Radio Articles

When the St. Louis Post-Dispatch began operating the city’s first commercial radio station – KSD – in 1922, it joined the nationwide bandwagon of companies and individuals putting radio stations on the air.

Other stations had also been licensed in St. Louis. WEW at St. Louis University had been broadcasting since April 1921, but it was non-commercial. WEB was under the auspices of Benson Broadcasting as an amateur station.

There are printed reports indicating that KSD conducted broadcasts before licensing. The first broadcast, according to at least two sources, occurred on March 9, 1922. At least one source indicates the station actually began broadcasting Feb. 14 of that year but was forced off the air until it got a license (#330). According to the Post report published March 11, 1922, the inaugural broadcast at 7:45 p.m. that day: “will consist of musical numbers by St. Louis talent, late news reports, elocution and brief addresses. Notable among features will be a message from Secretary of Commerce Hoover to radio stations in the Middle West, and an address by Miss Jeanette Rankin of Montana, first woman member of Congress.”

The first “official” broadcast of KSD in reported to have happened on June 26, 1922, featuring entertainment by the orchestra of the Statler Hotel, conducted by Seth Asbergh. Also in June of its inaugural year, KSD broadcast a speech by Warren Harding at the World Court held in St. Louis. The speech was also carried in New York by WEAF.

KSD was moved to its 550 kHz frequency in May of 1923, having begun broadcasting on 833 kHz with 20 watts of power. In 1927 it began a temporary sharing of its frequency with KFUO. KSD became a member of the AT&T Network in December of 1923 and was an original station on the NBC Red Network in 1926.

The station was one of six around the country to carry the first Presidential speech ever broadcast when Calvin Coolidge spoke to a joint session of Congress on Dec. 6. 1923. The audio signal was distributed over AT&T’s long distance phone lines.

(Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 5/97)

Guy Runnion made a name for himself as a broadcaster in St. Louis reading the news on KMOX, but he had higher aspirations. On January 1, 1947, he left the CBS powerhouse and signed his new radio station, KXLW, on the air. Later he probably wished he had stayed at KMOX.

There was plenty of publicity prior to sign-on, thanks to Runnion’s second-in-command, Edgar Mothershead, who is listed as the company’s vice president. Mothershead had been an editorial writer for the Watchman-Advocate, and his contacts in the city’s print media allowed him to get plenty of exposure. The Globe-Democrat, on the day of sign-on, wrote, “The station will present a varied program of music, news, sports, food talks, fashion hints, agricultural and outdoors information.”

The first day’s broadcast was similar to many other inaugural broadcasts here. After an invocation by Rev. Dr. Frank Hall of Central Presbyterian Church, Clayton’s mayor Kenneth Thies welcomed KXLW to the airwaves. Studios were located in the brand new Plaza Building at 8135 Forsythe (the “e” was later dropped from the street name).

The station was limited in its coverage, having been assigned 1,000 watts of power at a frequency of 1320 Kc. Programming began at 6 in the morning with a farm almanac show. At 10:00 KXLW had a show for women, and there was an hour of news and sports at noon. Runnion quickly found that disc jockeys were popular with his listeners, and, since he had no network to provide programs and the production of local dramatic and live music shows was expensive, he took the inexpensive, easy way out.

There were stories of a pending move to new studios, but that never happened. Runnion was served with notice that he could no longer broadcast from the tower he had erected without a permit at the corner of Warson and Old Bonhomme in Olivette. He had spent $6,000 to put it up. The case would be tied up in court for the next several years.

On December 6, 1948, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers set up pickets at the KXLW studios and at a new tower site in Brentwood in a wage dispute. Just over a month later, the station was silenced, and Runnion accused the engineers of sabotaging the transmitter. “Two wires on the lightning arrester were grounded out sometime Saturday night…causing some of our equipment to burn out,” he was quoted as saying. “The damage could have been done only by someone familiar with such installations generally and with KXLW facilities in particular.” The Post-Dispatch quoted IBEW spokesman Robert Stetson: “Any inference that our men caused this damage is ridiculous. Our men prize their Federal Communications Commission licenses too highly to risk them in any such undertaking as this.”

