Kansas City, MO – Today, April 5th, 2022, marks the 100th anniversary of the day KMBZ Radio signed on as a commercially licensed radio station in Kansas City. KMBZ is the oldest surviving station in Kansas City, according to trade magazine Broadcasting+Cable.
The original call letters in 1922 were WPE, and was found on the radio dial at 980-AM. The station went through some changes before a new owner, Midland Broadcast Company renamed it KMBC in 1928.
Listen to both Part 1 and Part 2 of the History of KMBZ Radio to hear what it sounded like so many years ago.
The archived audio you'll hear is from the University Libraries at UMKC.
Music was the predominant programming in the early days. In the 1930s and 1940s you might have heard cowboy singers like Tex Owens or Colorado Pete. One of the early shows was Bud and Spud – that's Bud on banjo and Spud on guitar. But the station was best known for its Saturday night regular, The Brush Creek Follies.
The forerunner to country and western music was called Hillbilly. And there was plenty of it heard on the airwaves.
Independence native Paul Henning worked at KMBC radio before leaving to head to Hollywood to produce popular TV shows including The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres.
The owner and operator of the station through much of that early period was Arthur B. Church. He was there in 1951, when KMBC opened a new headquarters at 11th and Central in downtown KC. That site would eventually house KMBC-TV 9 for decades.
The station continued to build its reputation for news coverage in subsequent years. During the riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, a lot of stations broadcast a plea for peace from Chiefs defensive back Fred "The Hammer" Williamson.
The station changed its letters from KMBC to KMBZ after it was sold in 1967.
In 1977, the station produced an hour-long show commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Ruskin Heights Tornado that killed 59 people.
Walt Bodine worked at multiple stations in Kansas City, including KMBZ, where he served as news director.
Before he was a household name, Rush Limbaugh got his start in political commentary on KMBZ in 1983. He was fired, but his later syndicated show was aired on KMBZ-AM until his death in 2021.
Throughout its first 90 years, KMBZ was found only on the AM dial. In 2011, the station 98.1 KUDL became KMBZ-FM, and the programming on 980AM KMBZ was simulcast on both.
Then in 2015, AM and FM split into two distinct, separate stations.
KMBZ-AM became Talk980am, a station airing mostly national syndicated shows.
KMBZ-FM became KMBZ Radio, and revamped its schedule to air local Kansas City news and live, local talk shows including Midday and Dana and Parks.
Kansas City's Morning News originates on KMBZ Radio, and continues to be simulcast on Talk980am.