By Adam Allington, St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis, MO – The St. Louis Cardinals have announced that, as of next season, the team will take its radio broadcasts back to KMOX (AM 1120).
When the Cardinals moved to KTRS in 2005, the move caused a bit of a dustup, primarily because of KTRS's weaker signal that left some fans in pockets of dead air. At night KMOX's 50,000-watt signal reaches more than 40 states and parts of Canada.
But as Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III says, the long tradition the team had with KMOX was important to fans as well.
"I think our fans preferred it," said DeWitt. "Its clear that things like signal strength, the history and tradition and some other factors as far as our negotiations with them that made it pretty compelling for us to move back."
DeWitt says the 2005 move was prompted by financial concerns. He says KMOX, part of CBS Radio, is charging less now. DeWitt adds that tradition was also a big motivator.
"Any Cardinals fan worth his salt knows that KMOX is where people like Jack Buck and Harry Caray and Dizzy Dean and all the great announcers that we've had over the years have cut their teeth, and there's something right about being back there."
During the Cardinals' partnership with KTRS, game broadcasts were consistently the top rated radio programs in the St. Louis market. Cardinals' broadcasts enjoyed similar results during the previous partnership with KMOX. DeWitt did not say if the team plans to sell its controlling interest in KTRS.
Cardinals announcers Mike Shannon and John Rooney will continue to handle play-by-play coverage for the team.
The vast majority of the Cardinals Radio Network will also stay the same under the new arrangement. The network consists of 117 stations in nine states (Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee) and has the potential to reach 21.3 million people in 11 states.