The new tower finally arrived at the Brentwood site, but steelworkers who were hired to erect it refused to cross the engineers’ picket line. Olivette officials continued to pressure Runnion, and things came to a head there when County Police arrested him and two of his remaining engineers just as he was about to make a broadcast from his Clayton studio. He was charged with violating an Olivette ordinance regarding the tower. There were more arrests. In another episode, five staffers were arrested as they tried to enter the tower facility for a broadcast. Runnion told a Globe-Democrat reporter, “The malicious series of arrests seems to indicate pretty clearly that the officials of Olivette are trying to silence the station permanently, rather than simply trying to enforce zoning ordinance covering the 16-acre hog farm where the transmitter was put.”

There was obviously pressure from his co-owners as well. A shareholder filed suit in February of 1949 asking that the station be placed in receivership, alleging Runnion had “grossly mismanaged” KXLW. Runnion, meanwhile, filed a legal complaint against two marshals, charging them with trespassing and willful and malicious oppression in connection with the recent staff arrests.

In April of 1949, Runnion threw in the towel and an agreement was announced that would allow him to save face. His controlling interest in KXLW, along with the shares held by his wife Gladys, was sold to Lee, Silas and T. Virgil Sloan. Runnion would stay on as general manager, they said, and all other employees would keep their jobs. The marshals were found not guilty of the charges he had filed. In August of 1949, Runnion resigned after having reached agreements to settle the strike and completing construction of the new tower on Bomparte Avenue in Brentwood.

(Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 07/02)

by Frank Eschen

Where were you on the night of June 26, 1922? If you were one of the patient band of pioneer radio listeners and had your ears clamped to your crystal set, tuned to 360 meters, you heard a pleasant, melodious voice saying: “This is the St. Louis Post-Dispatch opening its new broadcasting station, KSD.” The voice belonged to Mrs. Jones Campbell, who was then Miss V.A.L. Jones, the station’s first announcer, program director, script writer and general staff. It was a hot, stuffy night. The small studio had been thoroughly sound-proofed. The engineer who did the job completely forgot about anything as important as air and the performers and the staff were dripping with perspiration. When F.W.A. Vesper concluded his talk, he stepped back from the mike and became entangled in its long cord. At that moment, Mayor Henry Kiel, wandering through the steaming orchestra, wound himself up in the wire attached to Miss Jones’ head-set and the history-making broadcast almost came to an undignified and confused end, then and there. The orchestra for this KSD curtain raiser was a group of itinerant musicians recruited from Hotel Statler and under the direction of one Seth Abergh. Piano soloist was Paul Friess, organist at St. Michael’s and St. George’s Church and now head of the music department of Lindenwood College, St. Charles. Also featured were Arne Arneson, violinist, and Raymond Koch, baritone, accompanied by Esmerelda Berry Mayes. Among the principal speakers was Herbert A. Trask, an editorial executive of the Post-Dispatch, to whom Editor Joseph Pulitzer had given the assignment of running the station.

There was one, and only one, of everything when KSD first took to the air. One piece of transmitting equipment, one piano, one microphone (so precious that it was locked up when not in use), one engineer and one announcer, Miss Jones, who had been hired by O.K. Bovard, former managing editor, to be KSD’s impresario. She soon discovered that title covered everything around a radio shop but sweeping out the studio. In these days when every personality is thoroughly identified, it seems strange that early-day announcers were forbidden to mention their names in connection with any program. Miss Jones was possessed of a melodious voice, somewhat deeper in pitch than that of the average woman. Numerous fan letters came with every mail, and some time after this mysterious anonymity had been going on, an enthusiastic listener wrote to the editor of the Post-Dispatch: “Please tell me the name of your announcer. If it’s a lady, she has a nice voice. If it’s a man, he’s a damn sissy.” This eventually led to a change of policy and thereafter KSD’s one and only announcer identified herself at sign-off with…“Miss Jones announcing. This is the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Station, KSD, signing off.”

Some of her loyal fans carried their admiration to the point of sending various gifts, ranging from a box of cigars to a handsome piece of jewelry, which she promptly returned. Also, during the course of her five years on KSD, Miss Jones received many offers of matrimony through the mails. All of these she likewise rejected, especially the ones received after she had become Mrs. Campbell.

