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Listeners contribute to talk radio by calling a show's toll-free phone number, or in some cases, by participating in an Internet forum sponsored by the show. Contributions are usually screened by a show's producer.
The first radio station to adopt an all talk show format was KMOX, 1120 AM in St. Louis, Missouri. Legendary station manager Robert Hyland developed the format, which gave listeners the ability to phone in and ask questions on the air, after he became manager of the station in 1960. At the time, KMOX had seen its ratings slipping. This was due in large part to the popularity of AM " Top 40" music radio stations. Almost immediately, KMOX became the highest rated radio station in St. Louis, a position it has held for forty years.
In the late 1970s, as more and more listeners abandoned AM music formats for the high fidelity stereo sound of the FM radio dial, the Talk Radio format began to catch on in more large cities. Some think that if not for talk radio hosts AM radio might not exist today. Former legendary music stations such as WLWWLW is a radio station located in Cincinnati, Ohio, run by Clear Channel Communications and is located at 700 AM. The station runs under the talk format and is the flagship station for "The Truckin' Bozo" a popular nationwide, overnight program especially ( Cincinnati, OhioThis article is about Cincinnati, Ohio. For the town of the same name in Iowa, see Cincinnati, Iowa. Cincinnati 'The Queen of the West', is a city in Southwestern Ohio on the Ohio River and is the county seat of Hamilton County 6. Introduction As of the 2), WHAS ( Louisville, KentuckyThis article is about the Kentucky city. For other uses see Louisville (disambiguation). Louisville is Kentucky's largest city and the 16th largest city of the United States. The City of Louisville was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark and is named a), WHAM ( Rochester, New York), WLSWLS ("World's Largest Store") is the callsign two broadcast stations in Chicago: radio station WLS AM 890 TV station WLS-TV 7 ( DTV 52) TLAs. ( Chicago, IllinoisThis article is about the city, for other uses of the term see Chicago (disambiguation : Hog butcher for the world,Tool maker, stacker of wheat,Player with railroads and the nation's freight handler;Stormy, husky, brawling,City of the big shoulders. Carl), KFI AMKFI AM is a US class A clear channel AM radio station located in Los Angeles, California that operates on 640 kHz. KFI began broadcasting in 1922. The original station used a 50 watt transmitter built by Earle C. Anthony who operated it from his garage. ( Los Angeles, California) and WABC ( New York, New York) made the switch to all-talk as their ratings slumped from the listener migration.
Talk radio is not limited to AM frequencies; shows like Talk of the Nation and Car Talk can also be found on the mostly FM-based National Public Radio.
In the United Kingdom, the leading talk radio station is talkSPORT, formerly called Talk Radio.