KTRS (AM)
Encyclopedia
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 Radio St. Louis.
The station's Saturday and Sunday schedule is available at its website.
, began broadcasting experimentally in 1921 at 833 kHz with 27 watts of power. The official sign-on didn't take place until June 26, 1922. KSD moved to 550 kHz in 1923, with an increase in power to 5,000 watts daytime and 1,000 watts nighttime taking place in 1934. KSD was one of the first eight radio stations of the NBC
Radio Network in 1926. That association lasted until the early 1980s. Sister station KSD-TV (now KSDK
) went on the air February 8, 1947. KSD radio also played standards and classical music, before moving to a Top 40 format in early-1971.
After eventually settling on an all-news format in early 1980, KSD switched to country music the following year, and became KUSA three years later. The year 1993 saw the restoration of the KSD call letters and a switch to standards music, which was its format before 1971. The station was purchased by its current owners, CH Radio Holdings, in 1997. 1997 was also the year the station became KTRS and the current News/Talk format was put in place. In 2000, the Saint Louis Blues (an NHL team) came to KTRS In 2005, the St. Louis Cardinals
took a 51% ownership of the station.
KUSA started AM stereo
broadcasts in 1983 after rebuilding most of their transmitter to accommodate stereo transmissions. Stereo broadcasts continued throughout most of the 1990s, using the C-QUAM
standard. In 1997, KTRS stopped sending stereo programming to the transmitter but continued broadcasting the stereo pilot signal
. In 2001, the stereo pilot was silenced.
KTRS is the home of The Large Morning Show in the Afternoon, which features host Frank O Pinion (John Craddock), the highest rated, as well as the highest paid radio personality in St. Louis. Along with Frank are Dan Strauss (the world's worst producer), Ian Geisz (Ian the Peon) and Tina Dalpiaz.
Pinion is one of the few on-air personalities to survive a major change in personnel announced in December, 2005. KTRS Morning Show hosts Bill Wilkerson and Wendy Wiese, sports director Jim Holder (the public address announcer at the Edward Jones Dome
for the NFL Rams' games), Randy Karraker
, McGraw Milhaven, Kevin Horrigan, Scott St. James and Meme Wolff were all fired. Management, including program director Al Brady Law, announced plans to bring in a new lineup beginning in January, 2006. Milhaven, however, was reinstated during the spring of 2006. Law was fired on December 11 of that year.
KTRS broadcast the St. Louis Blues
from 2000-2006. In 2006, the Blues moved to competitor, KMOX.
After five years (2006–10), KTRS lost the rights of the St. Louis Cardinals
to KMOX starting in 2011.
Since then, the focus has been on personalities.
KTRS announced on October 6, 2010 that it it had hired the well-known radio personality J.C. Corcoran to fill its midday, weekday slot starting Oct. 25. Trish Gazall, who had been John Brown's co-host, joined JC in January as his producer.
Steve Cochran, formerly of WGN in Chicago, hosts evening talk at 6PM.
Weekend programming consists of how-to, advice, and trivia shows with occasional Mizzou sports events.
National news is provided by ABC. Local news is presented by Victoria Babu, Michael Golde and Shaun Streeter. Shawn Balint is no longer with the station as of Summer 2011.
As for National shows, KTRS has Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. If it is about aliens, monsters, or conspiracy theories, you'll find it on this show.
The studios are in Westport Plaza
.
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...
in Maryland Heights, Missouri
Maryland Heights, Missouri
Maryland Heights is a second-ring west-central suburb of St. Louis, located in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 27,472 at the 2010 census. The city was incorporated in 1985. Edwin L. Dirck was elected the city's first mayor. Mark M. Levin has been City Administrator...
that carries a News/Talk format and is owned by the St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball. The Cardinals have won eleven World Series championships, the most of any National League team, and second overall only to...
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 Radio St. Louis.
Programming
- Midnight-5 AM Coast to Coast AMCoast to Coast AMCoast to Coast AM is a North American late-night syndicated radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics, but most frequently ones that relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was created by Art Bell and is distributed by Premiere Radio Networks. The program currently...
- 5 AM-6 AM "Farmer Dave" Schumacher
- 6 AM-10 AM McGraw Millhaven
- 10 AM-12 PM Steve Cochran
- 12 PM-3 PM JC Corcoran (with producer Trish Gazall)
- 3 PM-6 PM The Large Morning Show in the Afternoon
- 6 PM-9 PM Steve Cochran
- 9 PM-12 AM Sportsnight with John Marecek (with "The Jack Clark Show" from 10 PM-11 PM)
The station's Saturday and Sunday schedule is available at its website.
Sports programming
- Missouri TigersMissouri TigersThe Missouri Tigers athletics programs include the extramural and intramural sports teams of the University of Missouri, located in Columbia, Missouri, United States...
basketball, football, Tiger Talk, and Tiger Update (beginning Fall 2011). - St. Louis Falcons ice hockeyIce hockeyIce hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
, Falcons Pre-Game, Falcons Postgame, Falcons Weekly, (Fridays at 7 PM)
History
KSD, owned by the St. Louis Post-DispatchSt. Louis Post-Dispatch
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is the major city-wide newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri. Although written to serve Greater St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch is one of the largest newspapers in the Midwestern United States, and is available and read as far west as Kansas City, Missouri, as far south as...
