KCKN (defunct)

KCKN was one of the oldest commercial radio stations in the United States and played a significant role in the development of the broadcasting industry. KCKN 1340 AM and KCKN-FM 94.1 were on the air from 1925 until 2000. It was the third radio station to go on the air in Kansas in November 1925. KCKN was one of the first five radio stations to serve the metropolitan Kansas City (MO/KS) media market. (KCKN 1020 AM, Roswell, NM, now uses the call letters, but has no connection to the original Kansas station.)

History

Entrepreneur and businessman Everett L. Dillard is the individual credited with putting KCKN-AM on the air. The first call letters were WLBF. Dillard began broadcasting from his personal residence. The station's first studio/office location was on the 11th floor of the elegant Elks Lodge Building (905 North 7th Street) in downtown Kansas City, Kansas. The building was last known as the Huron Building and was demolished in 1999. Dillard went bankrupt in the Great Depression. A Wyandotte County District Court Judge granted ownership of the radio station to Alexander Mainland and Herbert Hollister in 1930.