KCRS (550 AM), commonly called Newstalk 550 KCRS, is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

broadcasting a

News Talk Information Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, interviews wi ...

format. Licensed to

Midland, Texas Midland is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Midland County with small portions extending into Martin County. The population was 132,524 as of the 2020 census. Located in the Permian Basin in West Texas, Midland is a ...

, United States, the station serves the Odessa-Midland area. The station is currently owned by ICA Radio Midland-Odessa License, LLC and features programming from

Fox News Radio Fox News Radio is an American radio network owned by Fox News. It is syndicated to over 500 AM and FM radio stations across the United States. It also supplies programming for three channels on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. History In 2003, ...

Premiere Radio Networks Premiere Networks, Inc. (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American Mass media, media company, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original Radio broadcasting, radio content distribut ...

and Sporting News Radio. KCRS also carries live sports for the Permian Basin. Currently the station carries the games of the

Midland RockHounds The Midland RockHounds are a Minor League Baseball team based in Midland, Texas. The team, which plays in the Texas League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Athletics major league club. The RockHounds play in Momentum Bank Ballpark, which ope ...

Minor League Baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

as well as football broadcasts for the Midland High Bulldogs and the Legacy High Rebels on a rotating basis with Lonestar 92. KCRS' studios are located at the ICA Business Plaza on East Eighth Street in Odessa, just east of downtown, and its transmitter is located in Midland. KCRS was the leader in sports in West Texas for a time. It was the home of Sports Fan Radio Network and aired the ''Fabulous Sports Babe'' program. Until the 2009 season, KCRS was the flagship station for the RockHounds, having been their radio home since the team was first established as the Midland Cubs back in 1972. In the spring of 2009, GAP Broadcasting announced that the Rockhound games would be following OC over to 102.1 Jack FM. From 2004 to 2007 NewsTalk 550 was the affiliate for

Odessa College Odessa College is a public junior college in Odessa, Texas. The college serves the people of Ector County and the Permian Basin. It was established in 1946 and enrolled 8,024 students in fall 2021 and 7,679 students in spring 2022 in its univ ...

men's and women's road basketball games, but those rights were transferred to KFZX in 2008. Before getting the OC contract, they aired 10 consecutive years of NJCAA Conference play with

Midland College Midland College (MC) is a Public college, public community college in Midland, Texas. It was established as an independent junior college in 1972 and held its first classes on campus in 1975. Since that time, the campus has expanded to a main ...

for both men's and women's basketball. They have also been the home for the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Texas Tech Red Raiders The Texas Tech Red Raiders and Lady Raiders are the athletic teams that represent Texas Tech University, located in Lubbock, Texas, United States. The women's basketball team uses the name Lady Raiders, while the school's other women's teams us ...

football and men's basketball games, but the rights were moved to

KMCM KMCM (96.9 FM broadcasting, FM), branded as "KMCM 97 Gold", is a radio station that serves the Midland–Odessa metropolitan area with classic hits by broadcasting the Classic Hits satellite feed from Westwood One. Its studios are located at t ...

in 2004. They broadcast

Baylor Bears The Baylor Bears are the athletic teams that represent Baylor University. The teams participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as one of only three private school members of the Big 12 Conference. Prior t ...

football games from 1978 until 2004, when they decided to drop NCAA games altogether. KCRS was owned by

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

until it sold the entire Midland-Odessa cluster to Gap Broadcasting, who in turn sold the said cluster to ICA Broadcasting for $3 million.

FM Translators

KCRS relays its programming to two

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

s in order to widen the coverage area; they also provide the listener with the choice of listening on FM with

high fidelity High fidelity (hi-fi or, rarely, HiFi) is the high-quality reproduction of sound. It is popular with audiophiles and home audio enthusiasts. Ideally, high-fidelity equipment has inaudible noise and distortion, and a flat (neutral, uncolored) ...

stereophonic Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

sound.

Station schedule

Monday–Friday *4 am – '' Gordon Deal This Morning'' *6 am – ''The Morning Drive'' *9 am – ''The Lynn Woolley Show'' *11 am –

Rush Limbaugh Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( ; January 12, 1951 – February 17, 2021) was an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative political commentator who was the host of ''The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which first aired in 1984 and was nati ...

*2 pm –

Dave Ramsey David Lawrence Ramsey III (born September 3, 1960) is an American radio personality who offers financial advice. He is the founder and CEO of Ramsey Solutions and a co-host of '' The Ramsey Show'', a nationally syndicated radio program. He ...

*5 pm – ''The 5 O'Clock News Block'' with Jesse Grimes *6 pm –

Lars Larson Lars Kristopher Larson (born March 6, 1959)"Lars Kristopher Larson". ''Who's Who in the West'', 26th ed. Accessed June 17, 2013 via LexisNexis. is an American conservative talk radio show host based in Portland, Oregon. Larson worked in televis ...

*9 pm –

Hugh Hewitt Hugh Hewitt (born February 22, 1956) is an American conservative political commentator, radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network, attorney, academic, and author. He writes about law, society, politics, and media bias in the United States ...

(delayed) *12 am – ''

Coast to Coast AM ''Coast to Coast AM'' is an American late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics. Most frequently the topics relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was hosted by creator Art Bell from its inception in 198 ...

'' with

George Noory George Ralph Noory (born June 4, 1950) is an American talk radio, radio talk show host. Since January 2003, Noory has been the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show ''Coast to Coast AM''. The program is radio syndication, syndicated to ...

References

External links

* * * * {{News/Talk Radio Stations in Texas CRS News and talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1935