October 29, 2013
Trying to Outrun the Cardinals' Long Reach
By DAVID WALDSTEIN
ST. LOUIS - About 7 p.m. Central on Wednesday, a voice will
declare on a radio wave transmitted at 1120 kilohertz, "This
is KMOX, the voice of St. Louis," and millions of homes from
Denver to Alabama and Louisiana to North Dakota will be able
to hear Game 6 of the World Series come to life on an AM
radio.

The penetrating strength of KMOX, a powerful radio station
in St. Louis with a tradition of Hall of Fame broadcasters,
has helped turn countless families into Cardinals fans since
1926, when it broadcast its first game.

Associated Press

With a 50,000-watt signal originating from a transmitter
across the Mississippi River, in Illinois, KMOX is said to
be heard in 44 states and as far away as Holland, East
Africa and Guam, spreading the gospel of St. Louis Cardinals
baseball to the far reaches of the planet.

The signal stretches to truly remote locales only in rare,
static-filled instances. But in a swath of North America,
from New Orleans to Canada, the signal could be so reliable
at night that an entire region became enamored of the team.

When Jack Buck died in 2002, President Bill Clinton sent a
letter to Buck's son Joe, a former KMOX broadcaster and
currently Fox's play-by-play announcer, explaining how he
had listened to Jack Buck and Harry Caray doing Cardinals
games on a transistor radio hidden beneath his pillow in
Hope, Ark., more than 450 miles away.

"The power of that station meant so much to countless people 
across this country," Joe Buck said. "People riding on 
tractors or sitting on the porch, it was part of the
soundtrack to their summer."

Supposedly, it still is, despite the proliferation of
televisions and Internet access. But can it really still be
heard clearly in other states, without the harsh
accompaniment of static and interference from other stations
trying to muscle in on the signal? Surely there must be some 
exaggeration.

To put it to the test, I set out in my rental car Sunday, 
the day of Game 4 of the World Series, between the Cardinals 
and the Boston Red Sox, and headed south, the radio tuned to
1120 AM, to see if I could outdrive the signal before the
end of the game. I even left Busch Stadium two and a half
hours early, wondering if, before long, the signal would
deteriorate into a fuzzy, frustrating mash of crossing
signals somewhere in southeastern Missouri.

What happened was a 600-mile (round trip), 12-hour,
five-state radio odyssey that illustrated, if nothing else,
the lasting power of the AM radio band and the usefulness of
gas stations, energy drinks and coffee.

(End of Part 1.)