KKOW AM Radio marks 75 years of broadcasting and the Pittsburg-based station is celebrating the milestone birthday with several activities this weekend.
The station looks and sounds a lot different than it did 75 years ago.
Bands performed live in the studio when KKOW, then known as KOAM Radio, first went on air. The AM radio station was tied with KOAM TV until the 1980s when FCC regulations required TV and radio to split.
"At that time they wanted to keep the call letters KOAM and we switched over to KKOW radio at that point," says KKOW Program Director Steve Scott.
The AM station reaches an audience from Wichita, Kansas to Branson, Missouri.
Listeners have come to know KKOW for its country music, weather alerts, local sports, and agriculture.
"We were actually informed that we were one of the top ag stations in the nation a few years ago and considering that we are an AM, that means a lot," says Scott.
One radio voice KKOW AM listeners will always remember is Dan Willis, who spent more than 40 years with the station.
"I can't tell you how many people would tell us that when they go out of town, as soon as they can get back in the area, that they could turn KKOW on they would turn it on because they felt that 'we're home,'" says Dan's widow, Linda Willis.
KKOW radio is holding a 75th anniversary party Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Lincoln Park in Pittsburg. The public is invited.
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