Jump to content
 







Main menu
   


Navigation  



Main page
Contents
Current events
Random article
About Wikipedia
Contact us
Donate
 




Contribute  



Help
Learn to edit
Community portal
Recent changes
Upload file
 








Search  

































Create account

Log in
 









Create account
 Log in
 




Pages for logged out editors learn more  



Contributions
Talk
 



















Contents

   



(Top)
 


1 History  



1.1  WCM in Austin  





1.2  Move to Houston  





1.3  Ownership change  







2 Programming  





3 References  





4 External links  














KTRH







Add links
 









Article
Talk
 

















Read
Edit
View history
 








Tools
   


Actions  



Read
Edit
View history
 




General  



What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Cite this page
Get shortened URL
Download QR code
Wikidata item
 




Print/export  



Download as PDF
Printable version
 
















Appearance
   

 





Coordinates: 29°5757N 94°5632W / 29.96583°N 94.94222°W / 29.96583; -94.94222
 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 

(Redirected from KTRH (AM))

KTRH
Broadcast areaGreater Houston
Frequency740 kHz
BrandingNewsradio 740 KTRH
Programming
Language(s)English
FormatNews/talk
NetworkABC News Radio
Affiliations
  • Fox News Talk
  • The Weather Channel
  • Westwood One
  • KPRC-TV
  • Ownership
    Owner
  • (iHM Licenses, LLC)
  • Sister stations

    KBME, KXYZ, KODA, KPRC, KQBT, KTBZ-FM
    History

    First air date

    April 22, 1922;
    102 years ago
     (1922-04-22) (inAustin, moved to Houston in 1929)

    Former call signs

    • WCM (1922 (1922)–1925 (1925))
  • KUT (1925 (1925)–1929 (1929))
  • Former frequencies

    • 833 kHz (1922 (1922)–1924 (1924))
  • 1120 kHz (1924 (1924)–1925 (1925))
  • 1300 kHz (1925 (1925)–1927 (1927))
  • 1100 kHz (1927)
  • 1290 kHz (1927 (1927)–1928 (1928))
  • 1120 kHz (1928 (1928)–1934 (1934))
  • 1330 kHz (1934 (1934)–1935 (1935))
  • 1290 kHz (1935 (1935)–1941 (1941))
  • 1320 kHz (1941 (1941)–1942 (1942))
  • Call sign meaning

    The Rice Hotel
    Technical information[1]

    Licensing authority

    FCC
    Facility ID35674
    ClassB
    Power50,000 watts

    Transmitter coordinates

    29°57′57N 94°56′32W / 29.96583°N 94.94222°W / 29.96583; -94.94222
    Repeater(s)99.1 KODA-HD2 (Houston)
    Links

    Public license information

  • LMS
  • WebcastListen live (via iHeartRadio)
    Websitektrh.iheart.com

    KTRH (740 AM) is a commercial radio station licensedtoHouston, Texas. It airs a news/talk radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. Its studios are along the West Loop Freeway (I-610) in the city's Uptown district. The transmitter site, a four-tower array, is in unincorporated Liberty County, off Cox Road in Dayton.[2] KTRH is one of the oldest radio stations in the United States, first licensed to Austin on April 22, 1922. Programming is also heard on co-owned KODA's HD 2 subchannelat99.1 MHz, and on the iHeartRadio platform. KTRH is Southeast Texas' primary entry point station for the Emergency Alert System.

    KTRH broadcasts with 50,000 watts around the clock, the highest power permitted by the Federal Communications Commission for commercial AM stations. But because it transmits on AM 740, a Canadian clear channel frequency, the station uses a directional antenna to protect Class A station CFZMinToronto. During the day, the station provides at least secondary coverage to most southeast Texas, as far west as Austin and San Antonio and as far north as College Station and Lufkin, as well as much of southwestern Louisiana. At night, to protect CFZM, the station switches to a directional pattern with a significant null to the east, concentrating the signal in Houston, the Golden Triangle and Victoria.

