KXOK

Entrance to the studios at Radio Park.

KXOK (630 AM) was a radio station in St. Louis, Missouri, which helped pioneer the Top 40 radio format in the early-1950s.

In its heyday as a top-40 station, KXOK broadcast on the 630 kHz frequency with 5,000 watts of power and reached a substantial portion of eastern Missouri and southern Illinois during daytime hours. At night, the power was 5,000 watts as well, but with a more directional signal into the immediate St. Louis metro area, from KXOK's three tower site just outside Granite City, Illinois.

The KXOK Radio Story.

A number of legendary air personalities graced the KXOK airwaves during the station's glory years including Ed Bonner, Ray Otis, Bill Addison, Mort Crowley, Danny Dark, Ron Elz aka Johnny Rabbitt (number one), Shad O'Shea, William A. Hopkins, Don Pietro'monaco aka Johnny Rabbitt (number two), Don Shafer, Delcia Devon, Louise Harrison Caldwell (The Beatles' George Harrison's sister), Lou Cooley, Davey O'Donnell, Peter Martin, Keith Morris, Richard Ward Fatherley and Bob Shannon.

Other outstanding personalities of the 1970s included Jerry Butler, Mason Lee Dixon, Jack Mindy, Craig Roberts and Scott Sherwood, The news staff included veteran reporters Bob Shea, Robert R. Lynn and Steven B. Stevens. It was under the leadership of Station Operations Manager Bud Connell and program directors Ray Otis and Mort Crowley that KXOK became one of the highest-rated stations in the country.

January 29, 1966

The KXOK crew on May 6, 1967.

During the 1960s, one radio station stood out in St. Louis, and an assessment some 40 years later finds that it still stands out in the memories of many people. Anyone who lived through those years understood the later premise behind George Lucas’ film “American Graffiti.”

The radio - or more importantly one specific radio station - played a big role in the lives of teenagers in just about every market. Everyone listened to that station, and the disc jockeys were real people who became friends to the listeners. In St. Louis, that station was KXOK.

Jack Elliott on February 3, 1961. [ LISTEN ] (32:55)

Among the many contests, there’s the “More Music Contest”, where listeners call in and list the names of the records played during the show. Then, there’s “News IQ” where listeners are asked a question about a story read in the news report. The winner wins $1.00.

It's 5pm and Jack is working the turntable and playing records c.1961. [ Part 1 ] (32:16)

And here's more from Jack. [ Part 2 ] (30:14)

KXOK was owned by Todd Storz as part of his chain of AM stations known for their rock and roll formats.

The guys are thinking summer.

A stroll down memory lane, compliments of station vet Dick Ulett, who now owns Clayton Studios: Mort Crowley, Danny Dark, Ron Riley, Peter Martin, Robert R. Lynn, Bob Shea, William D. Rogers, Dan Allison, Johnny Rabbitt, Don “Stinkey” Shafer, Richard Ward Fatherly, Nick Charles, Bruno J. Grunion, William A. Hopkins, Big Ears Bernard, Steven B. Stevens, Bobby Shannon, Delcia Corlew, Chickenman, News at 55, Radio Park, “The station with the happy difference.”

Ray Otis was the station’s program director, coming to St. Louis in 1962 at the age of 24. Manager Bud Connell had “opened” the station, and it was Otis’ job to move it through the next stages of evolution. “There was magic, like no other place I’ve seen.” “Everything just fell together. The synergy was incredible.” The station was located in “Radio Park” at 1600 North Kingshighway.

Kathy Gillen at the KXOK Autorama on
October 17, 1965.

THE "KAY" GIRLS

One of the really neat things about "The Johnny Rabbitt Show" was the fact that "The Rabbitt" got so many phone calls during his 7 to Midnight air shift that it required a group of "Kay" girls to answer the phones, check on giveaways and prizes, etc.

And, a great bunch of girls they were! Everyone of them was a winner! They worked hard, did a good job and they were cute!

The list of "Kay" girls that were there during my years with Don were: Sharon Lowe, Kathy Gillen, Joanne DeVoogt, Linda With, Sharon Singer.

Across the street was the old Parkmoor. There was an old house on the property and the studios were built as an addition, with the a room in the house serving as the reception area and the rest being used for storage. Out in front, facing Kingshighway, were the 3’ high green letters “KXOK” which had graced the side of the building it had previously inhabited, the old Star-Times Building downtown.

Jim Bafaro, a former radio journalist here and now working at Boeing in public relations, remembers being confused as a five-year-old: “As a kid, I heard the term ‘Radio Park’ and assumed there was some little park somewhere with a big microphone in it.”

Richard Ward Fatherley was KXOK’s production director, and he often did substitute work by doing dj shifts on the air.

Like Ray Otis, Fatherley joined KXOK at the age of 24, coming to St. Louis in 1964. “In 1966,” he says, “The Pulse radio ratings research group completed its ranking of the nation’s top five most-listened-to radio stations. Two of them were in St. Louis; KMOX, the CBS-owned “At Your Service Station,” and KXOK, the Storz-owned Top 40 station.