When KSD was ready to go on the air, somebody in the Post-Dispatch office recalled that a license was needed. Charles G. Ross, then head of the Washington bureau, now press secretary to President Truman, called on Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover and explained what he wanted. “What wave length?” asked Hoover. Ross didn’t know. He dispatched a wire to his office. Nobody there knew. The proprietor of an electrical store down the street was hastily consulted, his advice taken and Ross simply filled out a small blank and KSD was in business. Today with almost 1000 broadcasters crowding the airwaves, the matter of a license and wave lengths is one for hordes of lawyers and commissioners.

Among early distinguished guests on KSD was Gen. John J. Pershing, touring the country stumping for a larger standing army, following World War I. The man who had led American armies to victory in France quailed at the sight of a mike (as captains and kings do even today) and after a long and painful pause, turned desperately to the announcer and pleaded, “What shall I say, Miss Jones?” To which she replied, “Just say what you have to say, General,” and the petrified Pershing then spoke his piece. Other world figures to appear with Miss Jones for the KSD radio audience included Lloyd George and King Albert of Belgium.

Together with Don Kohn and David Brittenham and several others I helped put KYMC on the air—I believe it was January or February of 1977 or 1978, and the original call letters were K-L-M-A, not KYMC. I think it is possible a few folks from KADI were involved as volunteers in the early days, though I am not quite sure. I was on the air the first night or second.

The KLMA call letters were utilized the first few months until it was realized that they were already assigned elsewhere (small TV station or police radio station something like that) so call letters K Y M C were adopted as the YMCA radio station. The original location was east of Parkway West High School at the old YMCA site on Clayton Road near Henry Road and Clayton Road. There are luxury condos on the site now. The 10-watt transmitter was located at Wildwood Plaza inside Don Kohn’s Wildwood TV Repair Shop. This was CB radio days, so 10 watts without much interruption on FM carried the signal a long way. The antenna was horizontal polarized one bay FM hoop mounted about 40 to 50 feet or so atop Don’s two-way radio service mast, behind the mall/shop. The high ground near Wildwood Plaza—some of the tallest hilltops in St. Louis County—carried the small KYMC signal into most of West County and as far east as Creve Coeur and Ladue, as far north as St. Peters.

Don Kohn was a former engineer at KCFM (Harry Eidelman’s original FM music station), WEW, and several other stations. Some of his assistants at the Wildwood shop became chief engineers at KMJM Magic 108 and created the audio magic (FM sound processing). KYMC had early assistance from Screaming Jay Hawkins of KSLQ (98.1). The last I heard Don was operating a radio station he bought in Excelsior Springs, Missouri.

The real appeal of station at KYMC was to draw dues paying (it was really cheap then) volunteers interested in learning the technical aspects of radio. It was a lot cheaper than Broadcast Center.

KYMC was cobbled together with used hand-me-down equipment from 55 KSD, KSLQ, KCFM, and other places. Originally each broadcast show had a full volunteer on-air and engineering staff like a traditional (union type) big city station, including board operators, program producers, announcers, and news readers. Some fairly good radio people got their start at KYMC, including some national play-by-play people and others (Dan Kelly’s son, etc.).

Eventually some shows were run as combo operations with the deejay running the board (like my show) with one or two on air deejay hosts. KYMC also provided live play-by-play for Parkway and Rockwood high school football games in its early period, 1977 through 1979-80 or 81. Most of the early programming was Top 40 popular music (disco, pop rock, some AOR). At an early YMCA Banquet Downtown at the Top of the Riverfront Hotel, we had the late, great Jack Carney on the air on KYMC as a guest host for nearly an hour. Specialty programs included late night country/rock shows, weekend evening jazz shows and specialty remote broadcasts from various local high schools featuring disco and popular music. KYMC began using the slogan KY-90 (or Y-90,) four years before KSLQ renamed itself KY-98 and later Y-98. Thus, KYMC was the first “Y” FM in St. Louis market. KYMC also featured some early talk shows, and on air guests. Maryville College was also involved with the station in its early years as well.

By the late 1980’s, early 1990’s, I believe partially because of the college’s involvement, the format became less middle-of-the-road and more structured, with introduction of some of St. Louis’ first alternative music programming. In my humble opinion, while the station became popular with the alternative music crowd during most of its last 15 years of existence, it lost touch with its community (meaning varied or mass appeal radio) and I think that is the main reason for its demise, despite its better, stronger signal and better facilities than the old days. In other words, being true to its alternative format gained a following for KYMC with those music fans area-wide, but at the expense of losing listenership interest from most of the listening market in West County.