    History[edit]

    WCM in Austin[edit]

    The station was first licensed, with the randomly assigned call sign of WCM, on April 22, 1922. It was started by the University of Texas at Austin. (Initially call letters beginning with "W" were generally assigned to stations east of an irregular line formed by the western state borders from North Dakota south to Texas, with call letters beginning with "K" going only to stations in states west of that line. In January 1923 the Mississippi River was established as the new boundary, thus after this date Texas stations generally received call letters starting with "K" instead of "W".)[3]

    WCM was authorized to broadcast on both the "entertainment" wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz) and the "market and weather" wavelength of 485 meters (619 kHz).[4][5] In November 1924 the station was relicensed to broadcast on 1120 kHz.[6] On October 30, 1925, the station was relicensed with the new call letters of KUT, now operating on 1300 kHz.[7] In early 1927 the station was assigned to 1100 kHz,[8] and a few months later was assigned to 1290 kHz.[9] On November 11, 1928, under the provisions of the Federal Radio Commission's General Order 40, the station moved back to 1120 kHz.[10]

    The university ultimately decided that it could not afford the expense of operating a radio station,[11] and in early 1929 sold KUT to a group that planned to convert it from an educational to a commercial station.[12]

    Move to Houston[edit]

    Jesse H. Jones, operator of the Rice Hotel (now the Post Rice Lofts) in Houston, Texas and owner of the Houston Chronicle, took over the station to meet its competition, the Houston Post, which was the first of the local papers with a radio affiliation (KPRC).[13] In December 1929, the station's call letters were changed to KTRH (standing for The Rice Hotel), and its main studio was moved to Houston. (Simultaneously, station KGDR in San Antonio, Texas was renamed KUT and moved to Austin (now KJFK).[14] In March 1930, the station began broadcasting from the Rice Hotel. KTRH aired shows from the Columbia Broadcasting System as part of its initial programming.[13]

    In mid-1934 KTRH shifted to 1330 kHz,[15] which was followed late the next year by a move to 1290 kHz with 5,000 watts in the daytime and 1,000 watts at night.[16] On March 29, 1941, with the implementation of the provisions of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA), the stations on 1290 kHz were moved to 1320 kHz.[17] The next year KTRH moved to its current frequency of 740 kHz, and got a boost in power to 50,000 watts.[18]

    In 1947, Houston's first FM station was added, 101.1 MHz KTRH-FM.[19] The FM station mostly simulcast KTRH's programming when few people had FM radios.

    In the 1950s, as network programming moved from radio to TV, KTRH-AM-FM switched to a full service middle of the road (MOR) format. In 1965, KTRH-AM-FM were acquired by the Rusk Corporation. Under Rusk ownership, KTRH-FM experimented with progressive rock programs at night while simulcasting AM 740 in the daytime. In 1970, Rusk switched the FM station over to a full time rock format as KLOL.

    Former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather worked for KTRH in the late 1950s as both anchor and reporter. In 1959, KTRH carried broadcasts of the Houston Buffs minor league baseball team. Rather was the main play by play announcer. The Gallup Poll's editor in chief Frank Newport was also a noted talk show host and news director at KTRH in the early 1980s. CBS Sports announcer Jim Nantz worked at KTRH while attending the University of Houston.

    Ownership change[edit]

    In 1993, Evergreen Media bought KTRH and KLOL for $49 million.[20] Evergreen Media was later merged into Chancellor Media, which in turn was bought by Clear Channel Communications, the forerunner to today's owner, iHeartMedia. In 1995, Clear Channel also acquired KTRH's chief talk radio competitor, AM 950 KPRC. That means Clear Channel, and now iHeartMedia, has two talk radio stations in Houston, each airing slightly different programming. For a time, Houston-based syndicated host Michael Berry had shows on both stations, airing at different times. Berry is now heard twice a day on KTRH, while KTRH morning host Jimmy Barrett is also heard on KPRC for an hour in the afternoon.

    KTRH was the Houston affiliate for CBS Radio News, before switching to ABC News Radio in 1997 and then to Fox News Radio in 2003. In early 2016, KTRH switched back to ABC.[21] The Fox News affiliation moved to sister station KPRC.

