The predecessor of KCMO was a relative latecomer to the ranks of pioneer stations, KWKC.
KWKC first appeared in a U.S. Department of Commerce list of radio stations operating on June 30, 1925, operating with 100 watts at 1270 kHz. A history of KCMO that was transcribed and made available to me in 1995 stated that the station began operating in May 1925, with its license being granted on May 14. (Because that history is no longer available from the station's subsequent owner, nor was it copyrighted, I have scanned it and made it available on a separate page.)
The station was located in midtown Kansas City in the Werby Building at 39th & Main. The building was demolished in the 1970s. The Werby Building location is now the site of a bank.
A massive reallocation of all U.S. radio stations shifted KWKC to 1370 kHz on November 11, 1928. In early 1929, according to the KCMO history, the station's studios were moved to the Schuyler Hotel downtown. The transmitter remained at the Werby Building. A second studio was set up at a Midtown location, the LaSalle Hotel at Linwood and Harrison streets.
By June 1932, according to the KCMO history, KWKC was operating on a reduced schedule, daily from 12 noon to 12 midnight, possibly an early indicator of financial troubles.
In his paper African-Americans in Local Broadcasting: Kansas City, 1922-1982, William James Ryan describes KWKC as "underfinanced". Ryan goes on to tell this story:
KWKC became the brunt of jokes as it struggled through the Depression. When nationally famous band leader Ben Bernie came to town he appeared at the Main Street Theatre with artists sent by local radio stations. Bernie quipped: "WHB, KMBC, and WDAF each sent me some radio talent. Even KWKC sent a phonograph record." (Source: William J. Ryan, African-Americans in Local Broadcasting: Kansas City, 1922-1982, p. 4.)
On January 22, 1936, according to the KCMO history, "it was announced that KWKC was to be sold at auction for back taxes".
Other sources indicate that Wilson Duncan proposed a sale to Springfield, Mo. businessman Lester Cox and the president of the Crown Drug Co., Tom Evans, in March, 1936.
At some point in 1936 while the sale was pending, Duncan died. On May 1, the FCC approved substituting Charlotte Duncan for Wilson Duncan on the station's license renewal application.
For a brief time after that, it appeared that the sale hit some snags. On May 5, 1936, the Commission designated for hearing KWKC's application for sale, license renewal, and change in transmitter site. When it released information on the KWKC proceeding, it also also used the KCMO call letters for the first time:
KWKC (KCMO), Kansas City, redesignated for hearing applic. assign license to Lester E. Cox and Thomas L. Evans and applic. new equip., move trans. and studio, change hours to unltd. (Broadcasting, May 15, 1936)
(KWKC had still been operating on specified hours.)
By May 14, the FCC had reconsidered and granted the application to change ownership, referring to the station by its new call letters, KCMO. It appears, however, that the KCMO call letters were in use before that. Radio program listings in both the Kansas City Star and the Journal-Post showed KWKC at 1370 kHz up until May 1. Starting May 2, listings for KWKC were replaced by listings for KCMO at 1370 kHz.
Moreover, advertisements in several 1936 issues of Broadcasting provide some indication that Cox and Evans had at least some involvement in KWKC's operations even before the official transfer of ownership: the station advertised jointly with Cox and Evans' other stations, WTMV in East St. Louis, Illinois, and KGBX in Springfield, Missouri. (One such advertisement appeared in the April 1, 1936 issue.)
The 1995 KCMO history said the KCMO call letters were first used on May 14, 1936, a day after the station had moved to new studios in the Commerce Trust Building. The history also says that the FCC approved the new call letters on April 14, 1936. Later that year, according to the KCMO history, a new news and sports director was named: Walter Cronkite. (Yes, that Walter Cronkite.)
The FCC subsequently approved the station's application for unlimited time. Cox and Evans steadily upgraded the station's facilities. A big step was a move to 1450 kHz and 1,000 watts from KCMO's low-power 1370 kHz channel in 1939. The exact date of this move is unclear, though it appears to have occurred in May 1939, based on contemporary newspaper listings and an FCC license issued on May 22 to cover the frequency change.
The Kansas City Journal-Post showed KCMO at 1450 kHz in its radio program listings for the first time on May 9, 1939. The Star didn't show KCMO at 1450 until May 11; however, in its May 10 issue, just under listings showing KCMO at 1370, there was a display ad for a new program on "K.C.M.O. 1450 kilocycles", "starting tonight 6:45 p.m." My inclination is to accept the Journal-Post date of May 9 for the frequency change.
The 1995 KCMO history stated that the new transmitter location was used beginning in July 1939, with the power increase and frequency change occurring in September 1939. This conflicts with the newspaper listings, and it doesn't seem likely that a station would advertise its programs on the wrong frequency. Thus, I'm still inclined to go with the May 9 date.
