Change History - Mark Roberts
1996
Redesigned and renamed page with new introduction, April 1. Added St. Louis page, October 1. Updated histories of WDAF, KMBZ, and KNHN to include accounts of tower damage in 1938 and 1941, October 10.
1997
Noted impending KSD call letter change in St. Louis, January 24. Added "WRW" page, February 2. Updated current KSD and KWK calls, February 15. Updated former KNHN page with the page's renaming to KCKN and the station's renaming as KFEZ, March 8. More page redesign March 22.
Added text about WREN's silent status (since March 1997) to the history page for Topeka and St. Joseph stations, May 3. Corrected current KWK calls (still WKBQ), May 26.
Added program to allow users to create custom timeline queries, August 2. Updated WHB, KCMO, and KFRU information, September 12. Updated with WHB-KCMO swap, October 8. Updated with WKBQ donation and more FCC items about WREN, December 13.
1998
Updated with WKBQ plans to change calls to KKWK, WDAF ownership change, and FCC items about KFEQ and WIBW, January 10. Updated with additional information on WREN's date for going silent, plus information from Frank Absher in St. Louis on KFUO and WEW, January 17. More updates on WKBQ/KKWK, February 12, March 1, March 28. Updates on KKWK/KZJZ and KFUO, September 16. Moved WREN history to separate page (after its move to Kansas City), September 20.
1999
After brief hiatus, redesigned and moved pages to new ISP, July 11. Updated with recent information about WREN, August 2. Another update on WREN's July 30 call letter change was made on August 13.
Added history of WOS and amended histories of KSD (date of first broadcast) and KMOX (call-letter origins), August 31.
Added information on proposed sale of WHB (announced September 2) on September 5 and noted assumption of control (October 1) on October 12.
2000
Updated database entries for KCMO and KFEZ (KCKN) on May 19 to reflect upcoming changes in control at those stations and corrected entry for KCKN regarding its call letter change to KFKF (in 1981, not 1983).
Updated database entries for KFEZ (KCKN) with information from new FCC database that amended dates for KCKN call-letter changes in 1985 and 1990. Also added link to Frank Absher's www.stlradio.com featuring St. Louis radio history.
2001
Updated database entries and histories for KCKN and WREN (KKGM/KXTR) on March 25 to reflect restoration of historic call letters to KCKN and change of call letters plus activation of expanded-band station for 1250 kHz.
Updated database entries and history for WREN (KXTR/KWSJ) to show move of KXTR format to expanded-band station at 1660 kHz, with new call letters of KWSJ for the station at 1250 kHz.
2002
Revised and redesigned this site on June 15, incorporating corrections and updated information, reducing the scope of coverage for St. Louis stations, adding more timeline entries for area stations (especially KFEQ) and restoring the audio samples of time-sharing stations.
Updated KKSU, WIBW, and time-sharing pages on September 1 with WIBW's purchase of KKSU's broadcasting time (announced August 29 with interim "breaking news" changes made to the site at that time), meaning that KKSU will leave the air permanently by the end of November. More details from the Topeka Capital-Journal. Also updated the time-sharing pages with information about KDEC(AM) and KWLC(AM), which still share time in Decorah, Iowa at 1240 kHz. Joel Hermann posted information about the arrangement in the rec.radio.broadcasting Usenet discussion group (newsgroup).
Updated KKSU, WIBW, and time-sharing page (and database entries) on November 19 with information about KKSU's last broadcast, scheduled for November 27, 2002. On December 3, added more information about KKSU and modified the KKSU and WIBW pages to reflect the passage of the last broadcast day on KKSU.
2003
Added a page on January 29 showing WDAF's July 4, 1924 schedule, revised the timeline to reflect WDAF's "temporary" 1924 frequency of 680 kHz, and revised the KSD history to clarify references to the station's current KTRS call letters.
On August 22, updated the timeline with the assignment of the WDAF-FM call letters to KCIY(FM), as the FM station assumed the AM station's format. The AM station eventually became a sports-talk station.
The timeline was updated again on September 23, along with the WDAF history, as a consequence of the station's new call letters, KCSP.
2004
On March 1, updated the timeline with Cumulus Media's assumption of control of KFRU and KWOS.
2005
During January and February, converted the site to XHTML/CSS, updated numerous external links, added a PDF version of the timeline, and converted audio files to MP3 format.
On March 12, added a link to a poster for the "Chuck Wagon Opera" on W9XBY, with thanks to Bob Roske for sharing his find!
On July 10, updated the WIL and KSD pages with the news of the return of the historic WIL call letters to 1430 kHz.
2006
On May 25, redesigned this site (more of a facelift than a redesign) and updated the latest call letters for the station long known as KCKN. The station became KDTD on December 12, 2005. The KCKN call letters were returned to the station in Roswell, New Mexico.
2007
On February 19, added information about the W9XBY transmitter site. I had guessed that it was at 85th & Wornall Road. That was a pretty good guess: it was at 86th & Wornall! I also added a scan of the back cover of the 1926 Missouri official road map, which contains a mention of WOS. I also updated ownership information for KCMO, which was purchased by Cumulus Media in 2006.
On March 18, I removed the PCM versions of the audio files of time-sharing stations handing off from one station to the other. I took this action in order to resolve overruning the quota of disk space allowed by my Internet service provider. If you would like high-quality PCM versions of these files, please contact me directly.
On August 16, corrected the date for WREN and KFKU going silent, added details regarding their time-sharing agreement, added an alternate version of the story of Count Basie's "discovery" via broadcasts on W9XBY, filled in details regarding the early days of KPRS (on the W9XBY page), updated information about time-sharing agreements in Chicago and Decorah, Iowa, and added anecodotes about KMBC and KWKC from the William James Ryan paper, African-Americans in Local Broadcasting: Kansas City, 1922-1982 The alternate Count Basie story and early information about KPRS were also added from the Ryan paper. I also added a link to Aaron Barnhart's Kansas City radio wiki, KCstatic and the Houston Radio History site.
Change History - Richie Kennedy
2008
August 16: Integrated Histories of KLWN, KLZR, and KMXN to the site, as well as making cosmetic changes to reflect the change in administration.
Richie Kennedy
McLouth, Kansas
route56@route56.com