WKRO (AM)

WKRO
City of license	Cairo, Illinois
Broadcast area	Alexander County, Illinois and Bird's Point, Missouri
Frequency	1490 (kHz)
First air date	February, 1942
Format	Urban AC
Power	1,000 Watts
Class	C
Callsign meaning	W K-RO (representing the local pronunciation of Cairo)
Owner	Benjamin Stratemeyer

WKRO was an AM radio station located in Cairo, Illinois. It's now "silent" as broadcasting was ceased by Stratemeyer Media in 2013. The station was assigned the AM frequency of 1490 by the Federal Communications Commission in late 1941 and began broadcasting with a power of 250 watts in February 1942. According to Broadcasting Yearbook, the station raised its daytime power to 1000 watts around 1975. The original station owner was Oscar Hirsch. Mr. Hirsch had previously started KFVS Radio in Cape Girardeau in the 1920s and expanded his broadcast group in the 1940s to also include radio stations in Sparta, Illinois (WHCO), Flat River, Missouri (KKMO) and Sikeston, Missouri (KSIM). By the mid- 1950s, Mr. Hirsch expanded into the fledgling television industry with the formation of KFVS-TV in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The Hirsch family operated WKRO until 1984, when the station was sold to a local funeral director, William T. "Bill" Crain. Mr. Crain operated WKRO for close to ten years. During the 1990s, WKRO was owned and operated by a succession of short lived owners, including Roger Price, Sr. and Dan Mueller. Eventually, in an unusual arrangement for a commercial broadcast license, the station was briefly operated by Alexander County and overseen by the county commissioners before the current license holder, Stratemeyer Media, based in nearby Metropolis, Illinois, took over operations and programming of the station.

For much of its existence, WKRO broadcast a "block format" featuring different genres of music throughout the day and evening -- such as country, adult contemporary and urban -- interspersed with frequent news and information segments. The most notable were the longstanding "10 O'Clock Local News", broadcast every morning at 10:00 a.m.; "In Memoriam", a daily report of local obituaries; "Moments with the Master", a daily devotional with local pastor Dr. Larry Potts; and, "The Ilmoky Phone Quiz", a daily quiz show where listeners were called at random and asked to answer a trivia question for cash prizes. WKRO was a longtime affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals Radio Network and broadcast an extensive schedule of local high school football and basketball games each season. Memorable announcers on WKRO include Danny Mac, Bob Stout, Harry Stout, Charles Walker, Delores Kerricker, John Jones, Tyrone Coleman, I.J. Hudson III, Derrick Hill, Owen Evers, Merrill C. "Red" Currier and Walter "Wally" McCowen.

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v t e Radio stations in the Cape Girardeau–Sikeston–Jackson, Missouri market
By AM frequency	960 1170 1220 1350 1400 1490 1520 1550
By AM frequency	88.5 88.9 90.5 90.9 91.5 92.3 92.9 93.9 96.5 97.3 97.9 98.9 99.3 99.7 100.3 100.7 102.9 103.3 104.1 104.7 106.1 107.1 107.9 107.9
NOAA Weather Radio frequency	162.4 162.55
By callsign	K222BY K255AW K259BB K262AX K277BJ K300BU KAIA KAPE KBHI KBXB KCHR KCGQ-FM KCGR KEZS-FM KGIR KGKS KGMO KHEZ-LP KHIS KJXX KLSC KMHM KRCU KREZ KRHW KSIM KWKZ KXI93 KYRX KZIM WBEL-FM WKIB WKRO WXL47
Defunct	KDMC-LP (103.7 FM)
Nearby radio markets Jackson, TN Jonesboro Marion-Carbondale Memphis Paducah St. Louis See also List of radio stations in Missouri List of radio stations in Illinois

v t e Country radio stations in the state of Illinois
By AM frequency	750 920 980 1060 1230 1240 1290 1330 1440 1490 1520 1530 1540 1580
By FM frequency	92.1 92.3 92.7 92.9 93.7 93.7 94.1 94.3 94.3 94.9 95.1 95.3 95.5 95.7 95.9 96.3 96.5 97.3 97.3 97.5 97.7 98.3 98.3 98.5 99.1 99.3 99.5 99.5 99.9 100.1 100.3 100.3 100.5 100.9 101.3 101.7 101.7 101.9 102.1 102.1 102.3 102.3 102.3 102.5 102.7 103.7 103.7 104.1 104.5 104.9 105.5 105.9 105.9 106.1 106.5 107.3 107.7 107.9
By callsign	KSD (FM) – St. Louis, Missouri KSGM – Chester WAAG – Galesburg WALS – Oglesby WBBA-FM – Pittsfield WBWN – Le Roy WCCI – Savanna WCCQ – Crest Hill Canton WCOY – Quincy WCRC – Effingham WDDD-FM – Johnston City WDQN – Du Quoin WDUK – Havana WDZQ – Decatur WEBG – Chicago WEBQ – Harrisburg WFMB-FM – Springfield WFPS – Freeport WFYR – Elmwood WGEL – Greenville WGKC – Mahomet WGLC-FM – Mendota WHCO – Sparta WHET – West Frankfort WHPO – Hoopeston WIBH – Anna WIBL – Fairbury WIBV – Mount Vernon WIL-FM – St. Louis, Missouri WIRL – Peoria WIXY – Champaign WJBC-FM – Pontiac WJRE – Galva WJVO – South Jacksonville WKJT – Teutopolis WKRO – Cairo WLCN – Atlanta WLFZ – Springfield WLIQ – Quincy WLLR-FM – Davenport, Iowa WLUV – Loves Park WLWF – Marseilles WMCI – Neoga WMCL – McLeansboro WMIX-FM – Mount Vernon WMKR – Pana WMOK – Metropolis WNLF - Macomb WOKZ – Fairfield WOOZ-FM – Harrisburg WRAM – Monmouth WRCV – Dixon WRIK – Brookport WRMJ – Aledo WRMS-FM – Beardstown WRUL – Carmi WRTB – Winnebago WRVY-FM – Henry WSEI – Olney WSMI – Litchfield WSMI-FM – Litchfield WSVZ – Tower Hill WUSN – Chicago WUSW - Taylorville WXCL – Pekin WXNU – Saint Anne WXXQ – Freeport WYOT – Rochelle WYUR – Gilman WYXY – Savoy WZUS – Macon WZZT – Morrison
See also adult contemporary classic hits college country news/talk NPR oldies religious rock sports top 40 urban other radio stations in Illinois

WKRO (AM)

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