KCRS (550 AM), commonly called Newstalk 550 KCRS, is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

broadcasting a

News Talk Information Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

format. Licensed to

Midland, Texas Midland is a city in and the county seat of Midland County, Texas, United States. A small part of Midland is in Martin County. At the 2020 census, Midland's population was 132,524. It is the principal city of the Midland, Texas metropolitan ...

, United States, the station serves the Odessa-Midland area. The station is currently owned by ICA Radio Midland-Odessa License, LLC and features programming from

Fox News Radio Fox News Radio is an American radio network owned by Fox News. It is syndicated to over 500 AM and FM radio stations across the United States. It also supplies programming for three channels on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. History In 2003, ...

Premiere Radio Networks Premiere Networks (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American media company, a wholly owned subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original radio content distribution and production arm. It ...

and

Sporting News Radio SportsMap is a sports radio Radio network, network that is distributed by Gow Media. The SportsMap Radio Network supplies its network affiliates with a 24-hour schedule of sports programming, including call-in shows and sports updates. Over its h ...

. KCRS also carries live sports for the Permian Basin. Currently the station carries the games of the

Midland RockHounds The Midland RockHounds are a Minor League Baseball team based in Midland, Texas. The team, which plays in the Texas League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics major league club. The RockHounds play in Momentum Bank Ballpark, whic ...

of Minor League Baseball's

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

as well as football broadcasts for the Midland High Bulldogs and the Legacy High Rebels on a rotating basis with Lonestar 92. KCRS' studios are located at the ICA Business Plaza on East Eighth Street in Odessa, just east of downtown, and its transmitter is located in Midland. KCRS was the leader in sports in West Texas for a time. It was the home of Sports Fan Radio Network and aired the ''Fabulous Sports Babe'' program. Until the 2009 season, KCRS was the flagship station for the RockHounds, having been their radio home since the team was first established as the Midland Cubs back in 1972. In the spring of 2009, GAP Broadcasting announced that the Rockhound games would be following OC over to 102.1 Jack FM. From 2004 to 2007 NewsTalk 550 was the affiliate for

Odessa College Odessa College is a public junior college in Odessa, Texas. The college serves the people of Ector County and the Permian Basin. It was established in 1946 and enrolle8,024 studentsin Fall 2021 and 7,679 students in Spring 2022 in its universit ...

men's and women's road basketball games, but those rights were transferred to

KFZX KFZX (102.1 FM) is a radio station located in the Midland/ Odessa, Texas market which plays a classic rock music format. Its studios are located at the ICA Business Plaza on East Eighth Street in Odessa, just east of downtown, and its transmitt ...

in 2008. Before getting the OC contract, they aired 10 consecutive years of NJCAA Conference play with

Midland College Midland College (MC) is a public community college in Midland, Texas. It was established as an independent junior college in 1972 and held its first classes on campus in 1975. Since that time, the campus has expanded to a main campus on in Mi ...

for both men's and women's basketball. They have also been the home for the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Texas Tech Red Raiders The Texas Tech Red Raiders and Lady Raiders are the athletic teams that represent Texas Tech University, located in Lubbock, Texas. The women's basketball team uses the name Lady Raiders, while the school's other women's teams use the "Red Raide ...

football and men's basketball games, but the rights were moved to

KMCM KMCM (96.9 FM), branded as "KMCM 97 Gold Oldies", is a radio station that serves the Midland–Odessa metropolitan area with oldies by broadcasting the Classic Hits satellite feed from ABC Radio Networks. Its studios are located at the West Tex ...

in 2004. They broadcast

Baylor Bears The Baylor Bears are the athletic teams that represent Baylor University. The teams participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as one of only two private school members of the Big 12 Conference. Prior to j ...

football games from 1978 until 2004, when they decided to drop NCAA games altogether. KCRS was owned by

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

until it sold the entire Midland-Odessa cluster to Gap Broadcasting, who in turn sold the said cluster to ICA Broadcasting for $3 million.

FM Translators

KCRS relays its programming to two

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

s in order to widen the coverage area; they also provide the listener with the choice of listening on FM with high fidelity

stereophonic Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

sound.

Station schedule

Monday–Friday *4am – ''

Gordon Deal Gordon Deal is an American talk radio host for the nationally syndicated wake-up show ''This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal'', previously called ''The Wall Street Journal This Morning''. Prior to working at ''The Wall Street Jour ...

This Morning'' *6am – ''The Morning Drive'' *9am – ''The Lynn Woolley Show'' *11am –

Rush Limbaugh Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( ; January 12, 1951 – February 17, 2021) was an American conservative political commentator who was the host of '' The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which first aired in 1984 and was nationally syndicated on AM and FM r ...

*2pm –

Dave Ramsey David Lawrence Ramsey III (born September 3, 1960) is an American personal finance personality, radio show host, author, and businessman. An evangelical Christian, he hosts the nationally syndicated radio program ''The Ramsey Show''. Ramsey has ...

*5pm – ''The 5 O'Clock News Block'' with Jesse Grimes *6pm –

Lars Larson Lars Kristopher Larson (born March 6, 1959)"Lars Kristopher Larson". ''Who's Who in the West'', 26th ed. Accessed June 17, 2013 via LexisNexis. is an American conservative talk radio show host based in Portland, Oregon. Larson worked in televis ...

*9pm –

Hugh Hewitt Hugh Hewitt (born February 22, 1956) is an American radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network and an attorney, academic, and author. A conservative, he writes about law, society, politics, and media bias in the United States. Hewitt is ...

(delayed) *12am – '' Coast to Coast AM'' with

George Noory George Ralph Noory (born June 4, 1950) is an American radio talk show host. Since January 2003, Noory has been the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show ''Coast to Coast AM''. The program is syndicated to hundreds of radio stations in ...

References

External links

{{News/Talk Radio Stations in Texas CRS News and talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1972