KXOK’s Field Car is now equipped with the new radio telephone, enabling KXOK to give listeners faster and greater coverage of spot news and special features. With the radio telephone, the Field Car can keep in constant communications with the studio from any point in the St. Louis area.
KXOK is the first station in the St. Louis area to add both the field car and the radio telephone to its already considerable facilities. The Field Car, a new station wagon, is also being equipped with portable and wire recorders and additional power sources to enable field coverage of programs of interest to listeners. At some future date it is probable that a mobile transmitter will be added.
KXOK established a precedent in the field of radio broadcasting three months ago during the coverage of a spectacular million-dollar warehouse fire. Bruce Barrington, KXOK news editor repeated over the air a report by radio telephone of an on-the-spot description of the fire. This aroused so much favorable comment that KXOK lost no time in securing the service of a radio telephone available 24 hours daily to the station.
The purchase of the highest radio tower in St. Louis, and an FM transmitter radiating more power than any now in use in the area, has been announced by C.L. (Chet) Thomas, General Manager of KXOK and KXOK-FM, St. Louis Star-Times radio stations. Thomas said the tower, which is located atop the Boatmen’s Bank Building in downtown St. Louis, will also be used for television transmission when the Federal Communications Commission approves the pending application.
The tower, transmitter and equipment were purchased from station KWK St. Louis and includes a long-term lease on the entire 21st floor of the bank building, which has long been a familiar landmark on the Mississippi riverfront skyline. The tower atop the 23 story building is 574 feet above street level.
The eight-way antenna, fed by a 10 kilowatt Western Electric transmitter, will radiate 70-thousand watts. It will assure a clear, strong signal in a 17,500 square mile area.
Present transmitter operations of KXOK-FM are located in the Continental Building in mid-town St. Louis. The antenna there is 387 feet above street level and it was here that the St. Louis Star-Times pioneered in experimental ultra-high frequency broadcasts through W9XOK more than a decade ago.
The purchase of the new transmitter is subject to FCC approval and KXOK will take occupancy of the new headquarters as soon as approval is received.
Studios of both KXOK and KXOK-FM will remain in the Star-Times building in downtown St. Louis.
KXOK-FM is associated with Transit Radio, and according to Thomas, who is president of Transit Radio, Inc., the station, in addition to being received in thousands of homes throughout the area, sends its programs of music, news, sports, weather reports, time signals and announcements to 1,000 radio-equipped vehicles of the St. Louis Public Service Company.
The negotiations for the sale of the transmitter, tower, equipment and lease were handled by Thomas and Ray Dady, vice-president of KWK. No sale price was announced. Dady said the newly acquired facilities will give the Star-Times station the most powerful FM signal in the area. “It is a splendid plant,” Dady continued, “and the tower on the Boatmen’s Bank Building is the tallest structure in St. Louis. The Star-Times is fortunate in having acquired this excellent property,” he said.
(Originally published in the St. Louis Advertising Club Weekly 12/26/1949).
Radio Station KXOK has purchased a 2 1/2 acre tract in midtown St. Louis as the new site of its studios and offices. To be known as “Radio Park,” the location fronts on the east side of Kingshighway Memorial Boulevard facing Sherman Park, and extends from Warwick Avenue on the north to Aldine Place on the south.
A two-story brick, concrete and steel office building on the property which contains over ten thousand square feet of floor space is being completely remodeled to provide new and larger quarters for the KXOK studios and offices.
The plans provide for engineering, program and continuity departments, studios, control rooms, news room, music library and business office on the first floor, and sales, traffic and executive offices on the second floor.
(Originally published in the Ad Club Weekly 8/8/1955).
The station sporting the KXOK-FM call letters first went on the air in 1948, simulcasting much of the programming of sister station of Star-Times-owned KXOK. Its frequency was 93.7. Star-Times owners, the Roberts family, retained ownership of the stations after the newspaper shut down in 1951, but the FM station went dark March 31, 1953.
The former KHTK at 97.1, KXOK-FM, “Mix 97” urban format came to life under the ownership of Saul Frischling in November of 1992. In April of 1998 the format was abruptly changed to classic rock, but Frischling was bought out by Sinclair Broadcasting in September of 1998 which led to a subsequent ownership swap involving Emmis Broadcasting in October of that year.
When Chet Thomas came to St. Louis with his young wife, he wasn’t sure he’d made the right decision. Then their house was burglarized. They left within a year. It would be several years before he could be persuaded to return.
Chet Thomas
When he did, Thomas was given the task of turning KXOK into a profitable enterprise. The year was 1942, many men were going off to war, and business owners had to stretch their remaining employees. Chet Thomas was to be program director of KXOK Tuesday through Friday and then travel to Columbia, Mo., to spend Saturday through Monday overseeing the parent company’s station there, KFRU.
The pressure and stress proved too much. The medical diagnosis was rheumatic fever. A too short bed rest was agreed to and it was back to work. Chet Thomas had always known Elzey Roberts had high expectations. Roberts, the publisher of the St. Louis Star-Times, was his boss because the newspaper owned both of the radio stations.
Thomas was able to develop income and to hit budget, even during the war years. He was eventually made general manager of KXOK in 1942 and finally was relieved of his management responsibilities in Columbia in 1945.
In the late ‘40s, rumors began to swirl through the Star-Times Building. As Thomas wrote in his autobiography “Chet: Radio Pioneer,” “In early June of 1951, most of us knew that something momentous was about to happen…Late in the afternoon of June 14, 1951, Mr. Roberts’ secretary called and said Mr. Roberts wanted to see me…He had sold the Star-Times to the Post-Dispatch.”
But the radio stations were not part of the deal, and Thomas learned he was being made a vice president of the corporation, renamed the 800 North Twelfth Corporation, and appointed to serve on the board of directors.
And the changes continued. Elzey Roberts told of his plans to sell the station. The new owners were to be Roberts’ son, Elzey Jr., and Thomas. But there was a problem. Chet Thomas didn’t have enough money to buy his share. The senior Roberts reminded Thomas of some stock purchases he’d made as an employee over the years. Elzey Sr,. would buy the stock back so he could use the money for the purchase of the stations.
Thomas knew he still wouldn’t have enough money, so his boss made out a check for what was called “a substantial bonus,” and the deal was sealed. Next came an expansion of sorts and a move of the studios. Co-owner Elzey Jr., found a fixer-upper property in a residential neighborhood on North Kingshighway. An architect and contractor were hired, and Radio Park was born. When the work was finished, the station announced a Sunday open house for listeners. Twelve thousand people showed up.
Things went well for Roberts and Thomas. KXOK was financially successful, using many external promotions to create visibility in the community. But most of the advertising dollars were still going into newspapers, and television continued to expand in the St. Louis market. Elzey Roberts Jr., was getting antsy, and it was obvious his heart was not in the radio business. When he was approached by a potential buyer, he was anxious to talk.
The talks reportedly went well. By the time the sale of KXOK to Storz Radio was completed on December 14, 1960, the two men split the purchase price that ran into seven figures – not a bad payoff for a guy who, less than 10 years earlier, had not had enough money to purchase his share in KXOK.
(Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 03/09).
KXOK’s Field Car is now equipped with the new radio telephone, enabling KXOK to give listeners faster and greater coverage of spot news and special features. With the radio telephone, the Field Car can keep in constant communications with the studio from any point in the St. Louis area.
