Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville, Kentucky, is Kentucky's second-biggest city, with approximately 256,000 residents (2002). The Louisville metropolitan area is the largest in Kentucky and the fiftieth-largest in the United States with a population of 1,025,598 (2002). Louisville sits on the Ohio River, on the Kentucky-Indiana border. Louisville is most famous as the home of the Kentucky Derby, the most widely watched event in American horse racing.

Louisville is home to several major corporations, including UPS International, Yum! (owners of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and A & W Restaurants; formerly Tricon Global Restaurants), Brown and Williamson Tobacco, Papa Johns Pizza, and Hillerich & Bradsby (known for "Louisville Slugger" baseball bats).

Louisville is also home to the University of Louisville and the elite duPont Manual Magnet High School. College basketball is extremely popular in Louisville; Louisville and the nearby University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky have won a combined 9 national titles, and four of the 25 winningest NCAA Division I teams are located in or near the city.

Famous Louisvillians include Muhammad Ali, Diane Sawyer, Paul Hornung, Tom Cruise, Johnny Unitas, Hunter S. Thompson, Keno Don Rosa, and 60 Minutes tobacco informant Jeffrey Wigand.

The local newspaper is the Louisville Courier-Journal. Local attractions include Churchill Downs thoroughbred racetrack, Freedom Hall, Minor League Baseball's "Louisville Riverbats", the Louisville Slugger Museum, the Muhammad Ali Museum, the Kentucky Center For The Arts, the Seelbach Hotel and Camberley-Brown Hotel, and the Bardstown Road "Highlands" area, which features small, distinctive shops and restaurants.

See also: Talk radio