KLOU

For the airport serving Louisville, Kentucky assigned the ICAO code KLOU, see Bowman Field (airport).
KLOU
City St. Louis, Missouri
Broadcast area Greater St. Louis
Branding 103.3 KLOU
Slogan The Greatest Hits of the 70s and 80s
St. Louis' Christmas Station (Nov.-Dec.)
Frequency 103.3 MHz (also on HD Radio)
103.3 HD-2 for Contemporary Christian "Up! 103.7"
Translator(s) 103.7 W279AQ (Mascoutah, IL, relays HD2)
First air date February 12, 1962 (as KMOX-FM)
Format Classic Hits
Christmas music (Nov.-Dec.)
ERP 90,000 watts
HAAT 313 meters
Class C1
Facility ID 9626
Callsign meaning K St. LOUis
Former callsigns KMOX-FM (1962-1982)
KHTR (1982-1988)
Owner iHeartMedia
(Citicasters Licenses, Inc.)
Sister stations KATZ, KLLT, KMJM-FM, KSD, KSLZ
Webcast Listen Live
Listen Live (HD2)
Website klou.iheart.com
up1037.iheart.com (HD2)

KLOU (103.3 FM) is a radio station with a classic hits format in St. Louis, Missouri, specializing in hits from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Its transmitter is located in Gravois, and operates from studios in St. Louis south of Forest Park. It is owned by iHeartMedia (previously Clear Channel Communications until September 16, 2014).

KLOU is licensed by the FCC to broadcast in the HD Radio digital format.[1]

History

The station began broadcasting on February 12, 1962 as KMOX-FM, by playing an easy listening/standards format. The focus then shifted to an adult contemporary style of music by the 1970s. In the summer of 1981, KMOX-FM began gradually evolving its format toward Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) and adding more and more current hits to its rotation; by August 1982, the transition was complete, and the station's call letters were changed to KHTR, and went under the monikers "Hitradio 103" and "Hitter 103". KHTR, like sister stations WHTT in Boston and KKHR in Los Angeles, was modeled after programmer Mike Joseph's successful Hot Hits format, although unlike early Hot Hits stations, KHTR also played recurrent hits and oldies. KHTR was an almost immediate success, quickly becoming the #2 station in the demographic group 12 years old and over in the market, behind only sister KMOX. (1) The "Hot Hits" format led to the station sometimes being referred derisively as "Keep Hearing Those Repeats", a play on the stations call letters, KHTR.

The oldies arrived on November 5, 1988, when KHTR changed to its current call letters of KLOU, with the station playing hits from the 1950s, 1960s and early-mid-1970s.[2] Gradually, the 1950s hits would disappear from the station's playlist, and more hits from the late 1970s and 1980s soon followed. KLOU was the official radio station for the NFL's St. Louis Rams from 2000 until it was replaced by all-sports newcomer WXOS in 2009. (This was shown in the station's logo from 2000-2007.)

The station was first owned by CBS Radio until the mid-1990s, when a merger with American Radio Systems brought CBS over the ownership limit in several markets, including St. Louis. KLOU was purchased by Clear Channel Communications (now, as previously stated, iHeartMedia) in 1999, and has been owned by the San Antonio-based company since then.

KLOU now airs American Top 40 1970s' and 1980s' rebroadcasts on the weekends; as KHTR, the station aired AT40 for most of the 1980s.

On June 18, 2007, KLOU dropped its "103.3 KLOU" branding and oldies format for a more classic hits approach as "My 103.3", launching with Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "Takin' Care of Business".[3] They would later drop the "My" branding and return to using their call letters.

On April 29, 2010, the station rebranded as "Rewind 103.3."[4] On May 31, 2011, KLOU shifted their format to back to 1960s'-early 1980s' classic hits, and rebranded as "Oldies 103.3".[5]

All Rams Radio on HD2

Unlike most of Clear Channel's FM radio stations, KLOU's HD2 feed originally did not carry a direct feed from the Format Lab. Instead, the station, until 2009, aired a format called All Rams Radio, a year-round tape loop of complete St. Louis Rams games from recent weeks. During the offseason, games from as far back as the 1990s often aired on the subchannel. Even though iHeartMedia owns several flagship stations of NFL teams, St. Louis was the only market in which Clear Channel used this concept.

As with all Clear Channel HD subchannels, All Rams Radio was available for free streaming on the Internet. While the NFL has been fairly strict regarding its prohibition of broadcasting live games, they made no comment about this arrangement. KLOU lost the rights to the Rams to Bonneville Broadcasting-owned WXOS in 2009, which brought an end to "All Rams Radio." Bonneville has since sold WXOS to Twin Cities-based Hubbard Broadcasting. "All Rams Radio" was replaced with 1950s/1960s hits.

KLOU-HD2 and W279AQ

On June 14, 2014, KLOU-HD2 flipped to Active Rock as "Louie 103.7" and simulcast the format on its new translator W279AQ (103.7 FM).[6][7] The move was to attract younger male listeners away from KSHE and KPNT, but the attempt proved to be a failure. On November 19, 2015, W279AQ/KLOU-HD2 flipped to Christmas music.[8] The FM translator returned with a new format on December 28, 2015 as "Up 103.7" with a contemporary Christian format.[9]

Previous logos

History of call letters

The call letters KLOU were previously assigned to an AM station in Lake Charles, Louisiana.[10]

References

  1. ↑ http://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=19 HD Radio Guide for St. Louis
  2. ↑ http://formatchange.com/103-3-khtr-becomes-klou/
  3. ↑ http://formatchange.com/1033-klou-becomes-my-1033/
  4. ↑ https://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/netgnomes/7093/103-3-klou-st-louis-going-in-rewind/
  5. ↑ https://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/netgnomes/32891/oldies-to-return-to-st-louis/
  6. ↑ https://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/netgnomes/89042/clear-channel-setting-st-louis-translator-launch/
  7. ↑ http://formatchange.com/louie-103-7-debuts/
  8. ↑ "iHeart Makes A Christmas Adjustment In St. Louis" from Radio Insight (November 19, 2015)
  9. ↑ https://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/95668/iheart-goes-up-in-st-louis-too/
  10. ↑ "Four New Affiliates Make CBS Total 171" (PDF). Broadcasting. November 17, 1947. Retrieved 22 October 2014.

External links

Coordinates: 38°34′23″N 90°19′30″W / 38.573°N 90.325°W / 38.573; -90.325

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