KPRC (AM)


KPRC is a commercial AM talk radio station in Houston, Texas, branded as "AM 950 KPRC." It is the oldest radio station licensed to Houston and still on the air to this day. KPRC is owned by iHeartMedia. The station's studios are located along the West Loop Freeway in the city's Uptown district.
KPRC is powered at 5,000 watts. At night, to protect other stations on AM 950, it uses a directional antenna. The transmitter site is located off the Interstate 610 North Loop and Liberty Road in the Settegast neighborhood on the northeast side. KPRC is also heard on an HD Radio subchannel of sister station 94.5 KTBZ-FM-HD3.

Programming

iHeartRadio owns two talk stations in Houston. AM 740 KTRH has a slate of mostly local hosts and iHeart's top syndicated shows. KPRC's schedule was largely syndicated until some programming changes in late 2018 added several daytime shows to the lineup. Weekdays begin with , followed by Glenn Beck, The STA Money Hour, Ken Webster Jr.'s "Pursuit of Happiness", The Jimmy Barrett Show, The Jesse Kelly Show, The Truth with Charles Adams and Buck Sexton. Walton & Johnson, Beck, Kelly and Sexton are syndicated shows. Some hours are paid brokered programming.
Weekends feature shows on money, cars, beer, cigars, guns and home improvement. Technology expert Kim Komando is heard on Sunday evening. KPRC airs college football and basketball games from the University of Houston. Most hours begin with national news from Fox News Radio.
The station previously aired a talk format branded as Talkradio 950 KPRC, with Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, two syndicated shows that have moved to 740 KTRH. Until March 19, 2013, the station was branded The 950 - Radio Mojo, and aired a hot talk format.

History

In 1923, Ross Sterling Jr. took a course on broadcasting at the YMCA in Houston. His father, Ross Sterling Sr., met the instructor, Alfred P. Daniel, and discussed starting a new radio station affiliated with the Houston Post. William P. Hobby, the president and publisher of the Post, asked Sterling to launch the radio station. Before a 500-watt transmitter ordered from the Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing Co. arrived in Houston, Sterling Jr. died. Sterling Sr., mourning the loss of his son, put the still crated transmitter in storage. Over one year later, Daniel approached Sterling Sr. and asked about proceeding with the establishment of the radio station. Sterling Sr. agreed with the idea and moved forward with establishing the station. KPRC's first broadcast occurred on Saturday, May 9, 1925, with Daniel as the station's first announcer and program director. The federal license granting permission for radio broadcasts on 920 kHz was issued on May 13. Although the call letters stand for Post Radio Company, they also refer to a 1920s' Houston business/tourism campaign slogan Kotton Port Rail Center.
In 1927, it interrupted its scheduled programming to give out dispatches for the Houston Police Department.
In 1941, KPRC moved to its current frequency of 950 kHz under terms of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement. On December 24, 1946, KPRC-FM signed on the air. In 1950, the Hobbys purchased KLEE-TV Channel 2 and renamed it KPRC-TV. In 1983, after the Post was sold, the Hobby family's broadcast holdings were reorganized into H&C Communications. The Hobbys began to liquidate their broadcasting assets in 1993, selling KPRC radio to the Sunbelt Broadcasting Company, a local company that also bought 700 KSEV. The Hobbys sold KPRC-TV to Post-Newsweek Stations the next year. Sunbelt, in turn, sold KPRC radio to its current owner, iHeartMedia, in 1995.

HD Radio