page_title: KFNS (AM)
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: KFNS (AM) / History / Early years
caption_attribution_description: English: WKLL ad from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch during the KOOL-590 transition in early September, 19
context_page_description: KFNS – branded 590 The Fan – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to serve Wood River, Illinois. Owned by Markel Radio Group LLC, the station services Greater St. Louis and is the market affiliate for CBS Sports Radio and Fox Sports Radio. The KFNS studios are located in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood, Missouri, while the station transmitter resides in nearby Bethalto, Illinois. In addition to a standard analog transmission, KFNS is available online.
context_section_description: On October 5, 1961, the station first signed on as WBBY, a daytimer broadcasting at 500 watts. WBBY was owned by Madison County Broadcasting Company and served the Wood River area with local news, sports and other programming. It began nighttime operations in 1964. In 1965, WBBY changed its call sign to WRTH and its format switched to beautiful music, targeting the St. Louis market. Its easy listening music format was among the most highly rated stations in St. Louis. Among the best known announcers were Grant Horton, Paul Warner, Frank Akers, Jim Scanlan and Ed Goodman.
  In the 1980s, WRTH transitioned to an adult standards format, which it aired until September 1988, when it flipped to oldies as WKLL, Kool 590. On November 1, 1989, the format changed again to all-business news and talk under the call letters WCEO, which stood for Chief Executive Officer. On January 1, 1991, the station adopted an easy listening format with the call sign KEZK adopted that January 29; at the time, Adams Communications Corporation owned both KEZK and KEZK-FM, a soft adult contemporary outlet.
  
  In February 1993, KEZK began simulcasting the soft AC programming of its FM sister station.
caption: WKLL ad after its transition in early September 1988.
exif: {"Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.10.2", "Image DateTime": "2018:10:17 22:16:37", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "147", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "256", "Thumbnail BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail PhotometricInterpretation": "6", "Thumbnail SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "230", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9877"}