The increased power also appeared to make it possible for KCMO to get a network affiliation. Shortly after the move to 1450, KCMO acquired NBC Blue Network affiliation. The station really hit its stride, though, with a postwar move to 810 kHz and a 50,000-watt signal in the daytime.
Evans and Cox started KCMO-TV in 1953 as an ABC affiliate. KCMO-TV began testing September 8 and started regular programming September 27. KCMO-AM/FM/TV were sold to Meredith Engineering Co. on November 11, 1953. The TV station became a CBS affiliate September 28, 1955; the radio stations switched on December 1 of that year. (See KMBC history for a detailed description of the 1955 CBS-ABC affiliation swap.)
The station built a 1200-foot self-supporting tower on Union Hill in midtown Kansas City in 1955. This was the world's tallest self-supporting structure until the CN Tower was built in Toronto in the late 1960s.
KCMO radio was separated from KCMO-TV (now KCTV) by the sale of the radio stations to Summit Communications, Inc. June 21, 1983. It was subsequently sold to Pacific and Southern Co. (Gannett) July 29, 1986, and to Bonneville Broadcasting, October 27, 1993. The Bonneville sale created a duopoly with KMBZ(AM) and KLTH(FM) (now KYYS(FM)).
On January 6, 1997, Bonneville announced plans to trade KCMO and its other Kansas City stations, along with its Seattle stations, to Entercom (Entertainment Communications) of Philadelphia in exchange for KLDE(FM) Houston and $5 million cash. Entercom took control of the Kansas City stations March 1, 1997.
Entercom in turn sold KCMO-AM/FM and KCFX(FM) to Susquehanna Radio Corp. of York, Pennsylvania in a transaction announced May 12, 2000. Entercom had purchased other FM stations in Kansas City and needed to spin off three stations in order to comply with FCC limits on multiple-station ownership in the same market. It also had to release its rights to broadcast Kansas City Chiefs football games, in order to comply with Department of Justice concerns over Entercom's competitive dominance of the Kansas City market. Susquehenna's stations were subsequently purchased by Cumulus Media in 2006, with Cumulus assuming control May 5, 2006.
FM History
KCMO-FM (CP for 98.3, on-air at 94.9) was on-air in 1948. It has never left the air. It is the only Kansas City FM station with that distinction.
Present Status
See the timeline for a detailed list of key dates for KCMO. Also see the history of WHB for the history of the 710 kHz frequency.
Technical Facilities
10 kW-D, 5 kW-N, DA-2 at 710 kHz since October 8, 1997.
Technical History
Began at 1270 kHz on May 14, 1925 (according to an in-house history of KCMO written in 1995). Ordered to move to 1350 kHz during the Federal Radio Commission's first set of reallocations, announced May 24, 1927, to take effect June 1, 1927 and subsequently delayed to June 15.
The station moved again, to 1370 kHz, on November 11, 1928. After the sale to Cox and Evans, KWKC changed call letters to KCMO on May 15, 1936, judging by listings in the Kansas City Journal-Post. The 1995 history of KCMO gives a date of May 14, 1936. Along with the sale, the station's transmitter moved from 3912 Main Street to the Commerce Trust building in downtown Kansas City. KCMO's power remained at 100 watts.
KCMO increased power and moved to 1450 kHz in May 1939, judging by listings in the Kansas City Star and the Journal. The two newspapers disagree on the date of the change: the Journal shows May 9 as KCMO's first date at 1450, while the Star shows May 11 as the first date. Neither newspaper published an article specifically about the move. The new frequency was accompanied by an increase in power to 1 kW, DA-N. The FCC granted a license to cover the change on May 22, 1939. Shortly thereafter, KCMO became an NBC Blue network affiliate. Previously, WREN in Lawrence, Kansas had served as the Kansas City area's Blue affiliate.
Under NARBA, KCMO moved to 1480 kHz. A power increase at 1450 (and by extension 1480) from 1 kW to 5 kW (DA-N) was granted February 19, 1940. The 1995 history of KCMO states that the nighttime power of the station was increased to 5 kW "in late 1943".
KCMO moved to 810 kHz (50 kW-D, 10 kW-N, DA-N) and its present transmitter site along the I-435 loop in far northern Kansas City at a town formerly called Nashua on September 9, 1947. In 1962, Television Digest's 1962 AM-FM Station Directory reported that KCMO had applied to increase nighttime power to 50 kW, DA-N. Either this was not granted or the station did not pursue the matter.
More recently, KCMO was an early broadcaster of AM stereo, installing the Kahn system in 1977. The station's nighttime power was reduced to 5 kW in 1979 (FCC approval September 11, 1979) to improve its nighttime pattern over suburban Johnson County, Kansas. In another effort to improve coverage in Kansas, KCMO changed frequency to 710 kHz through a swap with WHB, October 8, 1997. The station is now owned by Cumulus Media.
» A 1995 transcript of KCMO's in-house history up to 1945
» History of WHB
» History of KMBZ
Mark RobertsOakland, California
E-mail: Please see the Contact Information page.