Updated at 5:50 p.m. Wednesday:

The Cardinals are going back to their radio roots.

As first reported today on STLtoday.com, the team announced late this afternoon that it will return its radio broadcasts to KMOX next season after five years at KTRS, where they had been airing after a 51-year run at KMOX.

The move to KTRS (550 AM) had been highly controversial, because tens of thousands of fans outside the reach of the team’s radio network had been shut out of free access to the broadcasts and some listeners in the St. Louis area still complained about having difficulty receiving the signal.

But the wide reach at night of KMOX’s signal will return the broadcast to those fans.

In deciding to go back to KMOX (1120 AM), the team is picking tradition over a strong bid from WXOS (101.1 FM), the newest sports talk station in the market.

WXOS had made two proposals – one to simulcast the game with KTRS, the other to carry the game by itself.

Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III said, "Fan sentiment and feedback" were important factors in the decision to go back to KMOX.