Les Ware and an investment group headed by John W. Kluge, owner of a radio station in Silver Springs, Maryland,
have purchased the principal interest in local radio station KXLW. Art Sloan and two brothers, Lee and Virgil, of Sloan’s Moving and Storage, were the former owners. Ware is to assume full charge of the operation as Vice-President and General Manager. No immediate changes in personnel or programs are contemplated.
(Originally published in the Ad Club Weekly 11/25/1952).
After a period of 25 years in the U.S. Army Support Center, formerly known as the Mart Building, Radio Station KMOX-CBS will move to a new location at 9th and Sidney Sts., Robert Hyland, general manager, has announced.
At the new address KMOX will have three modern radio studios, the latest hi-fi technical equipment available, and new general office facilities.
The forthcoming move will be the third in the 31-year history of the CBS-owned-and-operated outlet in St. Louis.
KMOX, organized as a civic enterprise in 1925 with studios in the Hotel Mayfair, moved into its present quarters in the Mart Building in 1931.
Present plans call for the move to the new location to be completed by March 4.
(Originally published in the Ad Club Weekly 3/4/1957).
As March 17th rolled around with the “wearin’ o’; the green,” Station KWK in St. Louis celebrated its twenty-third birthday on St. Patrick’s Day.
KWK, now in its swank new quarters in the ultra-modern Globe-Democrat Tower Building, is the dream radio station that its founder, the late Thomas Patrick Convey visualized. And the dream radio station that Convey thought of actually came into being before his untimely death in 1934, primarily because he personally did enough work to weary three men.
Thomas Patrick, the name Convey used on the air, believed with unbounded faith that any project begun on St. Patrick’s Day meant success for him. However that faith developed, St. Patrick and Thomas Patrick Convey both were on the job March 17, 1927, when KWK was launched from studios in the Hotel Chase.
Thomas Patrick Convey came to St. Louis in 1925 from Chicago to promote home shows with radio tie-ins. He ended up by organizing the original “Voice of St. Louis, Inc.,” jointly controlled by 16 St. Louis firms under a unit plan. A year later he struck out for himself when he acquired the interests of Romaine Fielding, a former motion picture idol, who had established a small transmitter with the call letters KFVE in the old Egyptian Building in University City.
Shortly thereafter he secured permission from the Federal Radio Commission, which preceded the present Federal Communication Commission, to change the call letters to KWK and transfer the station to Hotel Chase. KWK was in the Chase Hotel twenty-two years before moving to its present location in the Globe-Democrat Tower Building May 9, last year[1949].
That same year of 1927 was history-making too. KWK brought the St. Louis public the first baseball broadcast from inside Sportsman Park [Note: This has been found to be inaccurate in further research.] and the story of Lindbergh’s epock-making solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
Bob Convey
Robert T. Convey, KWK’s President, was elected to that position shortly after the death of his father in 1924. Young Convey, then only 21, had had six years’ experience in the radio business, which stood him in good stead. He had started as an announcer when he was 15 and was known to St. Louis listeners as Bob Thomas. He also worked as a salesman, a copy writer, a singer in the very popular “Frank and Ernest” team, and as chief announcer. He had been elected a vice-president of KWK two years earlier.
Under its new head KWK continued to grow. In 1936, the FCC authorized a power increase to 5,000 watts daytime. The new transmitter at Baden Station, Mo., went on the air the same year. It utilized a new 400-foot tower and the latest high-fidelity equipment.
Although since 1927 KWK had been affiliated with the Blue Network of the National Broadcasting Company, in 1938 KWK augmented the Blue Network schedule by an additional affiliation with the Mutual Broadcasting System. In 1941, KWK became the exclusive St. Louis affiliate of Mutual.
At the end of World War II, KWK’s operations began to expand. KWK-FM went on the air in 1946, and in August 1949 KWK-FM also moved to the Globe-Democrat Tower Building from its old quarters in the Boatmen’s Bank Building. KWK-FM operates with 40 kilowatts effective radiated power, and utilizes the antenna atop the 525-foot pour-posted tower from which the new building takes its name.
In 1948 KWK’s application for increased nighttime power was granted, and on January 5, 1949, KWK began operating day and night with a power of 5,000 watts, thereby increasing its nighttime service area by many counties on both sides of the Mississippi River – in both Missouri and Illinois.
On March 31, 1949, KWK and the Globe-Democrat concluded an agreement whereby the newspaper acquired a minority interest in the station and leased its ultra-modern radio building at 12th and Cole in downtown St. Louis to KWK. The Globe-Democrat, which had been operating its FM station, KWGD, in the new building, returned its license to the FCC. At the same time the newspaper also withdrew its application for a television permit, lending its support to KWK’s pending TV application.
The Tower Building was built originally with TV in mind and makes KWK one of the best-prepared stations for the expansion of TV when the “freeze” is finally lifted.
(Originally published in the St. Louis Advertising Club Weekly 3/20/1950).
