KPNT

KPNT

Collinsville, Illinois
Broadcast area	Greater St. Louis
Frequency	105.7 MHz FM (HD Radio) 105.7-2 FM POINT-2 ((STEREO)) 105.7-3 FM POINT-2 (MONO)
Branding	105.7 The Point
Programming
Format	Alternative Rock
Ownership
Owner	Hubbard Broadcasting (St. Louis FCC License Sub, LLC)
Sister stations	KSHE, WXOS, WIL, WARH
History
First air date	March 1967 (as KSGM-FM)
Former call signs	KSGM-FM (1967-1987) KSTZ (1987-1991) KFXB (1991-1993)
Call sign meaning	K PoiNT
Technical information
Facility ID	56525
Class	C1
ERP	54,000 watts
HAAT	254.4 meters (835 ft)
Links
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	1057ThePoint.com

KPNT (105.7 MHz "105.7 The Point") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Collinsville, Illinois, and broadcasting to Greater St. Louis. It mainly airs an alternative rock radio format, with some elements of active rock. It is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting.

KPNT has studios and offices in Creve Coeur (with a St. Louis address). The transmitter is off Mackenzie Road in Shrewsbury, just outside the St. Louis city limits, on a tower used by numerous local TV and FM stations. KPNT broadcasts in HD, and simulcasts the sports talk programming of KFNS "590 The Fan" on its HD2 subchannel.

History

KPNT is considered a "move-in" station. In March 1967, the station signed on in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, about 50 miles south of St. Louis. It had the call sign KSGM-FM and was simulcast with its sister station, AM 980 KSGM. The call letters stood for K Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. (AM 980 KSGM has since moved across the Mississippi River to Chester, Illinois.) KSGM-FM broadcast at 27,000 watts from a 285-foot antenna, with only limited coverage of the southern part of the St. Louis radio market, where many of the station are powered at 100,000 watts.

In 1987, KSGM-FM was bought by Channel One Communications, for $7.5 million. The power was boosted to 100,000 watts, giving the station coverage of the St. Louis metropolitan area. Channel One launched a hot adult contemporary music format with the new call letters, KSTZ, and was known as "Kiss FM".

On March 6, 1991, KSTZ was rebranded as "The Fox" with an album oriented rock (AOR) format and new set of call letters, KFXB. KFXB began a simulcast on sister station WFXB (now WXOS on 101.1 FM).

The simulcast was broken on February 17, 1993, when KFXB adopted the current call sign, KPNT, with a modern rock music format, partly inspired by the success of St. Louis' first full-time alternative rock music station, 89.7 KYMC, a small non-profit station broadcasting out of Ballwin, Missouri. The first song on "The Point" was "Radio Song" by R.E.M..

In 2006, KPNT expanded the playlist to include a wider variety of active rock artists while maintaining a strong emphasis on alternative artists. The new slogan, "Everything Alternative", was adopted to promote this change.

In January 2013, KPNT moved its city of license from Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, to Collinsville, Illinois, and its transmitter moved north from Jefferson County, Missouri to St. Louis. The license for this change was issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on February 27, 2015. The station was required to reduce its effective radiated power from 100,000 watts to 54,000 watts and height above average terrain from more than 1,300 feet to 835 feet, but the trade was considered beneficial to KPNT by moving its transmitter within the immediate St. Louis metropolitan area, now using a TV and FM tower off Mackenzie Road.

Specialty programming

A feature known as "My Shuffle" was promoted on their website allowing listeners to create their own five-song playlist. Some of the listener's five-song playlists air on KPNT during a show known as the "My Shuffle Lunch" program which airs at 12:00PM or during specialty "My Shuffle Weekends."

Personalities

The Point's first morning show was Maryellen and The Mudman In The Morning which morphed into The Sarah Clarke And Maryellen Morning Show. Later came personalities Jeffery Burton, Trisha Gazall, and Thompson West. The station even briefly picked up the legendary syndicated Howard Stern Show after the station merged with then Extreme Radio 104.1 WXTM-FM (now WHHL). Stern soon moved to Sirius Satellite Radio, and KPNT added the syndicated Cleveland-based morning show Rover's Morning Glory.

On January 26, 2007, it was announced that the Rover's Morning Glory was to be replaced by local DJ Donny Fandango's new morning show The Donny Fandango Experiment. According to the website, this was due to many requests for a morning radio show with less talk and more music. Rizzuto was heard in the midday slot and Thom and Jeff broadcast in afternoon drive time. On July 1, 2007, two new KPNT DJs, Ashley "Lux" Mohr and Tony Patrico, joined The Point's Johnnie Lomax to round out the weekend lineup.

On July 10, 2009, a new morning show was introduced with Woody and Rizzuto.

In August 2012, the Thom and Jeff' afternoonhow was replaced with midday jock Donny, and Ashley became a full-time jock in middays, and then in February 2013 Donny and Ashley swapped on air shifts.

In April 2014, Woody left to move to ALT98.7 KYSR in Los Angeles California. Rizzuto and Tony Patrico added co-host / producer Moon Valjean of Story Of The Year Greek Fire (band) and Goldfinger (band) fame during their take over in the mornings. Jeff Burton (former afternoon personality) joined the program in May 2014.

In December 2016, Ashley moved to sister-station KNOU, where she was a part of the morning show. Radio personality, and former Rizzuto Show intern, Makena "Mak" Carmean took over the 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. afternoon slot at KPNT. Ashley has now returned to KPNT and taken back over her 2 p.m. to 6 pm. weekday time slot.

Former personalities

• Sarah Clarke
• Maryellen
• Trisha Gazall
• Eric Schmidt
• Iceberg
• Joe Moskus
• Tommy T
• Thompson "Thom" West
• Woody (now at rival station KLLT (FM))
• Loren
• Becks
• Michael "The Mudman" Gross
• Howard Stern

Concerts and events

KPNT is also well known for promoting a biannual music festival known as Pointfest.

Compilation albums

KPNT produced a series of compilation albums, featuring tracks submitted by local up and coming artists from throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area. This series of albums is known as Pointessential (stylized as POINTESSENTIAL). Bands featured in the Pointessential series before they became well known have included Gravity Kills, The Urge, Stir, Modern Day Zero, Cavo, Autovein, and Story of the Year. The CD series was an annual release from 1994 through 1999. After KPNT was sold to Emmis Communications, the series was temporarily suspended. It was brought back again in 2002 after a three-year break when the station renewed its commitment to the local music scene in St. Louis.

• Pointessential, Volume 1 (1994)
• Pointessential, Volume 2 (1995)
• Pointessential, Volume 3 (1996)
• Pointessential, Volume 4 (1997)
• Pointessential, Volume 5 (1998)
• The Point Platinum, Version 1.0 (1998)
• Pointessential, Volume 6 (1999)
• Pointessential, Volume 7 (2002)

Former slogans for KPNT

• "105.7 The Point, Get It" 1993-1999
• "St. Louis' New Rock Alternative, 105.7 The Point" 1999-2006
• "105.7 The Point, Everything Alternative" 2006–Present

Hoax

In May 1995, KPNT reported that R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry had died, reportedly receiving the information from Warner Music Group via fax. It was later revealed to be a hoax. Berry had recently undergone an operation to relieve an aneurysm he suffered during the band's tour in support of Monster.

External links

• Official Website
• Facility details for Facility ID KPNT ({{{2}}}) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• {{{2}}} in Nielsen Audio's FM station database