I feel the station became a place where wealthy West County kids played annoying, loud music, their parents did not want to them to hear. I believe there was a controversy along the way with a fellow who went by the name “Midnight Virus” whose music bordered on the obscene. That’s a long way from the original KYMC where announcers were pulled off the air for telling people to “party hearty”.

by Jeff Johnson

Station KSD, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch [station], can truthfully be said to have put St. Louis on the radio map.

It was the first broadcasting station in the United States to be authorized to transmit on a wave length of 400 meters. Since then 24 other stations of this class have been licensed and in addition there are nearly 600 stations of smaller capacity. By right of priority Station KSD is entitled to rank as a pioneer in the broadcasting field, and today there is no more powerful privately owned station in the United States, for KSD in transmitting its daily market reports and its nightly concerts is using the maximum of power which the government permits to be used in broadcasting.

It is a station of the first class of which St. Louis is proud, for it is doubtful if any other agency has been, or ever could be so effective in spreading the fame and good name of St. Louis in far away places. This is national and international advertising the cost of which through any other medium would stagger the imagination.
Through Station KSD the name of St. Louis has been carried into every city and town and practically every village and hamlet in the 48 states of the Union. It was the first broadcasting station to be heard in the period of a single night in all the 48 states and by ships on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It has carried the name of St. Louis into all the provinces of Canada and into Alaska, Cuba, Mexico, Porto (sic) Rico, Guadaloupe, Bermuda, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru.

At the time of this writing the KSD long distance record of transmission is 4008 miles. This record was made when a midnight concert sent out from the station was heard on Akun Island of the Aleutian Island group off the Alaskan coast the night of Jan. 1 of this year. The island of Akun is one of the world’s lonely spots, given over mainly to sulphur mining. It is 2068 miles northwest of San Francisco, 1700 miles from Seattle and on almost the same longitude line as the eastern coast of Asia.

Even more startling, because of the greater difficulty in reaching the warm countries to the south by radio, was the establishing of KSD’s farthest south record the night of Jan. 25 when a program broadcast from this station was heard on a ship in the Pacific Ocean 2000 miles off the coast of Peru, 840 miles south of the equator and 3744 miles south of St. Louis.

The station’s daylight transmission record to the time of this writing was made when its broadcasting of market reports was heard in West Brookfield, Mass., approximately 1000 miles from the sending instrument. This is considered remarkable in view of the known fact that radio transmission never carries as far in the daytime as at night.

It is in this daylight transmission that KSD performs a service of the greatest practical value which would amply justify its existence even if it did not supplement this service by providing nightly entertainment and instruction for many thousands of listeners in on its concerts.

Those who think of a broadcasting station merely as a disseminator of music and addresses to beguile the hours between dinner and bedtime have only a very inadequate concept of its scope and usefulness. The Post-Dispatch radio station might almost be called a “radio newspaper.” It is “on the air” by day as well as by night. Market information of every kind of interest to the great Mississippi Valley is broadcast hourly. In hundreds of towns this information is received in banks, mills, stores and public schools and posted on bulletin boards for the information of the local public. In many cases the market quotations received by radio are relayed on local telephone lines. At each hour of transmission general news items are also broadcast.

The extent, quality and value of the daylight market service was strikingly shown in the first of January this year when the United States Department of Agriculture made a survey and invited letters from those interested in market reports as to the value of the market broadcasting service given by the radio stations. An official tabulation of the returns from a large section of the east and middle west showed that in 60 percent of the letters in which the writers referred to specific stations, the station which they named was KSD. There was a great preponderance of opinion that the broadcasting service was of the highest value to farmers and merchants in all parts of the country.

