KMOX

City of license	St. Louis, Missouri
Broadcast area	Greater St. Louis
Branding	NewsRadio 1120
Slogan	"The Voice of St. Louis"
Frequency	1120 kHz AM (HD Radio)
Repeaters	102.5–3 FM KEZK-FM HD3
First air date	December 24, 1925
Format	News/Talk
Language(s)	English
Power	50,000 watts
Class	A (Clear channel)
Facility ID	9638
Transmitter coordinates	38°43′22″N 90°3′19″W / 38.72278°N 90.05528°W / 38.72278; -90.05528 (main antenna) 38°43′24″N 90°3′12″W / 38.72333°N 90.05333°W / 38.72333; -90.05333 (auxiliary antenna)
Callsign meaning	none officially, but a local legend claims it stands for Kirkwood, MissOuri and X-mas (as the station launched on Christmas Eve)
Affiliations	CBS Radio Network
Owner	CBS Radio (CBS Radio East Inc.)
Sister stations	KEZK-FM, KYKY
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	CBSStL.com

KMOX (1120 AM, "NewsRadio 1120") 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. Louis."^[1][2]

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 studio is located at 1220 Olive Street. On June 14, 2012, KMOX announced it will move from its longstanding location at 1 Memorial Drive since 1968, to the Park Pacific Building at Olive Street and Tucker Blvd by the end of 2012 when its present lease expires. CBS Radio consolidated its two other radio stations KYKY (Y98) and KEZK-FM (Fresh 102.5) there.^[3]

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.^[4] The Federal Communications Commission requires a digital (hybrid) license for HD broadcasting.^[5]

KMOX, along with WSDZ, are responsible for the activation of the Greater St. Louis Emergency Alert System for hazardous weather, disaster declarations, etc.^{[citation needed]}

History[edit]

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 had been in use by KMO in Tacoma since 1922. KMOX signed on December 24, 1925. (The "X" was because the date was Christmas Eve, or "X"mas eve. Although a local legend states the call letters mean Kirkwood, Missouri On Xmas, the K was the assigned first call letter of all new radio stations west of the Mississippi River.^{[citation needed]}

In 1927, the station gave prominent coverage to the Charles Lindbergh flight across the Atlantic, in the Spirit of St. Louis. That same year, it became one of the first 16 stations in the CBS network;^[6] 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. As of 2009–2010, its signal can be picked up in Scotland and South Africa.^[7][8]

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.^{[citation needed]}

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).^{[citation needed]}

During the 1950s, the station's slogan was "k-mocks", pronouncing the way the station's call letters are spelled.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

After Hyland died in 1992, Rod Zimmerman was named general manager. He departed in 1998 to manage WBBM Radio in Chicago.

KMOX picked up Costas Coast to Coast in 1994. Also, in July of that year Bob Costas began hosting a sports call-in show on the station.^[9]

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 managed the station from 2005 to 2008. John Sheehan, who also oversees sister stations KEZK and KYKY is the station's current Market Manager for CBS.

KMOX started broadcasting in HD Radio in May 2006.^{[citation needed][10]}

On August 1, 2008; CBS Radio has announced that it would sell 50 radio stations in 12 markets to focus more on major market stations. Although CBS hasn't mentioned which stations are for sale, CBS has announced on the day of first-round bids (September 22, 2008) that KMOX will not be on the auction block.^[11]

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 three of the team's 33 seasons (1967–2000), but it would return starting in the 2007–08 season. In 2006, the Cardinals' broadcasts moved to KTRS 550 AM after 52 seasons on KMOX (1954–2005) after the team purchased controlling interest in KTRS.^{[citation needed]}

On September 1, 2010, the Cardinals announced the return of broadcasts to KMOX, starting in the 2011 baseball season.^[12]

KMOX aired the Missouri Tigers football and basketball games for many years.^{[citation needed]} Starting Fall 2011 the Tigers moved their basketball, football, and news & talk programs to KTRS.^[13]

On January 30, 2012, Jon Grayson's "Overnight America", already heard on KMOX, WCCO and KDKA became a nationally syndicated program with over 20 stations across the country on board already.

Programming[edit]

Buck and Shannon announcing Cardinals game at Busch, 1992

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. Bob Costas did play-by-play on KMOX for the Spirits of St. Louis of the American Basketball Association from 1974 until the ABA-NBA merger in June 1976.^{[citation needed]}

The station continues to host sports programming such as "Sports on a Sunday Morning" with host Ron Jacober, and "Sports Open Line." Kevin Wheeler and Ron Jacober host "Sports Open Line", which airs every weekday night.^[14]

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 held the distinction of holding the record for consecutive number one Arbitron ratings books in the United States. The station was consistently the number one radio station with listeners 12 and older since 1972: however, in 2010 music station WARH (106.5 FM) took over the top spot in the Arbs.^{[citation needed]}

Rush Limbaugh airs weekdays (11am-2pm) when not pre-empted by St. Louis Cardinals' afternoon games starting in 2011. This is one of the very few non-local shows broadcast on the station.^[15]

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.^{[citation needed]}

Live play by play sports on KMOX[edit]

• St. Louis Blues hockey (1967–1985, 1988–2000, 2007–present)
• St. Louis Cardinals baseball (1928–1948, 1954–2005, 2011–present)
• St. Louis Cardinals football (1960-1987)

Personalities[edit]

Notable current and past KMOX broadcasters include:

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website
• Query the FCC's AM station database for KMOX
• Radio-Locator Information on KMOX
• Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for KMOX
• Timeline and stories about KMOX from a website maintained by a St. Louis radio historian
• A KMOX QSL card circa 1977