KTRS (AM)
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 Dorsey Media Group. 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.
Scott Hasick and
Casey Bartholomew, hosts of
The Scott and Casey Show, hold down morning drive, followed by
McGraw Milhaven 9am-noon,
The Kramer Show noon-3,
Frank O Pinion and The Large Morning Show In The Afternoon 3pm-6:30pm,
Monty on Sports 6:30pm-9pm, and
John Hadley 9pm-midnight.
KTRS is also the new home of the
St. Louis Cardinals, as well as the AM radio home of the
St. Louis Rams and
St. Louis Blues.
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, The Dorsey Media Group, 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 50% 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.
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 announced plans to bring in a new lineup beginning in January,
2006. Milhaven, however, was reinstated during the spring of 2006
*
Official website, including
station history*
KTRS fires top on-air personalities, a December 2005 article from the
Saint Louis Post-Dispatch
