France Laux

France Laux
Born	J. Frank Laux, Jr. December 3, 1897 Guthrie, Oklahoma
Died	November 16, 1978
Known for	First full-time radio voice of baseball in St. Louis, Missouri

J. Frank "France" Laux, Jr. (December 3, 1897 - November 16, 1978) was the first full-time radio voice of baseball in St. Louis.

Laux was born in Guthrie, Oklahoma, the son of a local judge, J. Frank Laux, and his wife. The nickname "France" came from schoolmates. Heavily involved in sports, Laux won 16 letters in baseball, basketball, and football in Oklahoma City and Bristow schools before entering Oklahoma City College.

He served in the Army Air Service during World War I; after the war, his jobs included managing a semi-pro baseball team in Guthrie, Oklahoma. He also worked as an insurance and real estate broker in Bristow (a suburb of Tulsa), refereeing college football games part-time.

On the eve of the 1927 World Series, KVOO station manager Fred Yates did not have anyone to recreate the games. Someone mentioned Laux' name. Yates found him and took him to the studio. Later in the year, he began broadcasting Oklahoma and Oklahoma A&M football games as well. He was the first to introduce Gene Autry on the radio.

Laux' work soon came to the attention of the management at KMOX in St. Louis, who invited him there for a 30-day trial as the voice of both the Cardinals and Browns in 1929. This arrangement was possible because the Cardinals and Browns shared Sportsman's Park, and almost never played on the same day. As it turned out, 30 days became 24 years.

Laux became very popular, in large part because, at the time, the Cardinals were the southernmost and westernmost team in Major League Baseball. As such, their radio network blanketed large chunks of the Midwest and Southwest. Also, KMOX was a 50,000-watt clear channel powerhouse, with virtual coast-to-coast coverage at night.

...
Wikipedia