Early years station, W9XPD. The station was originally owned by the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch daily newspaper. It began experimental broadcasts in 1921 at a wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz) with 27 watts of power. The official
sign-on took place on June 26, 1922. The original
call sign was
KSD, standing for
Saint Louis Post-
Dispatch. Along with
WEW and
WIL, KSD was among the earliest stations in St. Louis.
KMOX didn't come on the air until 1925. KSD moved to 550 AM in 1923. Power was increased to 5,000 watts daytime and 1,000 watts nighttime in 1934. KSD put a new transmitter in place in November 1948. The station was able to increased its night output to match its daytime output, 5,000 watts. But the nighttime signal required a
directional antenna to protect other stations from interference.
NBC radio and television KSD was one of the first eight radio stations of the
NBC Red Network in 1926. KSD carried NBC's schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports,
soap operas,
game shows and
big band broadcasts during the "
Golden Age of Radio." The NBC
network affiliation lasted until the early 1980s. The studios were on the corner of 12th and Olive Streets. At the end of
World War II, KSD put a television station on the air. KSD-TV (now
KSDK) debuted on February 8, 1947. Because of KSD Radio's long affiliation with NBC, the TV station also began broadcasting NBC shows. In 1980, the owners of KSD acquired FM station 93.7 KCFM. The call sign was changed to
KSD-FM, since those call letters were already well known in the St. Louis
radio market. In 1983, the AM station gave up the heritage call sign; the call letters continue on KSD-FM, now owned by
iHeartMedia, Inc. MOR, Top 40, News, Country As network programming passed from radio to television, KSD switched to a
full service,
middle of the road format, playing popular adult music, with news, talk and sports shows. Then as
Top 40 radio became more popular, KSD switched to a contemporary hits format in early 1971. As Top 40 listening shifted from AM to FM radio, KSD began an
all-news radio format in early 1980. KSD flipped to
country music the following year, and in 1983, KSD became
KUSA. It used that call sign for 10 years. March 17, 1993 saw the restoration of the KSD
call sign and a switch back to all-news, this time utilizing the
CNN Headline News network feed. The station flipped to
adult standards in January 1995.
Talk radio On April 15, 1996, the station became KTRS and switched to its current
Talk radio format. The station was purchased by its current owners, CH Radio Holdings, in 1997. The station started
AM stereo broadcasts in 1983 after rebuilding most of the 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.
Air personalities In late 2005, KTRS Morning Show hosts
Bill Wilkerson and Wendy Wiese, sports director Jim Holder (at the time 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. Law wanted to focus on a younger generation of talk radio hosts. Milhaven, however, was reinstated during the spring of 2006. Law was fired on December 11 of that year. Wendy Wiese also returned to the station to co-host late mornings. KTRS announced on October 6, 2010, that it had hired veteran St. Louis radio personality J.C. Corcoran to fill its weekday midday slot starting October 25, 2010. Corcoran was fired on April 27, 2012, and later joined 1380
KXFN. Trish Gazall, who had been John Brown's co-host, joined Corcoran in January 2011 as his producer; Trish Gazall left the station in October 2012 for
KEZK-FM. Steve Cochran, who later worked at
WGN in
Chicago, hosted a weekday evening talk show on KTRS from 2010 until 2013.
Sports franchises KTRS broadcast
St. Louis Blues hockey games from 2000 to 2006. In 2006, the Blues moved to competitor
KMOX 1120 AM. After five years (2006–10), KTRS sold the rights to
St. Louis Cardinals baseball games to KMOX starting in
2011. The Cardinals nonetheless retained their ownership stake in KTRS and still airs the games of its owned-and-operated
farm club, the
Memphis Redbirds. With the elimination of the Cardinals, KTRS now airs the
University of Missouri Tigers football and
men's basketball as well as their weekly sports show, along with occasional
high school football contests. For the
2026 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, KTRS additionally aired games from the
Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team after previous affiliate
KLIS went off the air.
Storm damage In July 2006, severe storms knocked over two of the four
transmitting towers. The towers were replaced in 2009. A second storm in 2018 knocked over the #4 tower, which required replacement. ==See also==