WREN returned to the air in 1998 after going silent the previous year. WREN obtained a construction permit to move to Kansas City, Kansas. As this history indicates, it was a return trip home for WREN (now KKHK), which moved to Topeka after World War II from Lawrence.
The Radio Service Bulletin published by the U.S. Department of Commerce listed WREN's starting date as June 15, 1926 from Florence, Kansas. I believe that location is in error. There is a Florence in Kansas, but it is near Wichita, more than 100 miles away from Lawrence, the headquarters of the Jenny Wren flour mill, which put the station on the air. By 1927, the location of WREN was shown in station lists as Lawrence, Kansas.
During the 1930s, WREN functioned as the NBC Blue Network affiliate for Kansas, with a transmitter site near Tonganoxie, Kansas. The Kansas City Star had proposed a purchase in 1935 but was denied on grounds of monopoly by the FCC.
WREN was moved to Topeka in 1947 (after FCC approval May 1, 1947). Alf Landon, the 1936 Republican presidential candidate and former Kansas governor, bought WREN in October 1952. Landon sold the station to Pat Paton and Ted Cramer on September 5, 1985. Paton and Cramer took the station off the air in 1987.
In previous versions of this history, I have given this date as 1990, which is what I remembered. However, three sources, including one cited in this history, give the date for WREN's going silent as 1987. One source specifically gives the date as September 1987. A Federal Communications Commission record gives the date as December 21, 1987. As a consequence, I have decided to use the 1987 date.
WREN was reactivated in 1993 by Michael Glinter with a southern gospel format. WREN still nominally had a share-time arrangement with KFKU Lawrence dating from 1927, but KFKU had not been used by Kansas University since 1987. While the Internet-accessible records of the FCC are unclear on the matter, it is likely that KFKU was deleted in 1997. In 1996, the FCC asked the university to show cause why the license should not be deleted because it had not been used for so long. Deletion of a license usually occurs one year after such a notice.
A history of broadcasting at the University of Kansas, published by the university's school of journalism and mass communications, written by professor emeritus Bruce Linton, says that the time-sharing agreement between WREN and KFKU "was not a happy arrangement" with KFKU only having one hour per day on 1250 kHz in the late 1940s. With the donation of FM equipment from a defunct FM station in Hutchinson, Kansas, the university was able to substantially increase its broadcasting activity by putting KANU(FM) on the air on September 15, 1952. The Linton history indirectly indicates that KFKU had separate programming from KANU until 1959, when KFKU began simulcasting KANU during its one hour a day on 1250 kHz.
Another, more recent history, written by KU history professor John McCool, says that WREN refused to give KFKU more time "since there was always a noticeable audience drop when KFKU came on." McCool also says that KFKU's time on 1250 kHz had been reduced to 30 minutes per day in its later years. As he so memorably states it:
WREN itself began to fall on hard times, attracting more creditors and IRS agents than actual listeners. When it finally went off the air in September 1987, the demise of KFKU seemed imminent as well. As to the idea of continuing KFKU by some other means, Dr. Max Utsler, the KU School of Journalism’s director of radio, television and film programs, told the Lawrence Journal-World that he "didn’t notice any groundswell of support from the members of my department and my bosses, and that speaks for myself as well."
McCool also says that KFKU surrendered its license in 1987 after WREN went silent. That would appear to conflict with the information in FCC databases in the mid-1990s and with the 1996 show-cause order to KU regarding KFKU's license. That said, McCool states that the general manager of KFKU and KANU at the time, Howard Hill, surrendered the KFKU license to the FCC.
On December 1, 1995, the FCC announced an application by WREN to move to Kansas City, Missouri, with fulltime operation (i.e., no sharing with KFKU) at a transmitter site near the Worlds of Fun amusement park, with 15 kW daytime, 3.5 kW nights, DA-2. On December 16, 1996, the Commission dismissed petitions to deny the application, and granted WREN a construction permit for the move. In March 1997, WREN went silent, reportedly in preparation for the move. According to FCC records, WREN did not go silent until May 12, 1997. Under provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, WREN would have to return to the air by May 11, 1998; if it did not, its license would have been cancelled.
