At Your Service - KMOX and Bob Hardy : Pioneers of Talk Radio

Using KMOX archives, family memoirs, interviews, letters and nearly 100 photos, the book documents the history of KMOX, the birth of the talk radio format and the career of Bob Hardy, known as Mr. Radio News. In 1960, KMOX established the first complete information-based format with local, national and international news, sports coverage and listener call-ins. Robert Hyland, KMOX General Manager, is credited with initiating the new format and recruiting Bob Hardy. Together, Hyland and Hardy accomplished many firsts for KMOX, including the first radio bridge in 1989, linking KMOX and Moscow Radio. The book describes broadcast highlights including coverage of the assassination of John F. Kennedy; the first broadcast of the Missouri Legislature; the topping out of the St. Louis Arch; and opening day for the new Busch Stadium. Over the years, KMOX has aired the voices of broadcasters such as Jim White, Lou Payne, John McCormick, Jack Buck, Rex Davis, Jack Carney, Anne Keefe, Bob Costas, Bill Wilkerson, Wendy Wiese, Harry Caray, Dan Dierdorf and Charles Brennan. Chinn shares letters recipes from many of these KMOX personalities as well as other KMOX employees and listeners. An epilogue by Rita Hardy, wife of the late Bob Hardy, concludes the book.