation Society.

With over 35 years as director of photography, director/cameraman and musician, Jack coproduced (with Director/Executive Producer, Ron Stevens) NEVER SAY GOODBYE: The KSHE Documentary and A Long Way From Neverland - A Conversation with Pat and Danny Liston. Jack has lensed thousands of commercials, documentaries, marketing and sales training videos and web content.

Past and current clients include Amoco, Anheuser Busch, AT&T, Citibank, Discovery Channel, Emerson Electric, ABC/GMA, History Channel, Image Technologies Corp., Kaufman Broadcast, Monsanto, National Geographic, Nestle USA, Joyce Meyer Ministries, Hired Gun Creative, Big League Productions, Fox Sports, ESPN, The St. Louis Blues, Cardinals, Rams and VH1.

Jack was inducted into the St. Louis Classic Rock Hall of Fame in 2019 as a recipient of the Jerry M. Cook Memorial Award and is on the Board of Directors of the St. Louis Classic Rock Preservation Society.