Timeline: Sports talk radio pioneer Marty Tirrell’s time in Des Moines
Marty Tirrell is awaiting trial on six charges that he defrauded eight people out of $1.5 million.
The Register, Wochit
- Former sports radio host Marty Tirrell faces new federal wire fraud charges after a previous prison sentence for a similar crime.
- Prosecutors allege Tirrell took over $1.5 million from investors for a ticket-flipping scheme but used the money for personal expenses and gambling.
Former sports radio trailblazer Marty Tirrell has done it again, federal prosecutors allege.
The once-prominent radio talk show host and self-described “Mouth of the Midwest” was sentenced in 2021 to nearly 3 ½ years in federal prison, after pleading guilty to mail fraud for encouraging investors to give him money for a luxury ticket-flipping scheme, which he then used for personal expenses and gambling. He was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 million in restitution.
Tirrell, 65, was released in January 2023, but remained on supervised release.
He was arrested again Oct. 20 on new federal wire fraud charges. The indictment, filed Oct. 16, alleges that once again, Tirrell encouraged investors to give him money for a luxury ticket-flipping scheme, which he used for personal expenses and gambling. The four victim investors listed in the indictment lost more than $1.5 million between them, prosecutors say.
An attorney representing Tirrell did not return a message seeking comment.
According to the indictment, from February 2024 through at least January of this year, Tirrell offered the “opportunity” to the investors to finance him buying blocks of high-demand tickets to sports and music events, including the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Taylor Swift concerts, Indiana Fever games and football and baseball playoff games. Tirrell was then to resell those tickets and repay the investors their original investment plus a share of profits.
While Tirrell did initially make repayments to investors, he did not do so from the proceeds of ticket resales. Instead, prosecutors say, he used money from new investors and other sources to make payments to earlier investors.
In reality, prosecutors allege, Tirrell had not made the promised bulk ticket purchases. Instead, they say, he spent the investors’ money on personal expenses, including gambling. In total, Tirrell faces 11 federal counts of wire fraud, with each connected to a separate wire transfer allegedly made by the investors to Tirrell.
The indictment notes that at the time of the offenses, Tirrell was operating a podcast and radio company called Tea Room Broadcasting and used the company’s bank account for the alleged ticket flipping scheme. A website connected to that company, under the name Sports Overnight America, appears to be inactive, with the most recent content dated to February.
Who is Marty Tirrell?
Although in recent years Tirrell’s reputation has been marked by scandal, at one time he was radio broadcast royalty in central Iowa.
A Massachusetts native, Tirrell came to Des Moines in 1995 and launched the region’s first sports talk radio program the following year on 1490 AM. In 2006, Tirrell moved to 1460 KXnO, where he was fired in 2009 after a profane rant was broadcast on a hot mic. He then launched an even more lucrative partnership with Toyota of Des Moines, which gave him space to broadcast from 2009 to 2012.
Tirrell has faced lawsuits and accusations of scamming since his early days in Des Moines, accused of stiffing business partners of payments as far back as 1997. His partnership with Toyota ended in litigation after he accepted payment to arrange a speaking engagement with former NFL star Troy Aikman that never materialized. Other debtors told the Des Moines Register in 2019 they struggled to collect judgments against Tirrell, who allegedly kited checks and shifted money between banks to stay one step ahead of garnishment.
While Tirrell returned to the air several times after the Toyota partnership ended, lawsuits and judgments continued piling up. By the time he was arrested in 2019, he was living out of his car.
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.