An idea of the extensiveness of this service can be had by consulting the following schedule of KSD daily broadcasting: 9:40 a.m. Opening St. Louis grain quotations. Liverpool first cables on wheat. Estimated receipts of livestock and opening hog markets of National Stockyards, Ill., and Chicago. 10:40 a.m. St. Louis future grain quotations. Liverpool second cables on wheat. Receipts and shipments of grain by cars in St. Louis. Midsession livestock market report from National Stockyards, Ill. New York opening cotton market. New York opening stock and bond markets. Liverpool opening cotton quotations. Weather forecasts for St. Louis and vicinity, Illinois, Iowa and shippers’ forecast. River forecasts and stages. 11:40 a.m. St. Louis future grain quotations. Liverpool closing cables on wheat. St. Louis hay market quotations. 12:40 p.m. St. Louis future grain quotations. Poultry, egg and butter market quotations. Weather forecasts for St. Louis, Illinois, Iowa. River forecasts and stages. 1:40 p.m. St. Louis closing future grain prices. Closing prices on cash grain, horses and mules. 2:40 p.m. Closing livestock report from National Stockyards, Ill. 4:00 p.m. New York closing quotations on cotton. New York closing stock exchange. Information Bulletins from the U.S. Department of Commerce and Agriculture. New York metal quotations.

The usefulness of KSD in the public service does not end with the going down of the sun. Its nightly programs have been a delight to a whole continent. For entertainment quality alone they are entitled to the first rank. This station, unlike some others, has not confined itself to jazz programs and the lighter forms of music. While not overlooking the diversional (sic) value of such music, which at times it presents in its best accepted form, Station KSD has aimed for the predominance of high class music interpreted by the best performers available. In this way it is doing its full share in the effort to disseminate a taste for good music. Its broadcasting of the Saturday night concerts of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is a weekly event that is looked forward to in thousands of homes scattered throughout the United States. Last season it broadcasted the Municipal Opera in Forest Park and it is planning to repeat this in the coming summer season. A notable event was its broadcasting of the entire operas Aida and Cavalleria Rusticana from the Odeon when the San Carlo Opera Company sang there in January.

The broadcasting of the midnight Mass from the Old Cathedral last Christmas Day, lasting two hours, was the station’s greatest achievement in musical transmission. All over the country it was hailed as the most perfect and most inspiring offering of its kind ever sent out over the radio.

High class concerts by bands and orchestras, oratorios and numbers by noted choral clubs and choirs are a frequent source of delight to this station’s great and far-flung audience.

The spirit of service to the public is always apparent in the evening programs. An instance in point was the tremendously valuable aid given by Station KSD in the recent bond issue campaign in St. Louis. Each week the program included addresses by some prominent citizen or official in favor of one or more of the 21 propositions to be voted on. The ground was thoroughly covered, and there can be no doubt that the vigorous campaign made by KSD over the radio played no small part in the success of the bond issue propositions, as a result of which St. Louis will expend $87,000,000 on public improvements.

The programs also have included a series of popular lectures by members of the St. Louis Medical Society and addresses by St. Louisans on the attractions of the city, as a convention city on the superiority and attractiveness of its playgrounds, parks, art museum and zoo. There also have been popular science talks by noted authorities and addresses by distinguished visitors to the city.

The mail is a great index to the usefulness of any business or nay service. Though the station asks for letters only from those at a long distance, every mail brings letters of appreciation for the great work done by the station in service and entertainment. Just to give an idea of the range of this correspondence it may be said that the station’s mail each week will show letters from every state in the Union, that the daily programs of the station are now printed – at least in condensed form – in newspapers in 82 cities, and that letters of appreciation have been received from almost every city and town of 5000 or more in the United States and Canada and thousands of towns have been heard from. For instance, every city, town and hamlet which appears on the map of New Jersey is represented in the mail KSD has received; 180 different cities and towns in Pennsylvania, 78 in Massachusetts and more than 100 cities in California have listeners-in who have written to KSD to say in effect: “Great work; Keep it up!”
Originally published in Greater St. Louis magazine March 1923)

The date was April 10, 2005. Smooth jazz listeners who turned on their radio station in St. Louis that day found something completely different from what they expected. There was no more smooth jazz on WSSM.

