Les Kinsolving, retired radio talk show host and conservative gadfly, dies

By Jacques Kelly
The Baltimore Sun

December 11, 2018, 4:35 PM

Charles Lester “Les” Kinsolving, a retired WCBM-AM conservative talk radio personality and political gadfly who hosted the show “Uninhibited Radio” for 28 years, died of heart disease and dementia Dec. 4 at his home in Vienna, Va. He was 90. ... Mr. Kinsolving, whose bright-red blazer and outrageous talk show earned him national renown, was a “throwback to radio yesteryear [who] tries to shock, outrage and prod the world around him with his commentary,” according to a 1998 profile in The Sun. ... “From the loud red jacket to his blustery delivery,” the article said, “Kinsolving guarantees a scene every time he walks into the room.”

Born in New York City and raised in West Point, N.Y., he was the son of the Rev. Arthur Barksdale Kinsolving, who was later the Episcopal bishop of Arizona. His mother was Edith Lester, who assisted Arthur Kinsolving in his ecclesiastic postings. He was a cousin of the Rev. Arthur Kinsolving, a former rector of Old St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in downtown Baltimore. Numerous members of the Kinsolving family were Episcopal clergymen.
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After attending Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va., he served in the Army. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and the Johns Hopkins University, where he roomed with actor John Astin. Mr. Kinsolving also taught at St. Paul’s School for Boys in Baltimore — and coached football — and performed in theatrical productions, appearing as Clarence Darrow in “Inherit the Wind.” He was Brig. Gen. William Barksdale in the 1993 film “Gettysburg.”
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Mr. Kinsolving’s opinion columns appeared in numerous newspapers, including The News American. Family members said he worked to expose Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple cult when it flourished in San Francisco. Jones and his followers died in a mass suicide in Guyana in 1978. ... After moving to Virginia in 1973, he went on radio on WAVA-AM in Arlington. He also gained White House press credentials and soon became a conservative gadfly. He called his style “uninhibited radio.”
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jacques.kelly@baltsun.com

Baltimore Sun reporter Colin Campbell contributed to this article.