The job of Action Central is NEWS…the compilation and reporting of daily events from the four corners of the globe, and beyond. We live in a fast-moving world, not necessarily of our own making. None-the-less it is a world of speed where each fleeting moment has its hope and despair, its good and its bad. The job of Action Central is to bring these daily events into focus, to clarify their intent and content, with a minimum loss of time. The Action Central reporter is not a commentator. He does not take time interpreting the news for his listeners. He presents news as it happens – leaving the basis and reasons up to the listener himself. The Action Central report is brief, concise, and unbiased. It is modern news, geared for modern listening.
In the 13 months since its inception, Action Central has established an outstanding reputation. This reputation comes from constantly staying in touch with the city, county, state, national, and world news sources. Of special interest to WIL listeners is local news. By instituting a “News Tip Wire,” Action Central has brought the scope of local news directly to the citizens of our community. “News Tip” has become well known. An on-the-spot account of a local news event can be phoned to Action Central by anyone. Merely by calling the “hot line,” Olive 2-0440, anyone can get in on the news coverage. At the end of the week, the Action Central News Staff looks over the various calls made and picks a winner for the best story of the week. This lucky honorary reporter becomes the recipient of a new Zenith transistor radio for his efforts. The tip service was, and still is, very successful.
Action Central is a hot spot. Served by the Associated Press, the United Press International, the Western Union Sports Wire, and the U.S. Weather Bureau Wire, WIL adds the mobile news cruiser and news tip information, to channel without delay ALL news to the fingertips of the reporter on duty. For him it’s a constant race against time. He has two deadlines an hour. By comparison, a newspaper only has one deadline a day. The Action Central reporter is constantly writing, re-writing, phoning, verifying. No news can be broadcast unless it is definitely verified. And this is most necessary where news tips are involved.
Bob Hardy opens the newsroom at the beginning of the day. At ten he’s joined by either Bud Clark or Paul Bair, with Gene Chase or Paul coming in at three in the afternoon. That gives the advantage of two men in Action Central at the peak times of the day, when news is being made. Reed Farrell takes over double duty at night from midnight to six, frequently checking the news sources while spinning records on his all night show. News doesn’t take a break…it happens at all hours of the day and night. And the WIL listener can be assured, when a story breaks…Action Central will break it immediately!
Radio station KSHE has made a big step into the lives of St. Louis area teens. KSHE-95 in the past few weeks has changed to “Rock Radio.” Now they have gone a step further and broadcast live every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night from 9 to 10 PM direct from the Castaways, 930 Airport Road in Ferguson, Missouri. The live broadcasts are emceed by Don O’Day, Big Jack Davis, and St. Louis’ own Johnny B. Goode.
Johnny B. Goode 1968
Top bands are featured each night. You’ll hear sounds from such popular groups as Jerry Jay and the Sheratons, the Acid Sette, Herman Grimes and the Spectors with the Mo Jo Men, Walter Scott and the Guise, the Good Feelin’, the Poets, the Belaerphon Expedition, the Aardvarks, and too many more to mention. Castaway management told Teen Sceen that some new big groups from out of town will be featured in the future.
And where is KSHE 95? Why, it’s on the FM dial. In fact, KSHE is the first radio station to play hard rock music. It has become known as all request radio, 24 hours a day. Many of the area high schools listen to KSHE during their lunch periods, among them Webster Groves, Parkway, and Vianney in Kirkwood. The new tempo at KSHE cannot be pinpointed. Jockeys move. Therefore the KSHE disc jockeys will be moving time segments regularly so listeners can catch the djs of KSHE during the time that they normally listen. Guest appearances are coming up too.
To sum it all up, look for big things to happen to St. Louis radio during the first part of 1968. Lots of surprises and prizes from the new top station, KSHE, the official voice of Teen Sceen are in store for you.
Rev. Chas. T. Corcoran, S.J., is the new director of Radio Station WEW, St. Louis University, succeeding Rev. Thurber M. Smith, who was recently appointed assistant dean of the Graduate School.
The new director is carrying out the enlarged program initiated by Father Smith at the beginning of the year, and he is trying to maintain the same high standard.
In pursuance of this policy, plans are now under way, under the direction of professor Walter von Kalinowski, to eliminate jazz and to cater exclusively to listeners who have a taste or desire for the best in music.
Another point of the present policy is to emphasize educational features. Since radio entertainment is sufficiently provided by other stations, it will be the aim of WEW to devote itself more and more, as circumstances permit, to popular education. With this in view Fr. Corcoran is endeavoring to enlist the cooperation of faculty members in inaugurating a University faculty hour which will be devoted exclusively to talks by various instructors. Several of the departments have already given to this project their hearty cooperation, and others, no doubt will join them.
(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 1/16/32).
rces. Of special interest to WIL listeners is local news. By instituting a “News Tip Wire,” Action Central has brought the scope of local news directly to the citizens of our community. “News Tip” has become well known. An on-the-spot account of a local news event can be phoned to Action Central by anyone. Merely by calling the “hot line,” Olive 2-0440, anyone can get in on the news coverage. At the end of the week, the Action Central News Staff looks over the various calls made and picks a winner for the best story of the week. This lucky honorary reporter becomes the recipient of a new Zenith transistor radio for his efforts. The tip service was, and still is, very successful.