Courtesy the St. Louis Post Dispatch

(March 25, 2011) The Cardinals left KTRS after loud outcries from fans who said they either couldn't pick up the signal or had to put up with interference and are returning to their old home, KMOX, this season. But the Birds will flock back to 550 on Tuesday, when the game against their Springfield minor-league team is pre-empted on KMOX by a Blues game.

But don't expect that to continue in the regular season. The Birds have priority at KMOX (1120 AM) and when there is baseball-hockey overlap the Blues go to KYKY (98 FM).

But why not bump the Birds' exhibition to KYKY or KEZK (102.5 FM) — which like KMOX are CBS Radio stations — instead of the outlet the team left?

The answer is twofold. Those FM stations, in music formats, are highly rated and CBS doesn't want to preempt them often, especially for a game of little importance. Plus it's an easy transition to KTRS given the team's ownership role. But that doesn't mean there's a snuggly relationship between KMOX and KTRS.

KTRS recently aired taped play-by-play clips of a Cards exhibition game and a source said that riled KMOX, which complained to the team. The club told KTRS to stop using the copyrighted material — in essence scolding itself because of its KTRS ownership.

Cardinals senior vice president Dan Farrell, who oversees the team's broadcast operations, said it is no different than when KTRS had the broadcasts and did not allow KMOX to air highlights.

KTRS "asked us to protect them over the last five years and we did," Farrell said. "If a station wants to use a call, it has to get the opponent's feed or the TV feed. It's standard practice. We retain radio replay coverage to our rights holder," in this case KMOX.

He said it isn't a concern for the club if a radio network picks up a highlight and it airs on a St. Louis affiliate because Major League Baseball regulates that.

"But locally we monitor the marketplace," Farrell said. "Radio stations (competing with KMOX) can't use the highlights" on a local show. "It's as simple as that."

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