Jim Engster

Who is Jim Engster?

Jim Engster is a journalist and host of “The Jim Engster Show” on NPR affiliate WRKF-FM in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Engster is also owner and president of Louisiana Radio Network, which provides news, sports and agricultural news statewide. He serves as a board member for the National Association of State Radio Networks and is a political analyst for WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge.

From 1983-1998, Engster served as a reporter and news director for Louisiana Network. Engster stepped away from the newsroom in 1998 to host "Louisiana Live," a syndicated call-in talk show airing on more than 20 affiliates. "Louisiana Live" was named best public affairs program three times by the Louisiana-Mississippi Associated Press Managing Editors.

From 2003-2006, Engster served as general manager of WRKF-FM. In 2004, WRKF-FM launched "The Jim Engster Show," which still airs Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.-10 a.m. CST. The show offers callers the chance to talk to live guests who appear in studio or via telephone. Topics vary widely from news and politics to interviews of prominent personalities. Over the years, guests have included Dean Koontz, Debbie Allen, Bill Clinton, Lynn Whitfield, David Sedaris, Jesse Ventura, David Eisenhower, Gary Hart and Ernest J. Gaines. Conservative writer and commentator Ann Coulter abruptly hung up the telephone in a Jan. 15, 2009 interview with Engster, who chided Coulter for calling then President-Elect Barack Obama a 14-year-old. Engster responded by noting that Obama was the same age as Coulter, 47. Coulter ended the discussion after urging Engster to learn the meaning of hyperbole.