KLOU
Encyclopedia
KLOU is a radio station
with an oldies
format in St. Louis, Missouri
, specializing in hits from the 1960s and 1970s.
(CHR) and adding more and more current hits to its rotation; by August 1982, the transition was complete, and the station's call letters were changed to KHTR. KHTR, like sister stations WHTT
in Boston
and KKHR
in Los Angeles
, was modeled after programmer Mike Joseph's successful Hot Hits
format, although unlike early Hot Hits stations, KHTR also played recurrent hits and oldies. KHTR was an almost immediate success, quickly becoming the #2 station in the demographic group 12 years old and over in the market, behind only sister KMOX-AM
. (1)
The oldies arrived in November 1988, when KHTR changed to its current call letters of KLOU, with the station playing hits from the 1950s, 1960s and early-mid 1970s. Gradually, the 50s hits would disappear from the station's playlist, and more hits from the later 1970s and 1980s soon followed. KLOU was the official radio station for the NFL
's St. Louis Rams
from 2000
until it was replaced by all-sports newcomer WXOS in 2009
.
The station was first owned by CBS
until the mid-1990s, when a merger with American Radio Systems brought CBS over the ownership limit in several markets, including St. Louis. KLOU was purchased by Clear Channel Communications
in 1999, and has been owned by the San Antonio
-based company since then.
KLOU now airs American Top 40
1970s and 1980s rebroadcasts on the weekends; as KHTR, the station aired AT40 for most of the 1980s.
In the late 2000s, KLOU dropped its "103.3 KLOU" branding and oldies format for a more classic hits approach as "My 103.3." In 2010, the station rebranded to 70s and 80s hits as "Rewind 103.3." On May 31, 2011 KLOU shifted their format to back to 1960s-early 1980s classic hits, and rebranded as "Oldies 103.3".
2 feed does not carry a direct feed from the Format Lab. Instead, the station, until recently, aired a format called All Rams Radio, a year-round tape loop of complete St. Louis Rams games from recent weeks. During the offseason, games from as far back as the 1990s often aired on the subchannel. Even though Clear Channel owns several flagship stations of NFL teams, St. Louis is the only market in which Clear Channel has used this concept.
As with all Clear Channel HD subchannels, All Rams Radio was available for free streaming on the Internet. While the NFL has been fairly strict regarding its prohibition of broadcasting live games, they have made no comment to date about this arrangement.
KLOU lost the rights to the Rams to Bonneville Broadcasting-owned WXOS in 2009, which brought an end to "All Rams Radio." Bonneville has since sold WXOS to Twin Cities-based Hubbard Broadcasting.
KLOU also has a Twitter account and an official Facebook page where people can join.
Marc Coppola, midday host
Cindy Collins, afternoon drive time host
, owned by Al and Dixie Johnson into the 1980s. Upon the sale of the station and the conversion of its format from Top-40 to Urban, the station applied for and received permission to change its call letters, freeing the KLOU call letters for the St. Louis station.
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
with an oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
format in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, specializing in hits from the 1960s and 1970s.
History
The station began broadcasting on February 12, 1962 as KMOX-FM, by playing an easy listening/standards format. The focus then shifted to an adult contemporary style of music by the 1970s. In the summer of 1981, KMOX-FM began gradually evolving its format toward Contemporary Hit RadioContemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...
(CHR) and adding more and more current hits to its rotation; by August 1982, the transition was complete, and the station's call letters were changed to KHTR. KHTR, like sister stations WHTT
WODS
- External links :****...
in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
and KKHR
KCBS-FM
KCBS-FM is a radio station in Los Angeles, California broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles area on 93.1 FM. KCBS-FM airs an adult hits music format branded as "Jack-FM"....
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, was modeled after programmer Mike Joseph's successful Hot Hits
Hot Hits
Hot Hits was a radio format created by consultant Mike Joseph in the 1970s. That concept, which helped spur the birth of what is now known as CHR, also revitalized the Top 40 format and would play a role in bringing the format to the FM band throughout the 1980s.The concept was to play only the...
format, although unlike early Hot Hits stations, KHTR also played recurrent hits and oldies. KHTR was an almost immediate success, quickly becoming the #2 station in the demographic group 12 years old and over in the market, behind only sister KMOX-AM
KMOX (AM)
KMOX is a radio station broadcasting from St. Louis, Missouri. It is a 50,000-watt clear channel radio station, which permits its nighttime signal to be heard in most of the continental U.S. KMOX operates as "NewsRadio 1120" and refers to itself as "The Voice of St...
. (1)
The oldies arrived in November 1988, when KHTR changed to its current call letters of KLOU, with the station playing hits from the 1950s, 1960s and early-mid 1970s. Gradually, the 50s hits would disappear from the station's playlist, and more hits from the later 1970s and 1980s soon followed. KLOU was the official radio station for the NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
's St. Louis Rams
St. Louis Rams
The St. Louis Rams are a professional American football team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are currently members of the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Rams have won three NFL Championships .The Rams began playing in 1936 in Cleveland,...
from 2000
2000 NFL season
The 2000 NFL season was the 81st regular season of the National Football League. The season ended with Super Bowl XXXV when the Baltimore Ravens defeated the New York Giants.Week 1 of the season reverted to Labor Day weekend in 2000...
until it was replaced by all-sports newcomer WXOS in 2009
2009 NFL season
The 2009 NFL season was the 90th regular season of the National Football League.The preseason started with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game on August 9, 2009, and the regular season began September 10. The season ended with Super Bowl XLIV, the league's championship game, on February 7, 2010 at...
.