Also in 1997, Glinter proposed a sale to Mortenson Broadcasting (which earlier that year had bought the Gladstone station he had put on the air, KGGN). The application was filed with the Federal Communications Commission on June 11, 1997 and approved July 22, 1997.
There was still more regarding WREN in 1997. The FCC reported a petition to deny a proposed move of WREN to its 1660 kHz expanded-band allocation. That petition, filed September 12, 1997 and released September 17, still listed Glinter as the owner of WREN. Subsquent FCC documents showed Mortenson as the station's owner.
The petition to deny was the first indication I had seen that WREN had even applied for its expanded-band slot. There were several petitions to deny filed against expanded-band allocations on that date, suggesting that WREN was not the sole target of the legal move. The petition was dismissed on May 27, 1998. At that time, WREN was granted a construction permit for 1660 kHz, but with a daytime power of 9,100 watts rather than 10,000 watts. and a nighttime power of 910 watts rather than 1,000 watts. Evidently this would compensate for WREN's move from Topeka, the location at which the original calculations were made in determining WREN's expanded-band eligibility. In 2001, listener reports indicated that the expanded-band facility was finally activated with test transmissions on March 23, simulcasting KXTR at 1250 kHz.
In the meantime, on November 10, 1997, the FCC quietly updated its database for WREN's 1250 kHz move to Kansas City, showing a construction permit for 25 kW daytime, 5 kW nights, DA-2.
I have not been able to determine the exact date for WREN's return to the air in 1998. As already mentioned, WREN had to be back on the air by May 11, 1998. (I no longer was living in Kansas City byt hen, so I couldn't have heard it for myself.) The station left the air on or just before June 28, 1999 when its new owner, Entercom, made preparations to change the station's format.
WREN returned to the air July 20, 1999, relaying the One-On-One satellite sports-talk network. FCC records show that WREN's call letters changed to KKGM on July 30. This represented yet another unfortunate loss of an historic set of calls, especially one beginning with a W in a geographic area where calls beginning with a K are now issued.
In 2000, the station underwent yet another format and call-letter change. Entercom, the owner of KKGM and the new owner of longtime classical station KXTR(FM), moved the format to the 1250 kHz frequency. The FM station briefly held the call letters KXTR-FM after the KXTR calls were assigned to 1250 kHz on August 17, 2000.
In 2001, after testing in March, the expanded-band facility at 1660 kHz began airing KXTR's classical format on a full-time basis late in May. KXTR was simulcast on both 1250 and 1660 kHz until June 13, when, reports indicate, 1250 kHz inaugurated a Spanish-language format. FCC records show that the KXTR call letters moved to 1660 kHz on June 6. On the same date, the call letters KWSJ were assigned to 1250 kHz. The station now has the call letters KKHK.
Even though WREN packed up and moved to Kansas City, and the call letters have since disappeared, there's still a remnant of the station in Topeka. There was a giant concrete wren on the WREN building in Topeka (I saw it in 1987 or 1988 after WREN had gone off the air.) It's now sitting in the median of SW Topeka Boulevard. See World's Largest Things for a photo and some descriptive history. That site says the wren was in a "mini-park" but I distinctly remember it as being on top of the WREN building. Alternatively, there could have been two wrens, one on the building, and one on the ground. If so, then the wren on the building may be lost to history after all.
Present Status
See the timeline for a detailed list of key dates for WREN (now KKHK).Technical Facilities
25 kW-D, 3.7 kW-N, DA-2 since May 1998.
Technical History
Original licensing date June 15, 1926 in "Florence", Kansas (possibly Lawrence). By May 24, 1927, was on 720 kHz. Move to 1180 kHz announced by FCC on that date, along with requirement to share time with KKSU. On October 16, 1928, moved to 1220 kHz, with increase of power from 0.5 kW to 1 kW. Transmitter moved to Tonganoxie, Kansas in 1932. License moved to Topeka, Kansas in 1947 (5 kW, DA-N, transmitter at Grantville, east of Topeka). See the rest of this article for recent history and move back to the Kansas City metropolitan area with WREN's relicensing to Kansas City, Kansas.
Mark RobertsOakland, California
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