KSD (93.7 MHz, "93.7 The Bull") is a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, o ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission 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 radi ...

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, whic ...

. It is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., with studios on Highlands Plaza Drive in St. Louis, south of

Forest Park A forest park is a park whose main theme is its forest of trees. Forest parks are found both in the mountains and in the urban environment. Examples Chile * Forest Park, Santiago China * Gongqing Forest Park, Shanghai * Mufushan National Fo ...

. KSD carries two

nationally syndicated Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States wher ...

iHeartRadio programs on weekdays, ''

The Bobby Bones Show ''The Bobby Bones Show'' is an American nationally syndicated country music radio show aired during the morning drive. The Bobby Bones Show originated in Austin, Texas, but now originates from studios at WSIX-FM in Nashville. The show is syndica ...

'' in morning

drive time Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this cla ...

and '' After MidNite with Granger Smith'' overnight. KSD is unusual as an FM station with only three letters in its

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assig ...

. It inherited its call letters from its former

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

, KSD 550 AM, now KTRS, which originated in the earliest days of broadcasting. KSD has an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ...

(ERP) of 74,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to ...

is in Resurrection Cemetery in

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'S ...

, amid the

towers A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

for other FM and TV stations. KSD broadcasts using

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

technology, carrying iHeartRadio's

classic country Classic country is a music radio format that specializes in playing mainstream country and western music hits from past decades. Repertoire The radio format specializes in hits from the 1950s through the early 1980s, and focus primarily on inn ...

music service on its HD2

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compressi ...

History

KCFM

On , the station

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature, placing one's name on a document * Signature (disambiguation) * Manual communication, signing as a form of communication using the hands in place of the voice * Digital signature A dig ...

the air. Its original call sign was KCFM. KCFM was owned by the Commercial Broadcasting Company and broadcast from the Boatmen's Bank Building. Its studios and transmitter moved to 532 DeBaliviere Avenue in 1959. For much of the 1960s and 70s, KCFM broadcast a

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator m ...

format, playing quarter hour sweeps of soft instrumental

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song relea ...

s of popular songs with occasional middle of the road vocals.

KSD-FM

Combined Communications Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into t ...

bought KCFM in 1978. The company also owned KSD 550 AM (now KTRS). Combined Communications relaunched KCFM as an

adult contemporary music Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

station. To trade on its AM station's well-known call letters, on July 10, 1980, KCFM became KSD-FM. KSD-FM evolved into a hybrid of AC music and

Adult Top 40 The Adult Pop Airplay (formerly known as Adult Pop Songs and Adult Top 40) chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and ranks "the most popular adult top 40 as based on radio airplay detections measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data System ...

hits (also known as

Hot AC Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, qui ...

). It used the moniker "KS94 FM". Then, in August 1987, KSD-FM dropped the Hot AC format for

Classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, prim ...

as "The New 93.7 KSD-FM." That format lasted until January 1999, when KSD-FM briefly went back to Hot AC as "Mix 93.7".

Country Music

At noon on October 9, 2000, KSD-FM switched to

as "93.7 The Bull", soon after 106.5 WKKX ("Kix 106") dropped country to become WSSM, "

Smooth Jazz Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s. History Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 1 ...

106.5", now

WARH WARH (106.5 MHz "106.5 The Arch") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Granite City, Illinois and serving Greater St. Louis including sections of Illinois and Missouri. WARH is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting and airs an Adult Hits radi ...

. Due to a big ownership shakeup in 2000, Bonneville Radio ended up owning both competing St. Louis country stations. With 106.5 playing Smooth Jazz, that opened up a spot for a competitor to longtime country station 92.3 WIL-FM, also owned by Bonneville. The first song on "The Bull" was "

The Thunder Rolls "The Thunder Rolls" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Garth Brooks. It was released in April 1991 as the fourth and final single from his album '' No Fences''. The song became his sixth number one on the country ch ...

" by

Garth Brooks Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962) is an American country music singer and songwriter. His integration of pop and rock elements into the country genre has earned him popularity, particularly in the United States with success on the co ...

. Since then, KSD-FM and WIL-FM compete for St. Louis country music listeners, with each station trading the lead in the

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

References

External links

93.7 The Bull
* * SD Radio stations established in 1955 IHeartMedia radio stations {{StLouis-stub