The station was first owned by CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
until the mid-1990s, when a merger with American Radio Systems brought CBS over the ownership limit in several markets, including St. Louis. KLOU was purchased by Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
in 1999, and has been owned by the San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
-based company since then.
KLOU now airs American Top 40
American Top 40
American Top 40 is an internationally syndicated, independent radio program created by Casey Kasem, Don Bustany, Tom Rounds and Ron Jacobs. Originally a production of Watermark Inc...
1970s and 1980s rebroadcasts on the weekends; as KHTR, the station aired AT40 for most of the 1980s.
In the late 2000s, KLOU dropped its "103.3 KLOU" branding and oldies format for a more classic hits approach as "My 103.3." In 2010, the station rebranded to 70s and 80s hits as "Rewind 103.3." On May 31, 2011 KLOU shifted their format to back to 1960s-early 1980s classic hits, and rebranded as "Oldies 103.3".
All Rams Radio on HD2
Unlike most of Clear Channel's FM radio stations, KLOU's HDHD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
2 feed does not carry a direct feed from the Format Lab. Instead, the station, until recently, aired a format called All Rams Radio, a year-round tape loop of complete St. Louis Rams games from recent weeks. During the offseason, games from as far back as the 1990s often aired on the subchannel. Even though Clear Channel owns several flagship stations of NFL teams, St. Louis is the only market in which Clear Channel has used this concept.
As with all Clear Channel HD subchannels, All Rams Radio was available for free streaming on the Internet. While the NFL has been fairly strict regarding its prohibition of broadcasting live games, they have made no comment to date about this arrangement.
KLOU lost the rights to the Rams to Bonneville Broadcasting-owned WXOS in 2009, which brought an end to "All Rams Radio." Bonneville has since sold WXOS to Twin Cities-based Hubbard Broadcasting.
KLOU also has a Twitter account and an official Facebook page where people can join.
Current on-air-staff
Greg Hewitt, morning drive time hostMarc Coppola, midday host
Cindy Collins, afternoon drive time host
Former on-air staff
- Cindy Dooley, prime-time host (1990-1998)
- Diane MacKenzie, fill-in and weekend host (1990-1992)
- Michelle Kent, fill-in and weekend host (1992-1997)
- Mike Jeffries, fill-in and weekend host (1988-1997)
- Julie BuckJulie BuckJulie Anne Buck is an American collage artist, photographer, filmmaker, and film archivist who lives in New York City.-Life:...
, daytime host (2006-2010) - Scott Arkin (a.k.a. "Arkin in the Dark"), overnight host (1988-1998)
- Chuck RobertsChuck RobertsChuck Roberts is an American broadcast journalist, most notable for being the former weekday news anchor on Headline News, based in CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia...
, daytime host (1988-1999) - Dana Daniels, late-morning host (1999-2002); joined KEZKKEZKKEZK-FM is a radio station broadcasting a Adult Contemporary format. Licensed to St. Louis, Missouri, USA, the station serves the St. Louis and southwestern Illinois areas. The station is currently owned by CBS Radio. and features programing from Westwood One...
in 2008 - Randi Naughton, morning show co-host (1991-1995); now at KTVIKTVIKTVI, virtual channel 2, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the St. Louis, Missouri, designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, under a local marketing agreement with Tribune-owned CW affiliate KPLR...
- Kathi Evans, fill-in and weekend host (1995-2000)
- Robb Stewart (a.k.a. "Robb with 2 B's), daytime host (1994-1998)
- Gary "Records" Brown, morning show co-host (1995-1998); died in 2000
- Rick Sanborn (a.k.a. "Rockin'" Rick Sanborn), fill-in and weekend host (1997-2001)
- Mike McCann, afternoon host (1988-1995)
- Kevin McCarthyKevin McCarthy (radio)Kevin McCarthy has been a radio-television personality in north Texas since Gordon McLendon brought him to Dallas as part of the original staff of KNUS/99 in 1972...
, daytime host (1988-1996) - Karen Vail, morning show co-host (1995-1998); now at KTRSKTRS (AM)KTRS, located at 550 kHz, is an AM radio station in Maryland Heights, Missouri that carries a News/Talk format and is owned by the St. Louis Cardinals and CH Radio Holdings. It broadcasts with 5,000 watts of power during the day and 5,000 watts at night. The call letters KTRS stand for K Talk...
- Karen KellyKaren KellyKaren Kelly is a camogie player and teacher, winner of two Soaring Star awards in 2009 and 2011 and played in the 2009 All Ireland junior camogie final. The leading scorer in her side's impressive march to the final, Karen has won two National League medals, Munster titles in the Junior and...
, morning show co-host (1998-2003) - Michelle Holliday, morning news anchor (2003-2006)
- J.C. Corcoran, morning show co-host (1999-2002); now at KTRSKTRSKTRS may refer to:* KTRS , a radio station licensed to St. Louis, Missouri, United States* KTRS-FM, a radio station licensed to Casper, Wyoming, United States...
- Joe Crain, fill-in and overnights 1988-89
- Joe Sonderman, morning show co-host 1988-89, 1992-94
- Dennis Klautzer, (a.k.a. Casey Van Allen)
Trivia
The KLOU call letters were originally assigned to an AM radio station in Lake Charles, LouisianaLake Charles, Louisiana
Lake Charles is the fifth-largest incorporated city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, located on Lake Charles, Prien Lake, and the Calcasieu River. Located in Calcasieu Parish, a major cultural, industrial, and educational center in the southwest region of the state, and one of the most important in...
, owned by Al and Dixie Johnson into the 1980s. Upon the sale of the station and the conversion of its format from Top-40 to Urban, the station applied for and received permission to change its call letters, freeing the KLOU call letters for the St. Louis station.