Blues Radio Moves

As someone who can trace his involvement with the Blues organization back to a time when the games were not on KMOX, I thought it quite interesting that the broadcasts will move from KMOX to 101ESPN next season. That announcement came today.

The Blues started out in the 60's on KMOX with Jack Buck calling games in season one. Quickly he and station manager Robert Hyland realized that the sport, and it's description, needed someone who was more familiar with the game. Enter the great Dan Kelly. The Kelly-KMOX-Blues relationship was enjoyed by all for many years, but there was always one problem; especially during baseball season.

The Blues currently enjoy a great relationship with the Cardinals. Much cooperation and hand-in-hand co-promotion is happening there. However, Blues and Cardinals game broadcasts have always had a tough time being on the same station and co-existing effectively, at least for the Blues. When it was announced in the mid-80's that KXOK had acquired broadcast rights, and that Dan Kelly and Ron Jacober (with some help from yours truly) would lead a radio team that focused primarily on Blues hockey, it was not only a shocking, blockbuster announcement in radio-land, but a welcome development for Blues fanatics. No longer would Blues games be heard on some poorly-signaled alternative to KMOX when the Cardinals and Blues played simultaneously. What? The Blues have decided to go to 630 on the AM dial and not broadcast their games via the 50,000 red-hot watts of clear channel 1120 heard in most of North America at night? The answer was yes. And that's how desperate the Blues were to have a station where they would be number one.

The KXOK experience didn't last all that long however. After about a season-and-a-half, KXOK ownership was in trouble (in several ways...you can research that for yourself). Listeners, especially those on the Illinois side, quickly tired of the much weaker signal pattern provided by the station at night when games were broadcast. KMOX re-entered the picture and games were quickly back on the big AM signal. As an aside, it was during the time that KXOK had the rights to Blues broadcasts that I was recommended by Ron and Dan to the Blues as a fill-in public-address announcer in the '86-87 season. I've been "filling-in" for around 1450 consecutive games ever since.

It was almost as monumental when, in 2000, the Blues partnered with Tim Dorsey (formerly a KMOX honcho) and KTRS-550 AM. Funny, I worked at KXOK during the first divorce from KMOX. And I was employed at "The Big 550" during the second hiatus. From 2000-2007 KTRS did an effective job of focusing attention on Blues hockey. Game broadcasts and a myriad of other supplemental programming was aired to the great satisfaction of Blues Nation.

But in 2007 once again the effort to avoid being overshadowed and moved aside by Cardinals baseball took the Blues back to KMOX. KTRS had, some think miraculously, acquired rights to Cardinals baseball broadcasts in something of a coup when Cardinals owners became part owners of KTRS. Now KMOX would be the refuge for Blues fans. This was at the same time that current owner Tom Stillman joined the Blues/Dave Checketts ownership group. Eventually, of course, both the Blues and Cardinals would be found on KMOX again starting with the 2011 baseball season.

Today's announcement, in which the Blues once again leave the big KMOX AM nighttime signal, is done in a much different media environment than before. This one comes at a time when the internet plays a much larger role in team exposure to fans than in earlier times. No doubt, the sports-formatted 101ESPN will pay great attention to Blues-centric programming aside from carrying the games which will continue to be strongly-manned by long-time Blues radio voice Chris Kerber and new color-man Joey Vitale. But the Blues own internal broadcasting crew, Blue Note Productions, is highly instrumental in the outreach to fans, not only locally, but world-wide through website and social-media efforts.

The 101-FM signal, which coincidentally I broadcast high-school sports on many years ago when it was known as WMRY and located at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows, is a significant player in the local radio wars. KMOX's reach into many of the 48 mainland United States, is not nearly as important to a team's marketing efforts as in the days before the internet's universal reach. I think it's a great move by the Blues to align themselves with a sports-formatted radio station for the local market, and continue the regional/national/international outreach with their own internal efforts.

So let me add this up...hmmm..I worked at KMOX (3 different tours of duty when the station carried Blues games), KXOK when that station had the Blues, KTRS with Blues games, and 101-FM where they will be next season. Some strange symbiotic thing going on here.

The River Between Us

By now I'm sure most of you have heard of the Better Together group which is attempting to unify St. Louis city and county. If not, you can read about it here. While, admittedly, I haven't studied the entire report recently issued by the task force, I applaud the effort to empower the metropolitan area by eliminating the fragmentation among the hundreds of small communities and their governance from the larger picture. Communities that are essentially neighborhoods with official boundaries have been holding the city and region back for way too long, in my humble opinion. Surely this great area we call home could use a brighter, and more unified, outlook in most of the facets of life that we all care about. Better Together appears committed to take on the challenge of improving St. Louis by consolidating and streamlining operations and thereby improving the benefits afforded all of us. The group has already addressed most of the hurdles standing in the way of such an accomplishment.

As a life-long resident of the Metro-East, I have already begun wondering..."Why not include the Illinois counties?" and "What's wrong with Madison, St. Clair and Monroe counties, or perhaps more, being involved?" One immediately comes up with several no-brainer answers to those questions.

• "Well...the Metro-East is in a different state"
• "Uh...there's a thing called the Mississippi River that separates St. Louis city/county from the Illinois counties." 
• "Metro-East residents may not want to be part of St. Louis."
• "St. Louis residents may not want to be part of the Metro-East." 
• "Would it actually benefit Better Together to have the Illinois counties involved?"  
• "There are all sorts of different laws that apply to Missouri vis-a-vis Illinois."

To all of those points, I simply say..."It would make an even more powerful St. Louis and is worth considering."

Surely, there would be enormous barriers with which to deal. Metro-East counties seceding from the state of Illinois? That might be the easier part. I'm guessing many east-siders would be fine with joining up with Missouri. It would have its advantages. And it can't be argued that there is a huge disconnect between the Metro-East and the power and political structure that governs the Land of Lincoln, dominated by Chicago representation. Metro-East, its financial needs and political clout, are mostly an afterthought in Springfield where Chicagoans pull most of the strings.

Yes, there is that river....and the state boundary it creates. But is St. Louis the only city that has a river running through the middle of it? What about the East River separating the boroughs of New York? The Cumberland cuts Nashville about in half. Chicago, Milwaukee, and many other Midwest cities deal fine with rivers running through them. Of course, with the Mississippi you're talking about a major, continent-dividing type river. But is it still the barrier to commerce and interaction of the population that it once was? I think not. When companies and their marketing/advertising efforts attempt to reach the St. Louis market, they always include the Illinois counties.

There are no doubt many other difficulties that this idea would bring about. And I understand that many who are in positions of influence, political or otherwise, would fight to the death against considering Metro-East inclusion in the city called St. Louis. Perhaps I'm very naive about the possibility. But those of us who do not have salaries or clout on the line would like to think that residents of both sides of the big river would benefit from adding our numbers to the Better Together effort. At least it might be something to consider. If not now, maybe after the Missouri issues are dealt with.

I know one thing...I have always considered myself a St. Louisan, even though I've lived on the Illinois side my entire life. We all benefit from the presence of the Cardinals, the Blues, the Zoo, and yes, the Shrine, Eckerts, the Grizzlies and many other Illinois-based businesses and venues. I'm sure I'm not the only east-side resident who, when traveling, answers the question..."Where are you from?" by saying...St. Louis.