WIBW (AM)

WIBW
City Topeka, Kansas
Broadcast area Topeka metropolitan area
Branding 580 WIBW
Slogan The Voice of Kansas, 580 WIBW
Frequency 580 kHz
First air date 1925
Format News/Talk/Sports
Power 5,000 Watts
Class B
Callsign meaning W Indiana Broadcasting Works
Affiliations CBS Radio Network
Owner Alpha Media
(Alpha Media Licensee LLC)
Sister stations KTPK, WIBW-FM
Webcast Listen Live (via TuneIn)
Website www.wibw580.com

WIBW (580 AM) is a Topeka, Kansas, area news, talk, and sports radio station that airs such local programming such as NewsDay Now, The Danielle Norwood Show and SportsTalk with Jake Lebahn & Dan Lucero. WIBW also carries national programs such as The Dave Ramsey Show,[1] The Dana Show with Dana Loesch[2] and The Kim Komando Show.[3] In addition, WIBW is a sports radio affiliate of the Kansas City Royals and Kansas State University. WIBW is currently owned by Alpha Media, which began September 1, 2015, and was previously owned by Morris Communications.

WIBW operates at 5,000 watts around the clock. Due to WIBW's location near the bottom end of the AM dial and Kansas' flat terrain (with near-perfect ground conductivity), WIBW boasts one of the largest daytime coverage areas in the country. It provides at least grade B coverage to most of the eastern half of Kansas (as far west as Wichita, Salina and Hays) during the day, and under the right conditions can be heard as far west as Dodge City. It also easily covers most of the Kansas City metropolitan area during the day. With a good radio, it can be heard as far north as Omaha and Lincoln and as far south as Tulsa. A single tower is used during the day, while two towers are used in a directional pattern at night, concentrating the signal in eastern Kansas and the Kansas City area.

History

WIBW signed on in the summer of 1925. [4] It was originally owned by Dr. Lawrence L. Dill and his business partner Donald Harrell of Logansport, IN. [5] WIBW was moved to Topeka in 1927, when it was bought by Senator Arthur Capper along with the Topeka Daily Capital. According to some sources, when Capper bought the license, he added a "W" to the initials of the original owner, Indiana Broadcast Works.[6]; WIBW was thus one of the few stations west of the Mississippi River whose call letters begin with "W". The "W/K" divide for call signs was not always the Mississippi River, and Kansas was on the eastern side of the original call divide. Thus, it was perfectly acceptable to have a "W" in Kansas, in any event. However, the story of what the call letters stood for may be apocryphal. Looking at the call letter assignments from the federal government in June and July 1925, we find the WIBW calls assigned sequentially, after WIBT, WIBV, and WIBU. [7] The station eventually spawned a television station and an FM station, both of which still carry the WIBW calls.[8]

Capper died in 1949, and his family sold his holdings to Stauffer Publications, owner of Topeka's other newspaper, the Topeka State Journal; the papers have since merged as the Topeka Capital-Journal. Stauffer merged with current owner Morris Communications in 1995.[8]

WIBW's main studios for decades were located on Wanamaker Road in west Topeka, near the Menninger Clinic. The programming there included live country music at 6:00 a.m. as late as the 1970s. The building housing those studios was severely damaged by fire January 5, 2012.[8]

Shared frequency

From 1929 to 2002, WIBW shared time with a radio station in Manhattan, Kansas, KKSU, which was owned by Kansas State University. While it was common for stations to share frequencies in the early days of radio, such a concept became outmoded in the 21st century. During the period the stations shared the frequency, KKSU would be on the air in the afternoons, while WIBW would be on during other times of the day.[8]

Many Kansans were shocked by the demolishing of KKSU radio, which occurred after K-State's athletic department decided to cancel its long-time relationship with WIBW after WIBW (Morris communications) tendered a much lower bid than the rest of the bidders. K-State officials awarded the contract to the Mid-America Ag Network, a rival broadcaster from Wichita. After dueling lawsuits between KSU and WIBW's owners, the school sold its portion of the frequency to WIBW, and the station ceased broadcasting Kansas State football.[9]

Programming

In 2006, three years after WIBW and KSU parted ways, the station became the Topeka outlet for Kansas Jayhawks football and men's basketball. On June 14, 2014, the Capital-Journal reported that WIBW would end its pact with KU. The station once again became a Kansas State affiliate in 2016. The Jayhawks moved to KMAJ and KWIC-FM.[10] In addition to its extensive coverage of Washburn and high school sports, WIBW also broadcasts the Kansas City Royals; for many years, it was the Royals' flagship station. It is one of the few stations which has broadcast Royals games continuously since the franchise's first season in 1969.

The station is an affiliate of the CBS Radio Network and broadcasts CBS News updates on the hour.

Former hosts

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Dave Ramsey Homepage - daveramsey.com". daveramsey.com. Archived from the original on 2013-09-10. Retrieved 2013-09-11.
  2. ↑ "Dana Loesch Radio". danaloeschradio.com.
  3. ↑ "Kim Kamando Show". komando.com.
  4. ↑ "Logansport Opens New Radio Station." Indianapolis Star, August 1, 1925, p. 3.
  5. ↑ "Kewanna-Logan Game on the Air This Evening." Logansport Pharos-Tribune, November 6, 1925, p. 1.
  6. ↑ Jim Bagby. "What's In a Name? Radio Knows." Manhattan (KS) Mercury, June 27, 1985, p. 7.
  7. ↑ "A Chronology of AM Radio Broadcasting." History of American Broadcasting website. http://jeff560.tripod.com/chrono1.html
  8. 1 2 3 4 "KC Radio History - 580". tripod.com.
  9. ↑ Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine.
  10. ↑ "KU football, basketball games to be on different Topeka radio dials in 2014-15". CJOnline.com.
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