St. Louis sits at the confluence of American rivers and American music. This is the city where Chuck Berry played his guitar across the color line and taught rock and roll its signature vocabulary. Where Ike Turner made some of his first recordings, bringing Delta blues to the edge of what would become rock and soul. Where Miles Davis went to high school before heading to New York to change jazz forever. Where Tina Turner spent her formative years as Ike's collaborator and explosive front person. St. Louis R&B doesn't lack for historical credentials — it helped build the music that the rest of America learned to love.
The 314's soul tradition runs through its historically Black north side neighborhoods, through the church culture that has trained generations of singers in gospel before releasing them into R&B and soul. That tradition hasn't faded in the streaming age; it has found new frequencies. 96.3 R&B for The Lou named itself directly after St. Louis. The Bounce, Mix 99.5, and BOOST Radio serve the city's R&B community across the full spectrum of the genre. These six stations stream St. Louis soul free and continuously.
Top 6 St. Louis R&B Radio Stations
96.3 R&B for The Lou
96.3 R&B for The Lou is St. Louis's station by name and by mission. The nickname — the Lou, the 314 — is the city's own affectionate self-reference, the shorthand that St. Louis natives use to signal belonging, and a station that puts it in its name is announcing its commitment to the community it serves. 96.3 R&B for The Lou broadcasts contemporary and classic R&B with the specific orientation of a station that knows its city: the music St. Louis listeners are actually listening to, the artists who matter here, the songs that carry meaning for the communities on the north and south sides. This is the Lou's R&B home.
The Bounce WTGX KTGE
The Bounce WTGX KTGE brings R&B and soul to St. Louis streaming with an emphasis on what the name promises: the bounce, the rhythmic foundation that keeps R&B physically alive. The bounce is what gospel gave R&B — the handclap rhythm, the call-and-response, the congregational energy that transforms individual listening into a shared physical experience. St. Louis, a city whose musical roots run deep in the church, understands the bounce in its bones. The Bounce WTGX KTGE broadcasts from that understanding, streaming soul and R&B that keeps the rhythm at the center of everything.
Mix 99.5
Mix 99.5 is St. Louis's R&B and soul station, broadcasting the genre's full emotional range from a city that has always understood soul music's relationship to real life. The mix format allows the station to draw from the full history of R&B — the classic Stax and Motown material, the quiet storm era, the hip-hop soul of the 1990s, and contemporary R&B — without the rigid format restrictions that make other stations sound predictable. For St. Louis listeners who want their soul music with genuine variety, Mix 99.5 delivers a continuous stream that honors the genre's complexity.
iPoweRadio
iPoweRadio serves St. Louis with R&B and hip-hop in the tradition of the power radio format — music with energy, with presence, with the sonic authority that Black radio has always brought to its communities. The station's programming covers both genres in the spirit of how St. Louis actually listens: not as separate categories but as a continuous tradition, with the same community producing and consuming both the soul ballads and the hard-edged rap. iPoweRadio broadcasts from that continuity, giving St. Louis listeners a streaming home for the full range of the music their communities have built.
BOOST Radio
BOOST Radio brings R&B to St. Louis streaming with a format that takes the music's energy seriously. The boost is what great R&B provides — the emotional lift, the feeling of elevation that comes from music that takes your interior life and gives it external form. BOOST Radio broadcasts that elevation continuously, drawing from the full catalog of R&B and soul while maintaining an orientation toward the contemporary sounds that keep the genre moving forward. For St. Louis listeners who need their music to move them — literally and emotionally — BOOST Radio provides that energy without interruption.
HOT365
HOT365 streams R&B, hip-hop, and rap from St. Louis year-round — the 365 in its name a commitment to continuous broadcasting without seasons or breaks. The station covers the contemporary intersection of R&B and hip-hop that has defined Black popular music for three decades: the artists who move between both genres, the producers who build tracks that work as both soul and rap, the listeners who have never recognized the boundary that critics try to impose between them. HOT365 is for St. Louis listeners who want their Black music without genre restrictions, served hot and continuous from a city that has never let categories get in the way of great sound.
St. Louis R&B and the Gateway City's Soul
The Gateway City's R&B tradition is a thread that runs from Chuck Berry through Ike and Tina Turner through the contemporary streaming stations that carry their descendants' music. St. Louis has given American music more than it has received credit for — its contribution hidden beneath the louder claims of Chicago and Detroit and New York. These six stations broadcast from that hidden tradition. Explore more with our guide to St. Louis hip-hop radio stations, or discover the best R&B radio stations to stream free online for the full national picture.