Overnight the music had been replaced. The music they heard was a mixture unlike anything else in the market. WSSM was history, replaced by a format that had been tried and proven in Phoenix. It would take St. Louis by storm, vaulting the station’s ratings to No. 2 (18-34), No. 1 (25-54) and No. 1 (35-64) in the most recent Arbitron survey period.
To hear John Kijowski tell the story, the idea for the station was hatched and developed shortly after Radio One bought St. Louis’ WRDA from Emmis and changed the format to Urban.
Kijowski, who is Vice president/market manager – Bonneville St. Louis, says the market is about 18 percent African American.
“To really do great with smooth jazz, you need to capture a majority of the African American audience and you have to make huge inroads into the KEZK audience. We only got a small portion of KEZK’s audience, and on the African American side we ended up competing with Majic. When Radio One got Tom Joyner and St. Louis picked up a second adult African American signal, there was no way I could be the third choice for African Americans.
“We began creating a game plan for “The Arch,” and I wrote up a summary of what we wanted to do. I called our Phoenix station and told them [at the Phoenix office] that I’d followed their success, and they told me they weren’t going to do the “Jack” format. They told me what they’d done and I thought we could do it in St. Louis. Phoenix is more of an A/C market, and St. Louis is more of a rock market. I knew I’d have to adjust the playlist.”

“Once I got the go-ahead for a format change, a team was assembled: Joel Grey (P.D. from The Peak in Phoenix), Greg Solk (head of programming for Bonneville), Matt Bisbee (Director of Creative Services for Bonneville Chicago), Drew Horowitz (Senior Regional Vice President Bonneville, Inc., from St. Louis), WVRV Imaging Director Jude Corbett, former WVRV P.D. Marty Linck, our Marketing Director Abigail Pollay and myself.
Greg Solk would later tell Radio Monitor magazine the actual format change took about 45 hours, “It was quite a launch,” he said.

Grey agrees: “Greg Solk and I showed up in the middle of the night, took the Peak basic format from Phoenix and put it on the air in St. Louis and then modified it to make it a St. Louis radio station.”
Kijowski says, “When other broadcasters ask us how we did it, I tell them it was totally a group that did that over a weekend, turning it around in 48 hours. The first month we did not have an on-air personality. Then we brought in locally known players.”

Jules Riley arrived from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in June and took the job of program director at The Arch. She says initially, the target audience was 25-54 women, but the current Arbitron shows listenership is evenly divided between men and women. “Our station came out of the gate strong, and we already had guidelines in place on spots and clutter – things that people had said they didn’t like about other radio stations. Recently a caller told her, ‘We listen to the station because my wife and I can agree on it.’”
Riley and music director Al Hofer pick the daily playlist from 1,100 titles (at least double the size of most station lists) and constantly tweak it.

The success of The Arch in St. Louis isn’t surprising to a longtime radio observer. Bob Kochan, owner of Kochan and Company advertising, is quick to praise the large playlist. “A music mix that is not so narrow allows for variety without the frequent repetition of songs to work to their benefit. The decades of music they cover gives them the ability to capture the listening of more audience in more demos. It also reinforces the theory that the market will embrace a station that is promoted as different and fresh.”

That promotion has an attitude. Using the highly recognizable voice of John O’Hurley for imaging, the station assigned the actor an identity: Simon Archer. He records scripted material provided by station personnel to help give The Arch local flavor. Riley says humor is an integral part of the atmosphere at WARH. “You can’t take yourselves too seriously. I mean, it’s radio. We’re not saving lives here.”

The image is also enhanced by the pledge to never play the same song twice in the same day. This philosophy came from studies that showed heavy music repetition to be a tune-out factor among listeners.
There’s no doubt the station is a huge success, not just locally either. It’s getting national trade press attention for its huge Arbitron ratings.

John Kijowski tells SJR he’s running The Arch with an eye toward the future. “Technology has allowed people to get the music that they want to hear when they want to hear it, completely customized for them, whether it’s their I-Pod, satellite – whatever they want to hear they can get now. Tightly fitted formats have less and less appeal. We keep our ratings up by keeping the music fresh, and we live up to what we say we’re going to do. We have to do it differently to keep them listening to local radio. Local jocks are vitally important. We intentionally try to make the music flow crazy.”

And the result of that crazy music flow? “This means we’re going to have [formatic] trainwrecks all over the place,” Kijowski laughs, “because that’s what the adults want to hear.”

But Kijowski says music mix isn’t everything. “Personality is really important in how we built this radio station, because if it were nothing more than a juke box I don’t believe we would be as successful as we’ve been. The jocks have a lot to do with the success.”

(Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 09/2006)