Narrator: Radio began in Kansas at about the same time it began across the country. Early experiments from 1900 on were conducted on the Kansas State University campus.
Ralph Titus, KSAC/KKSU - Manhanttan: K-State had got into the broadcast business in 1910 with a wireless station called 9YV over which you sent Morse Code. And they started a regular weather forecast every morning, and farmers were so interested in that and desirous of the weather forcast that they went to the trouble to learn Morse code and that proved so effective, that it was the first ever done in the United States first regularly scheduled weather broadcast.
Narrator: Small low wattage stations began to appear in different parts of the state in the early 1920's.
Ralph: The earliest stations were really no more than toys, they were frequently put together by experimenters in garages and basements and there was very little regularly scheduled programming. But gradually by the early 20's, 1922 and '23 some of these stations began to take on some serious programming.
Narrator: The first station of any significance started in Wichita, Kansas on April 1, 1922.
Tony Duesing KFH - Wichita: We like to say it's the oldest commercial radio station in Kansas, but it is the oldest one that started up that's up and running that started back in the 20's when a lot of stations just started booming. When actually started up not as KFH but as the call letters WEAH. But shortly thereafter, it was bought by a hotel, Rigby Hotel and the call letters were changed at that time. And that's what KFH stands for, the Kansas Finest Hotel.
Narrator: Across town another station began broadcasting in September of 1923.
Orin Friesen, KFDI - Wichita: Most people point us directly back to KFKB in Milford, Kansas. There's some thought that perhaps the station went back prior to KFKB as a station called WAAP which was located in Wichita. It was a short lived kind of experimental station.
Narrator: But the beginning of radio in Kansas is also tied to the career of the famous or infamous goat gland doctor, John R. Brinkley.
(Recorded voice of Doc Brinkley) The subject for discussion at this time is your health. Not my health, but the health of my listeners and friends throughout radioland.
Orin: Doc Brinkley came down to Wichita and bought the equipment from WAAP and took it to Milford, Kansas and also took one of the engineers with him who built WAAP.
Ralph: Then in 1923 when he was given permission to put a radio station on he built a building for the radio station. KFKB. Kansas First, Kansas Best, wasn't either one but nonetheless that is what they called it.
Narrator: Brinkley's station would be located in Milford, Kansas and was designed as a service for his patients. But was powerful enough to be heard all over the Midwest and sometimes on either coast. Professor's at K-State saw the potential of KFKB of fulfilling their mission bringing the university to the people.
Ralph: Why don't we ask Doc Brinkley if we can have some time on his station to present courses on the air? Well, Brinkley was delighted, this is going to look great on his record for the Congress Commission that the university is using his radio station to present courses. Well it was an instant great success. Kansans' could enroll in courses at no expense. Out of state it cost you fifty cents. You wouldn't get college credit for it but would get a certificate but it was in very practical things like rural electrification, and better baking of breads.
Narrator: When Dr. Brinkley got into trouble with the medical profession he closed the Milford facility and moved south of the border. Two stations sprung from the ashes KFKB, one was WAAP of Wichita, Brinkley sold the equipment back to the station and it became KFBI named for Kansas Farmers and Bankers Insurance, the company that financed the station. The transmitter stayed at Milford while studios were built in Abilene and later Salina.
Orin: Music programs were done with live entertainment and they had live groups that would come into the studio and they would have shows. Sometimes these groups would actually perform under several different names. They would one group that would do gospel music, and then later they would come up and do western songs or something like that.
Narrator: KFBI moved to Wichita in the 1940's and eventually changed it's call letters to KFDI, which still broadcasts from Wichita today. The other station to spring from Milford was KSAC, which stood for Kansas State Agricultural College. It was K-State's educational radio service and it began sharing air time in the afternoons with WIBW in Topeka in 1929. An arrangement that still exists to the present day.
Ralph: The Kansas Extension Service, and thus Kansas State University this being a land grant university, to take the information, to take the university to the people. And that's in various ways, culturally, educationally, and so forth. That's what the station did, and has done and is still doing.
Narrator: The programming offered by KSAC, currently KKSU, included a half hour series that ran in one form or another from 1924 to now. Changing its title from the Housewives Half Hour, to A Word to the Wives, Ideas Unlimited, and currently Sound Living.
Deanne Wright KSAC/KKSU - Manhattan: One of the very interesting things about the program on KSAC, from the beginning to present day is to hear the old adage the more things change the more things stay the same. It was amazing to me to see how we were dealing with similar issues in the 1990's as we were in the 1924. Some of the programs referred to the rights of babies. Some of them were on self-development, such as be yourself. Some were on mental health.
Narrator: There were numerous radio stations in Kansas that got their start in the mid-to-late 1920's, KFBZ, WIBW, WREN, and WDAF to name a few. Probably enough to fill a book, but KFH and KFBI, and KSAC were the earliest and in some ways the most influential of the Kansas radio stations.
Ralph: KSAC, has been a rather important radio facility not only for Kansas but for the nation.
Deanne: The professors at K-State care about this, staff members care about this and I always felt like the university was a resevoir of knowledge and that knowledge should and could be shared.
Orin: KFDI-AM, the station that we've been talking about mainly is now a classic country station, so we're kind of doing what we've always done, it's still the "Radio Ranch" as it has been for thirty-five years, going on thirty-six years.
Narrator: KFH continues to broadcast from Wichita today as a talk radio AM station.
Tony: We have a studio now which is a moderate sized studio, not very large, certainly not as large as we used to have. We used to have theaters, we used have people come in and see the live events so a lot of times we have to create a theatrical kind of event, do theater of the mind in radio. And that's a lot of the challenge in radio to paint a picture for the listener's mind.