This site originally began as an offshoot of one of the first web sites devoted to broadcasting, The Mid-America Radio Page, in 1995. After I moved to Chicago two years later, I was no longer able to maintain most of the site, but I decided to retain the historical information on the new site because I had done so much research and wanted to keep it available. The move also made the interactive timeline possible. I was also able to do more research in 1998 and 1999.
The pace of updates has slowed down in recent years because I now live in California and many of the most productive research sources that had been available to me are in Missouri. I am still maintaining this site to keep this research publicly available. I still try to keep this site updated three or four times a year, on average.
Credits
Assisting greatly in tracking down dates and other facts have been Frank Absher, Barry Mishkind, Jeff Miller, Thomas Hamilton White, and other members of the Oldradio mailing list. Xen Scott provided transcriptions of the official Federal Communications Commission records for many pioneer stations. Al Germond, former principal owner of KFRU in Columbia, generously provided materials for KFRU's history and was very helpful in providing copies of the Radio Index and other radio listings of the 1920s and 1930s, as well as brochures from W9XBY's early days in 1935. A critical resource was the Document Delivery department of the Kansas City (Mo.) public library. Especially helpful for WLBF/KCKN was the Wyandotte County, Kansas public library. Also recommended as an exhaustive history of KCKN is Joe Vaughan's K.C. Media: Crystal Sets to Satellite Service (self-published, ISBN 0-9636863-7-2, 1997).
For later history, Television Digest and Broadcasting magazine were key resources, available at the University of Missouri Journalism Library (Columbia) and Ellis Library, the University's central library. Scott Fybush, originally of Northeast Radio Watch, provided information and insight into time-sharing arrangements in the Chicago area, as described on the Time-Sharing Stations page.
Thanks also to Bob Roske for sharing his 2005 find of an early W9XBY poster.
Several web sites at the University of Kansas were helpful in providing more information about the time-sharing arrangement between KFKU and WREN, as well as a more authoritative September 1987 date for both stations' departure from the air. Notable are a history of broadcasting at the University of Kansas by professor emeritus Bruce Linton and a more recent history written by KU history professor John McCool.
The paper African-Americans in Local Broadcasting: Kansas City, 1922-1982, by William James Ryan, written in 1992, furnished an alternate version of the story of Count Basie's "discovery" during his band's broadcasts on W9XBY, and filled in more details regarding the early days of KPRS in Kansas City.
St. Louis information
In addition to the sources cited above, the following sources were helpful in researching the histories of St. Louis stations that are related to pioneer stations in the region.
St. Louis broadcasting historian Frank Absher (stlradio.com) made available excerpts from a manuscript by Tom Eschen.
Other sources included a special 16-page section on St. Louis radio in Broadcasting, March 14, 1949; Master's thesis, The History of Radio Station KSD, St. Louis, by L. Clark Secrest (University of Missouri, 1961); Master's thesis, A History of the St. Louis Star-Times, by Charles R. Suits (University of Missouri, 1970); We Pay Our Respects To--Lester Arthur Benson, Broadcasting, June 15, 1934; WIL Requests Writ to Restrain KFWF, Broadcasting, October 15, 1931; KWK Time-Teller Novel and Profitable, Broadcasting, November 15, 1931; Nets Tell Congress Status of Holdings, Broadcasting, March 15, 1932; Full Time for WIL, Broadcasting, April 15, 1933; Convey, KWK Operator, Dies After an Operation, Broadcasting, June 1, 1934; numerous Broadcasting articles on the KWK license revocation, cited with the KWK history.
Mark RobertsOakland, California
(formerly of Kansas City, Missouri)
E-mail: Please see the Contact Information page.