Both Fatherley and Otis remember how KXOK capitalized on the construction of the Gateway Arch, tying in its dial position with the monument’s dimensions (630 Kc, 630’ high, 630’ wide). Fatherley notes the station “took advantage of every opportunity to embrace the structure in its sales brochures, business cards, promotional pieces and listener contests.”

Otis remembers the day an audition tape was played featuring the work of a young entertainer named Don Pietromonaco. “I’d never heard anything like it. We had a fairly rigid framework for our jocks, but when we brought in Don and made him ‘Johnny Rabbitt,’ things loosened up. Todd Storz used to say some guys need the framework of a format. Others don’t. The proof is in the ratings. We turned ‘Johnny’ loose, and he owned nighttime radio in St. Louis.”

And then there was the time a guy drove up to Radio Park towing a speedboat behind his car. Lou Cooley told the station’s manager he’d like to make a deal. If KXOK would allow him to paint the station’s call letters on his boat, he’d win a high profile boat race. He kept his word, and an interesting relationship was born.

In addition to his 20-year career as a newsman at KXOK followed by two years at KMOX and a brief stint at WIL, Lynn was well-known in the St. Louis market for his commercial voiceovers.

“Lou ran a laboratory shuttle service,” Otis says, “and he had a telephone in his car. He’d phone the station with traffic reports and we’d put him on the air.” Otis also put the station’s janitor on the air. “Eddie Simpson, the janitor, lived in the house behind the studios. Sometimes when he’d be cleaning in the studios I’d sit him down at the mic and we’d talk.”

Robert R. Lynn, who was news director in those years, has fond memories of his experience there. “We were actually gatherers, writers, editors, not just news readers like many other stations. The newscasts were full of gizmos, echoes and beeps so they’d fit the format.”

The Famous Barr (St. Louis department stores) commercials were a big part of KXOK's daily programming.

A young lady who began her on-air stint as a sponsor’s spokesperson has fond memories of KXOK. Delcia Devon (later Corlew) was the voice of Famous- Barr beginning in 1964. She remembers the brilliance of Don Pietromonaco, who was known to his listeners as Johnny Rabbitt. “I would be recording my commercials in the production studio and Don would come in to record his Bruno drop-ins.

He’d just sit down and start talking in his Bruno voice, doing wild tracks. Later, when he was on the air, he’d carry on a conversation with those recordings. I was amazed how he could remember what he’d said on the tapes.”

December 2, 1972.

Everyone working at KXOK gave the credit for the station’s success to one man, Bud Connell, the operations manager. “He pulled the right strings and brought in the right people,” says Robert R. Lynn. Ray Otis says “Bud was the best market opener I’ve ever seen.”

Connell came to St. Louis from Miami. “Storz gave me carte blanche,” he says. Arriving in July of 1961, he monitored the market for a month. “KXOK had 4% of the market while WIL had over 20%. KXOK’s jocks were Ken Reed, Peter Martin, Jack Elliott and Don Shafer. Bob Shea and Robert R. Lynn were the newsmen. My first job was to brighten the sound and beef up the news. I brought in Shad O’Shea and Danny Dark as jocks and David D. Rogers and Steven B. Stevens for news. We had four of the biggest voices in radio.”

Here's Nick Charles working the turntable on July 29, 1966 and Ray Otis playing more records on June 5, 1967.

“It was a bunch of people having a good time,” says newsman Lynn, “and the jocks made as much on the side from personal appearances as they did on the air.”

Connell says he brought in outstanding people, but his main criterion boiled down to a simple requirement: “I looked for a capacity to entertain and the intelligence to entertain without using bad taste. The big stars in radio today wouldn’t even have been considered for jobs on KXOK. Don Pietromonaco, for example was the ultimate Johnny Rabbitt; the defining Johnny Rabbitt. He was an absolute entertainer.”

The Johnny Rabbitt Show

The veterans of KXOK all say it was the finest job in their careers. “In a word,” says Robert R. Lynn, “it was fun!” Delcia Corlew says “It was unique, exciting. There was a lot of discovery in it, a chance for all of us to learn about ourselves and our listeners.” Connell says “My nickname around the station was ‘Mr. Kx-OK.

After years as the Top 40 station in St. Louis, KXOK continued their decline and at the time of this air check, January, 1979, the station had recently switched to a more adult approach. [ LISTEN ] (2:08)

Those were heady days for a young man who loved playing radio. I am convinced the old KXOK would blow away all of today’s broadcast wunderkind, including those in the smut-filled control rooms of the present day audio-porn purveyors. And wouldn’t it be fun to do it all over again?” The comment by Ray Otis says it all: “In retrospect it was almost euphoric. I’d go back in a heartbeat.”

WHO WORKED AT KXOK? Here is the list: Ed Bonner, Jerry Butler, Mort Crowley, Brother Marcus Darin, Danny Dark, Pete Duncan, Richard Ward Fatherley, Paul Harvey, William A. Hopkins, Peter Martin, Buddy McGregor, Jack Mindy, Craig Roberts, Don Shafer, Bob Shannon, Scott Sherwood, Ray Otis, Johnny Rabbitt (Ron Elz), Johnny Rabbitt (Don Pietromonico), Todd Storz, and Dick Ulett.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Airchexx, Internet Archive, St. Louis Flashback. St. Louis Music Yesterdays.