KMOX
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| KMOX | |
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| City of license | St. Louis, Missouri |
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| Broadcast area | Greater St. Louis |
| Branding | News/Talk 1120 |
| Slogan | The Voice of St. Louis |
| Frequency | 1120 (kHz) (Also on HD Radio) |
| First air date | December 24, 1925 |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Power | 50,000 watts |
| Class | A |
| Callsign meaning | none officially, but a local legend says: Kirkwood Missouri Xmas (the station launched on Christmas Eve) |
| Owner | CBS Radio |
| Website | www.kmox.com |
KMOX is an AM radio station broadcasting from St. Louis, Missouri, and assigned to frequency 1120 kHz. 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 "News/Talk 1120" and refers to itself as "The Voice of St. Louis."
KMOX is affiliated with the CBS Radio Network and licensed to a CBS Corporation subsidiary, CBS Radio. KMOX's transmitter is located in Pontoon Beach, Illinois. The KMOX AM Studio is located directly across the street from the Gateway Arch.
For many years, KMOX broadcast using C-QUAM AM stereo, but stereo transmissions ended in the spring of 2000. The station now broadcasts an HD Radio signal.
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[edit] History
KMOX signed on in 1925 owned by a group of businessmen incorporated as The Voice of St. Louis Inc. According to the station's official website, the "KMOX" call letters were assigned by the Federal Radio Commission. The station's owners had hoped to be assigned "K-V-S-L", for "Voice of St. Louis" They were assigned KMOX, but in a last ditch effort they applied for "K-M-O", but the letters were in use at the time by a small station on the west coast. KMOX signed on December 24, 1925. (The "X" was because the date was Christmas Eve, or "X"mas eve. In fact, a local legend states the call letters mean Kirkwood, MissOuri Xmas.) (Actually the K stands for nothing. At that time, K was the assigned starting call letter of new radio stations west of the Mississippi River)
In 1927, the station gave prominent coverage to the Charles Lindbergh flight across the Atlantic, in the Spirit of St. Louis.
In 1927, it became one of the first 16 stations in the CBS network; two years later CBS bought KMOX, and began the process of getting approval to build a 50,000-watt transmitter tower; when completed, it gave the now-clear channel station a signal that could be heard as far away as New Zealand and the Arctic Circle, making it one of the first international radio stations.
In 1933, KMOX covered the first post-Prohibition case of Budweiser beer leaving Anheuser-Busch for the White House, a story carried nationally by CBS.
During the 1930s and 1940s, KMOX was one of several St. Louis stations broadcasting Cardinals and Browns baseball games. KMOX lost broadcasting rights in 1948 when a new Cardinals radio network was formed by the team, but by the 1950s, it became the flagship station of that network (in part due to its clear channel status).
During the 1950's, the station's slogan was "k-mocks", pronouncing the way the station's call letters are spelled.
In 1955 Robert Hyland Jr became KMOX's general manager, a role he held for nearly forty years. It was Hyland who emphasized and leveraged KMOX's relationship with the Cardinals; he also made the decision in 1960 to eliminate the station's afternoon music programming in favor of talk radio, a critical change which led to the station's subsequent dominance of the St. Louis radio market. On February 29 of that year, Jack Buck hosted the first "At Your Service" program, which included an interview with Eleanor Roosevelt. That program, like the sports talk programs that soon followed, pioneered a format for radio heavily dependent on interviews, guest appearances, and calls from listeners.
After Hyland died in 1992, Rod Zimmerman was named general manager. He departed in 1998 to manage WBBM Radio in Chicago. Karen Carroll was general manager from 1998 until 2003, when Tom Langmyer was promoted to the top position. Langmyer left in 2005 to become vice president/general manager of WGN Radio in Chicago. Dave Ervin is the station's current general manager.
The station's emphasis had shifted away from broadcasting St. Louis professional sports teams. In 2000, the St. Louis Blues hockey team moved to KTRS after having been on KMOX for all but two of the team's 33 seasons, but it would return for the 2007-08 season. In 2006, the Cardinals broadcasts moved to KTRS 550 AM after 52 seasons on KMOX-AM after the team purchased controlling interest in KTRS 550 AM. KMOX still airs the Missouri Tigers football and basketball games, which it has been doing for many years.
KMOX started to broadcast in HD Radio in May 2006.
[edit] Programming
KMOX has had a long history of broadcasting sports. In 1926, it broadcast the Cardinals-Yankees World Series, and starting the next season the station was regularly carrying Cardinals games. KMOX's most famous sports figure was Jack Buck, who was the station's year-round sports director during the years he was also calling baseball and football for the CBS radio and television networks. Another famous figure was Harry Caray, who did play-by-play for Cardinals baseball from 1945 through 1969.
The station continues to host sports programming such as "Sports on a Sunday Morning" with host Ron Jacober, and "Sports Open Line." St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Dan McLaughlin, Tom Ackerman, Ron Jacober, and Kevin Wheeler host "Sports Open Line", which airs every weekday night. NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace hosts a weekly Friday-night show.
While the station was known nationally for sports play-by-play, KMOX is best known in St. Louis for its format of news and talk. The station offers news, weather and traffic updates throughout the day. KMOX holds the distinction of holding the record for consecutive number one Arbitron ratings books in the United States. The station has consistently been the number one radio station with listeners 12 and older since 1972.
For the past eleven Decembers, KMOX has hosted a holiday radio program, in which KMOX personalities perform an old-time radio show in front of a live audience.
Some of the station's popular hosts and local programs include:
"Total Information AM" with Doug McElvein and Debbie Monterrey, Charles Brennan, Paul Harris, "Sports Open Line" with Kevin Wheeler, Tom Ackerman, Dan McLaughlin, and "Two Johns, No Waiting" with John Carney and Jon Grayson
Rush Limbaugh airs weekdays between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm. This is the only non-local show broadcast on the station.
[edit] Personalities
Notable current and past KMOX broadcasters include:
- Charles Brennan
- Jack Buck
- Joe Buck
- Harry Caray
- Jack Carney
- John Carney
- Bob Costas
- Dana Daniels
- Rex Davis
- Dizzy Dean
- Dan Dierdorf
- Harry Flannery
- Art Fleming
- Joe Garagiola
- Jon Grayson
- Bob Hamilton
- Bob Hardy
- Paul Harris
- Charles Jaco
- Ron Jacober
- Anne Keefe
- France Laux, the first recipient of The Sporting News award for outstanding major league broadcaster
- Emmett McAuliffe
- John McCormick, "The man who walks and talks at midnight"
- Doug McElvein
- Bernie Miklasz
- Debbie Monterrey
- Charley Stookey
- David Strauss
- Jim White
- Nan Wyatt
- J.C. Corcoran
[edit] External links
- Official website, which includes KMOX History and Station Tour
- Timeline and stories about KMOX, from a website maintained by a prominent St. Louis radio historian
- Query the FCC's AM station database for KMOX
- Radio Locator Information on KMOX
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