KTSA (550 AM) is a News-Talk formatted radio station in San Antonio, Texas. The radio station began as WCAR, founded by John C. Rodriguez of the Alamo Radio & Electric Company in September, 1922. WCAR was the second radio station in San Antonio, taking the airwaves shortly after WJAE which only lasted a few months. For a time the Express News Corporation owned the station. In the 1950s rock and roll radio Pioneer Gordon McLendon bought KTSA and made it one of the first Top 40 stations in America. KTSA became an overnight sensation because of the music and outrageous for the time promotions including a “Flagpole” sitter in the O. R. Mitchell Dodge Used Car lot on Broadway, and the KTSA Easter Egg Hunt which swamped San Pedro Park with thousands of listeners searching for a $1000 KTSA Golden Egg. McLendon sold KTSA in the 1960s but the station remained one of San Antonio’s most listened-to stations until the advent of FM stereo radio. KTSA was a Top 40 format “55-KTSA” until Fall 1986 when it changed to News/Talk format that it is today.
