It airs a news/talk radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. Its studios are along the West Loop Freeway (I-610) in the city's Uptown district.
KTRH broadcasts with 50,000 watts around the clock, the highest power permitted by the Federal Communications Commission for commercial AM stations.
At night, to protect CFZM, the station switches to a directional pattern with a significant null to the east, concentrating the signal in Houston, the Golden Triangle and Victoria.
(Initially call letters beginning with "W" were generally assigned to stations east of an irregular line formed by the western state borders from North Dakota south to Texas.
[9] On November 11, 1928, under the provisions of the Federal Radio Commission's General Order 40, the station moved back to 1120 kHz.
[13] In December 1929, the station's call letters were changed to KTRH (standing for The Rice Hotel), and its main studio was moved to Houston.
(Simultaneously, station KGDR in San Antonio, Texas was renamed KUT and moved to Austin (now KJFK).
In the 1950s, as network programming moved from radio to TV, KTRH-AM-FM switched to a full service middle of the road (MOR) format.
The Gallup Poll's editor in chief Frank Newport was also a noted talk show host and news director at KTRH in the early 1980s.
That means Clear Channel, and now iHeartMedia, has two talk radio stations in Houston, each airing slightly different programming.
The Michael Berry Show, a syndicated program based at KTRH, airs in late mornings and again in early evenings.
On weekends, shows on money, health, gardening, cars, home repair and the oil industry are heard.