KTRS (AM)

Infobox Radio Station
name = KTRS


city = St. Louis, Missouri
area = Greater St. Louis
branding = The Big 5-50, KTRS
slogan = Talk, News, and Sports Radio
airdate = June 26, 1922 (as KSD-AM)
frequency = 550 (kHz)
format = News/Talk
power = 5,000 watts
erp =
class =
callsign_meaning = K
Talk
Radio
St. Louis.
former_callsigns = KSD (1922-1982 and 1993-1997) KUSA (1983-1993)
affiliations = ABC News
owner = CH Radio Holdings and the majority owner, the St. Louis Cardinals
website = [http://www.ktrs.com/ www.ktrs.com]

KTRS, located at 550 kHz, is an AM radio station in St. Louis, 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.

Programming

Vic Porcelli and Trish Gazell host "TBD", doing the morning drive from 5:30 - 9:00am, followed by McGraw Milhaven 9am-noon, John Brown noon-3, Frank O Pinion, and The Large Morning Show In The Afternoon 3pm-6:30pm, Mike Claiborne 6:30pm-9pm, and Joe Hipperson 9pm-midnight.

KTRS is also the new home of the St. Louis Cardinals (starting in 2006), as well as the AM radio home of the St. Louis Rams. It was also the radio home for the St. Louis Blues from 2000-2007. For the 2007-08 season, rival KMOX resumed their relationship with the hockey club.

History

KSD, owned by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 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 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.

The Big Sports Show added in 2000. The hosts were John Hadley, Scott Warman and Howard Balzer

The station gained the radio rights to the St. Louis Blues from 2000-2007.

In 2001, Randy Karraker was added to the program. He brought his experience from KMOX before being fired from KTRS.

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 Karen Vail (Boooinng).

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.

After seven years, KTRS lost the rights of the St. Louis Blues to KMOX following the 2006-07 NHL season.

External links

* [http://www.ktrs.com/ Official website] , including [http://www.ktrs.com/ktrsinfo/history.html station history]
*amq|KTRS
* [http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/stories.nsf/tvradio/story/2DC3BA1720AE0679862570DA001C02BB?OpenDocument KTRS fires top on-air personalities] , a December 2005 article from the "Saint Louis Post-Dispatch"