Radio

Gene Hirsch – Legacy

​Gene Hirsch worked at WIL in St. Louis for 34 years. He worked his way through college as a radio announcer and after graduation he was a “guest announcer” with Armed Forces Radio in Korea.

​He was later hired by Balaban for their Dallas property. In 1960, they transferred him to their station in St. Louis, WIL.

​Most of his time at WIL-AM & FM was as the news director for the stations. In spite of competition from other heavily staffed radio newsrooms, Hirsch won many awards from the Missouri Broadcasters Association, including “Best Newscast,” “Investigative Reporting,” “Public Affairs,” and “Documentaries.” In 1993, the year before he retired, Gene Hirsch won the First Place Award – News and First Place Award – Documentary/Public Affairs in the statewide competition.

​He was known in the market for his willingness to work with college interns trying to break into broadcast journalism, and he served on several charitable boards during his time in St. Louis.

​The voice of Gene Hirsch was truly the voice of WIL News for over three decades.

Grant Horton – Legacy

​His given name was Harlan, but on the air here he was “Grant.” His style was laid-back, friendly, sincere.

​Grant Horton came to St. Louis and broke into radio as “Grant Williams” in 1959 on the CBS franchise “Housewives’ Protective League,” which he hosted on KMOX until 1967.

​He then moved to KSD where, it was said, he acquired the name “Horton” after holding an informal contest to name the deejay.

​His career continued with stops at KSCF, WRTH, WEW, KXOK, and a final stop at KMOX. At each station, he continued his folksy approach that his listeners had come to expect from him. He left the KMOX airwaves after his second stint there in 1989.

​He was awarded the Nellie Booth Award by the St. Louis AFTRA office for “exceptional and meritorious service to AFTRA and to the industry.”

Listen to Grant Horton on KMOX, in 1988

Robert Hyland – Legacy

​Robert Hyland’s name was essentially synonymous with that of the radio station he managed, KMOX.

​His St. Louis radio career actually began in 1945 at KXOK, where he worked as an advertising salesman. In 1946 he was appointed sales manager of KXOK-FM. The station’s owners put Hyland in charge of the effort to sell “transit radio,” an ill-fated venture around the country to rescue a gasping FM radio industry by placing receivers in municipal streetcars and buses.

​He was hired by CBS radio in 1950 and sent to WBBM in Chicago, returning to St. Louis less than two years later to work at KMOX. He quickly rose from his first job as national sales manager to general sales manager to assistant general manager in 2 years. In 1955, Hyland took the reigns as KMOX general manager, a position he held until his death in 1992.

​Under Hyland’s leadership, KMOX became the first major radio station to adopt an all-talk format, which was dubbed “At Your Service.” He also developed KMOX into the “Sports Voice of St. Louis” with play-by-play for the St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Football Cardinals, St. Louis Blues, and University of Missouri football and basketball.

​KMOX consistently registered the highest listening ratings in the nation and often the highest gross revenues in the CBS-owned radio chain. The Wall Street Journal cited Hyland as one of the nation’s most notorious workaholics. He arrived for work at KMOX at 2:00 a.m. six days a week, usually staying until 5:30 in the afternoon.

​Hyland turned down offers to become president of CBS Sports, and later, of the CBS Radio Network, choosing to remain in St. Louis. CBS founder William Paley said of Hyland’s KMOX, “It is the jewel in CBS’s crown.”

V.A.L. Jones – Legacy

V.A.L. Jones was literally the first lady of St. Louis radio. She was the first announcer, program director and scriptwriter at KSD, the market’s first commercial radio station.

Miss Jones was the subject of several articles in national radio publications of the day for her work in getting the station on the air in 1922. “Radio in the Home” wrote in September 1922 of her distinctive voice, “You recognize it among the voices of other radio announcers for its clearness of enunciation, for the purity of diction it employs…”

She was said to have received thousands of letters from listeners, and her on-air identifier was simply “Miss Jones announcing.” Virginia Adele Laurence Jones spent five years at KSD, having been hired by owner, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, because of her knowledge of the city, her musical knowledge and her writing ability, which she had demonstrated as a rewrite person at the paper.

In the station’s first year, Miss Jones held weekly auditions for on-air performers, usually hearing 50 – 60 acts per week.

She left KSD when she married an engineer from another local station and he was transferred to Kansas City. ​

Robert R. Lynn – Legacy

​Robert R. Lynn began his broadcast career at KWOS in Jefferson City, MO., while he was in school at the University of Missouri – Columbia Journalism School. He came to St. Louis in 1959 after working at two stations in Houston, where he claims to have been fired by Dan Rather.

In addition to his 20-year career as a newsman at KXOK followed by two years at KMOX and a brief stint at WIL, Lynn was well-known in the St. Louis market for his commercial voiceovers.

He was president of the local AFTRA chapter for three terms and received the Nellie Booth Award for meritorious service from that organization in 1991.

He even found time to do some acting at the St. Louis Municipal Opera during the 1969 season, and after his retirement from radio, he appeared in a national television movie and mini-series.

Robert R. Lynn was part of the crack news team at KXOK during the station’s rock heyday in the late fifties through the sixties. The men were well-known for their deep-voiced, authoritative presentations and rapid delivery.

Nick Charles – 2004

​Nick Charles was a recording artist on the Stax label when he was a disc jockey in Memphis. He joined KXOK in St. Louis in 1962 and brought with him a knowledge of the record and concert business.

Many credit him with being an integral part of the promotion team that brought the Beatles to town August 21, 1966.

During his 21 year tenure as a KXOK jock, Charles stayed connected to the black music scene. He started his own label, Arch Records, and is remembered for his many personal appearances for “hops” at Club Imperial.

Nick had a large following in the Illinois part of the market because of his Shindig appearances at Belleville’s Panarama Bowling Lanes.

His easygoing approach as a disc jockey made him a perfect fit for the KXOK overnight slot, which he held for many years, and he also served as the AFTRA shop steward at the station.