    Programming[edit]

    Weekdays on KTRH begin with Jimmy Barrett and Shara Fryer hosting Houston's Morning News. Fryer was a longtime anchor at Houston's ABC-TV outlet KTRK, a sister station to KTRH during its early history. The Michael Berry Show, a syndicated program based at KTRH, airs in late mornings and again in early evenings. Berry is followed by The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show and The Sean Hannity Show (both syndicated via co-owned Premiere Networks). The Mark Levin Show (syndicated via Westwood One) and Our American Stories with Lee Habeeb air in the evening, while Coast to Coast AM with George Noory (via Premiere) is heard overnight.

    On weekends, shows on money, health, gardening, cars, home repair and the oil industry are heard. Syndicated programs include The Weekend with Michael Brown and Somewhere in Time with Art Bell. KTRH is affiliated with ABC News Radio. It has a news-sharing partnership with KPRC-TV 2, Houston's NBC affiliate, and it gets forecasts from The Weather Channel.

    For many years, KTRH was the flagship station for the Houston Astros Radio Network. With the 2013 season, the Astros' play-by-play rights switched to sports radio sister station KBME 790 AM. KTRH occasionally airs Astros' baseball games when KBME is carrying Houston Rockets' basketball games.

    References[edit]

    1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for KTRH". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  • ^ Radio-Locator.com/KTRH
  • ^ "'K' Calls Are Western", The Wireless Age, April 1923, page 25.
  • ^ "New Stations: Broadcasting Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, April 1, 1922, page 2.
  • ^ "United States Pioneer Broadcast Service Stations: Actions Through June, 1922" by Thomas H. White (earlyradiohistory.us)
  • ^ "New Stations: Broadcasting Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, December 1, 1924, page 2.
  • ^ "New Stations: Broadcasting Stations", November 2, 1925, page 3.
  • ^ "Alterations and Corrections: Broadcasting Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, February `28, 1927, page 5.
  • ^ "Broadcasting Stations", Commercial and Government Radio Stations of the United States (June 30, 1927), page 76.
  • ^ "Broadcasting Stations" (November 11, 1928), Commercial and Government Radio Stations of the United States (June 30, 1928), page 168.
  • ^ "University of Texas" entry, Education's Own Stations by S. E. Frost, Jr., 1937, pages 425-428.
  • ^ "Alterations and Corrections: Broadcasting Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, February 28, 1929, page 12.
  • ^ a b Fenberg, Steven (2011). Unprecedented Power: Jesse Jones, Capitalism, and the Common Good. College Station: Texas A & M University Press. p. 181. ISBN 9781603444347.
  • ^ "Alterations and Corrections: Broadcasting Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, December 31, 1929, page 8.
  • ^ "Broadcasting Stations: Changes" Radio Service Bulletin, June 1, 1934, page 7.
  • ^ "Broadcasting Stations: Changes" Radio Service Bulletin, November 15, 1935, page 12.
  • ^ List of Radio Broadcast Stations (March 29, 1941), page 32.
  • ^ "Modernistic in Design", Broadcasting, November 16, 1942, page 62.
  • ^ "KTRH-FM Houston Takes Air on 8-Hour Schedule", Broadcasting, July 7, 1947, page 73. (americanradiohistory.com)
  • ^ "Ownership Changes" Broadcasting & Cable, May 24, 1993, page 83. (americanradiohistory.com)
  • ^ "740 KTRH Makes Changes For 2016" by Mike McGruff (mikemcguff.blogspot.com)
  • External links[edit]


    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=KTRH&oldid=1204000855"

    Categories: 
    News and talk radio stations in the United States
    Radio stations established in 1922
    Radio stations in Texas
    IHeartMedia radio stations
    1922 establishments in Texas
    Hidden categories: 
    Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
    Articles with short description
    Short description matches Wikidata
    Coordinates on Wikidata
    Articles using infobox radio station
    Pages using AM station data without facility ID
     



    This page was last edited on 6 February 2024, at 05:22 (UTC).

    Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.



    Privacy policy

    About Wikipedia

    Disclaimers

    Contact Wikipedia

    Code of Conduct

    Developers

    Statistics

    Cookie statement

    Mobile view



    Wikimedia Foundation
    Powered by MediaWiki