, began broadcasting experimentally in 1921 at 833 kHz with 27 watts of power. The official sign-on didn't take place until June 26, 1922. KSD moved to 550 kHz in 1923, with an increase in power to 5,000 watts daytime and 1,000 watts nighttime taking place in 1934. KSD was one of the first eight radio stations of the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
Radio Network in 1926. That association lasted until the early 1980s. Sister station KSD-TV (now KSDK
KSDK
KSDK, Channel 5, is the NBC-affiliated television station in St. Louis, Missouri. KSDK is owned and operated by Gannett Company, and the station's transmitter is located in Marlborough, Missouri. The station broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 35, using its former analog channel assignment...
) went on the air February 8, 1947. KSD radio also played standards and classical music, before moving to a Top 40 format in early-1971.
After eventually settling on an all-news format in early 1980, KSD switched to country music the following year, and became KUSA three years later. The year 1993 saw the restoration of the KSD call letters and a switch to standards music, which was its format before 1971. The station was purchased by its current owners, CH Radio Holdings, in 1997. 1997 was also the year the station became KTRS and the current News/Talk format was put in place. In 2000, the Saint Louis Blues (an NHL team) came to KTRS In 2005, the St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball. The Cardinals have won eleven World Series championships, the most of any National League team, and second overall only to...
took a 51% ownership of the station.
KUSA started AM stereo
AM stereo
AM stereo is a term given to a series of mutually incompatible techniques for wireless radio broadcasting stereo audio in the AM band in a manner that is compatible with standard AM receivers...
broadcasts in 1983 after rebuilding most of their transmitter to accommodate stereo transmissions. Stereo broadcasts continued throughout most of the 1990s, using the C-QUAM
C-QUAM
C-QUAM is the method of AM stereo broadcasting used in Canada, the United States and most other countries. It was invented in 1977 by Norman Parker, Francis Hilbert, and Yoshio Sakaie, and published in an IEEE journal....
standard. In 1997, KTRS stopped sending stereo programming to the transmitter but continued broadcasting the stereo pilot signal
Pilot signal
In telecommunications, a pilot is a signal, usually a single frequency, transmitted over a communications system for supervisory, control, equalization, continuity, synchronization, or reference purposes....
. In 2001, the stereo pilot was silenced.
KTRS is the home of The Large Morning Show in the Afternoon, which features host Frank O Pinion (John Craddock), the highest rated, as well as the highest paid radio personality in St. Louis. Along with Frank are Dan Strauss (the world's worst producer), Ian Geisz (Ian the Peon) and Tina Dalpiaz.
Pinion is one of the few on-air personalities to survive a major change in personnel announced in December, 2005. KTRS Morning Show hosts Bill Wilkerson and Wendy Wiese, sports director Jim Holder (the public address announcer at the Edward Jones Dome
Edward Jones Dome
The Edward Jones Dome The Edward Jones Dome The Edward Jones Dome (more formally known as the Edward Jones Dome at America's Center, and previously known as The Trans World Dome (from 1995–2001) is a multi-purpose stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, and home of the St. Louis Rams of the NFL. It was...
for the NFL Rams' games), Randy Karraker
Randy Karraker
Randall James Karraker , is an American sportscaster in St. Louis, Missouri. He currently hosts The Fast Lane, the top-rated sports radio show in St. Louis, on 101 ESPN, along with former St. Louis Rams defensive tackle D'Marco Farr and St. Louis University Billikens broadcaster Bob Ramsey. He also...
, McGraw Milhaven, Kevin Horrigan, Scott St. James and Meme Wolff were all fired. Management, including program director Al Brady Law, announced plans to bring in a new lineup beginning in January, 2006. Milhaven, however, was reinstated during the spring of 2006. Law was fired on December 11 of that year.
KTRS broadcast the St. Louis Blues
St. Louis Blues
The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The team is named after the famous W. C. Handy song "St. Louis Blues", and plays in the 19,150-seat Scottrade...
from 2000-2006. In 2006, the Blues moved to competitor, KMOX.
After five years (2006–10), KTRS lost the rights of the St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball. The Cardinals have won eleven World Series championships, the most of any National League team, and second overall only to...
to KMOX starting in 2011.
Since then, the focus has been on personalities.
KTRS announced on October 6, 2010 that it it had hired the well-known radio personality J.C. Corcoran to fill its midday, weekday slot starting Oct. 25. Trish Gazall, who had been John Brown's co-host, joined JC in January as his producer.
Steve Cochran, formerly of WGN in Chicago, hosts evening talk at 6PM.
Weekend programming consists of how-to, advice, and trivia shows with occasional Mizzou sports events.
National news is provided by ABC. Local news is presented by Victoria Babu, Michael Golde and Shaun Streeter. Shawn Balint is no longer with the station as of Summer 2011.
As for National shows, KTRS has Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. If it is about aliens, monsters, or conspiracy theories, you'll find it on this show.
The studios are in Westport Plaza
Westport Plaza
Westport Plaza is a , commercial development, resort, and entertainment center located in Maryland Heights. Westport opened in 1973 and since has grown to over of offices buildings, restaurants and entertainment venues, and hotels. The property is owned jointly by Chicago-based real estate company...
.