When Ross Peterson lost his job at iHeart Radio on Nov. 4, 2024, he and co-host Travis Justice started thinking about how they could work together again. They had hosted “The Morning Rush” on KXnO together.
“There was definitely a conversation that day about that wasn’t going to be the end — that we were going to figure out something to do together,” Peterson said. “We kind of nibbled around the idea of doing some sort of podcast or something.”
They eventually came up with an idea. Peterson and Justice will be back together Monday on a new platform when they debut their live streaming sports show “The Rush,” The show will be streamed on YouTube, X/Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms from 6-8 a.m. Monday through Friday.
“I don’t do this because it’s a full-time job,” Justice said. “I want to do it because I love it and I love doing it with Ross. There’s been a hole in my heart and it’s going to be filled come Monday.”
Justice and Peterson are well-known voices in the Des Moines media market. They have been on KXnO, iHeart’s Des Moines-based sports talk radio station, for years. Peterson began as a producer for Justice’s first morning show on the station before becoming a co-host.
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The duo did two different stints together as co-hosts in the early hours of the day, kicking off the station’s local programming. They were a part of KXnO’s 2020 layoffs that cost six employees their jobs. Justice and Peterson were brought back after co-workers and avid listeners voiced their displeasure.
Peterson, who was working afternoons at the time, eventually teamed up with Justice again for his second stint on the KXnO’s early show, “The Morning Rush.” But that came to an end in November when Peterson and producer Justin Miller were let go. Justice survived the cuts and carried on with the show.
Until Friday. Justice, who has been at the station since 2010, announced during Friday’s show that he was leaving the station.
As Justice and Peterson watched others from the station depart and start shows on their own, they figured they no longer needed a radio station to reach loyal listeners.
“We’re like, we can do this — we can be with each other,” Justice said. “It sounds like a relationship, right? It sounds like we’re married. We kind of are.”
The goal is to keep everything the same, minus the show’s name and how it’s being delivered to listeners. It’ll be on daily and in the same time slot as their show on KXnO was. Listeners can access it on social media along with the show’s website, therushradio.com. They’ll have a 515 phone number for listeners to call into.
The hope is that it’ll be the same entertaining banter about sports and other topics with Peterson and Justice back together. The two have stayed in close contact since Peterson was let go, talking at least three times a week.
“Broadcasting’s weird,” Justice said. “People think it’s just knowing stats and all this stuff. But if you’re going to talk to somebody, you have to have chemistry.”
Peterson and Justice certainly do. And they hope their past listeners come along for the ride. Peterson said he can’t wait for the reunion.
“On a scale of one to 10, it’s 100,” Peterson said.
(Note to readers: The Des Moines Register has a partnership with KxNO that includes Hawk Central and Cyclone Insider weekly radio shows.)
Tommy Birch, the Register’s sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He’s the 2018, 2020 and 2023 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468
