Robert Hyland, Jr. (1920–1992) was CBS regional vice president and general manager of
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 ...
KMOX
KMOX (1120 AM) is a commercial radio station in St. Louis, Missouri. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it is a 50,000 watt Class A clear-channel station with a non-directional signal. The KMOX studios and offices are on Olive Street at Tucker Bouleva ...
in
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
for four decades.
Personal life
He was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1920. He attended both
St. Louis University High School and
St. Louis University. Before going into radio he embraced the idea of becoming a professional baseball player and even an actor, but these ideas were shot down by his father or other reasons. Hyland was the son of the longtime Cardinals team physician, Dr. Robert F. Hyland, M.D.
Contributions/Career
Hyland emphasized and leveraged KMOX's relationship with the
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...
; he also made the decision in 1960 to eliminate the station's afternoon music programming in favor of
talk radio
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 ...
, a critical change which led to the station's subsequent dominance of the St. Louis radio market. He also introduced the first listener call-in programs at KMOX in 1960.
Hyland was very much involved in civic ventures. He founded the drug and alcohol treatment center at St. Anthony's Hospital (St. Anthony's Medical Center), which was named after his father. He served on the boards of the St. Louis Zoo, the St. Louis Symphony, and the Municipal Opera, and received many honorary degrees and awards. In 1988 he was chosen as the St. Louis Man of the Year.
inal Resting Place, p. 145
Hyland was the man who brought the Big Red Line Cheerleaders to the St Louis Football Cardinals Organization.
Death
Hyland died in 1992 due to cancer.
New York Times Obituary
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References
External links
www.stlradio.com
The hall of fame section contains a biography of Hyland.
stlcin.missouri.org
KMOX Radio Special on Robert Hyland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hyland, Robert
1920 births
1992 deaths
American radio executives
Lindenwood University people
Saint Louis Zoo people
20th-century American businesspeople