KPRS (103.3 FM) is a commercial

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

licensed to

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

, owned by the Carter Broadcast Group. It airs an

urban contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contemporary r ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

, including

hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...

, R&B and Sunday morning urban gospel music. According to the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC), it has been continually owned by an

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

family longer than any other radio station. The studios and offices are on Colorado Avenue, near

Interstate 49 Interstate 49 (I-49) is a north–south Interstate Highway with multiple segments. The original portion is entirely within Louisiana with an additional signed portion extending from Interstate 220 (Louisiana), I-220 in Shreveport, Louisian ...

in South Kansas City.KPRS.com/station/contact-us
/REF> KPRS has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 100,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s, the maximum for most American FM stations. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is on East 63rd Street near Interstate 435 in South Kansas City.Radio-Locator.com/KPRS
/REF> KPRS broadcasts using HD Radio technology. Urban adult contemporary music is heard on its HD2 subchannel, which feeds 250-watt

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

K295CH at 106.9 MHz.

History

Historic black station

In 1950, Andrew "Skip" Carter began operating KPRS as the nation's first radio station west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

programmed for black listeners. Its transmitter was donated by former

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

governor

Alf Landon Alfred Mossman Landon (September 9, 1887October 12, 1987) was an American oilman and politician who served as the 26th governor of Kansas from 1933 to 1937. A member of the Republican Party, he was the party's nominee in the 1936 presidential ...

. KPRS debuted as a 500-watt daytimer at 1590 AM, with a

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player, either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a loop. ...

of R&B and

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in African-American culture, African-American African-American neighborhood, communities throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps ...

along with news and talk of interest to

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

s. The

call letters In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a Identifier, unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be fo ...

were chosen to represent the "People's Radio Station." In 1951, KPRS opened its first studio at 12th and Walnut Street in Kansas City. By 1952, Carter and Ed and Psyche Pate became business partners and purchased the station for $40,000 from the Johnson County Broadcasting Corporation. They moved KPRS to a new site at 2814 East 23rd Street in Kansas City. KPRS applied for an FM license on May 22, 1961, which was granted on December 20, 1961. KPRS-FM received its first license on May 16, 1963, and went on the air later that year.Carter Broadcast Group History
/ref> While most people did not yet own FM receivers in 1963, the FM band was gaining in popularity.

Switch to FM

In 1969, the Carter Family had controlling interest in the station. In 1971, KPRS (AM) moved its programming to the 103.3 frequency under the KPRS-FM call letters and moniker “K103” (which would later be rebranded as "Hot 103 Jamz" in the 1990s). The 1590 frequency became an urban gospel-formatted station. The studios and offices moved to the Crown Center and the Carters moved to Florida to open a new corporate headquarters. KPRS-FM dropped the -FM

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

on October 15, 1974, when its sister AM station changed its call sign to KPRT that same day. In 1975, KPRS became one of the first fully automated radio stations in the

Midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

. DJs such as Chris King and Freddie Bell read news updates, while also announcing songs. (Bell called himself "Frederick" during newscasts.)

Family business

Ensuring the business would remain a family-run entity, Michael Carter, Andrew's grandson, was named president of the company. One of his first moves was to take both stations back to "live" formats with less reliance on automation. Michael Carter, who made his radio debut at age 8 on KPRS, also programmed KPRS for 24-hour a day service. In January 1988, original station owner Andrew Carter died at his Florida home. To honor the black radio pioneer's legacy, the KPRS Broadcasting Corporation changed its name to the Carter Broadcast Group in 1993. His widow, Mildred Carter, became chairperson of the board. The stations continued to serve the African-American community with outreach programs and charitable promotions. In 1990, KPRS jumped from 8th to 5th in the Kansas City market, according to Arbitron ratings. Also in the 1990s, KPRS stopped playing what it perceived as negative hip-hop or

gangsta rap Gangsta rap or gangster rap, initially called reality rap, is a subgenre of rap music that conveys the culture, values, and experiences of urban gangs and street hustlers, frequently discussing unpleasant realities of the world in general th ...

along with explicit and overtly sexual lyrics. In 1995, KPRS won the "Crystal Award" from the

National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a Industry trade group, trade association and lobbying, lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasting, broadcasters in th ...

. As the Carter Broadcast Group celebrated its 45th anniversary in 1995, KPRS had its highest ratings ever, reaching number one that year. In 2000, the company celebrated its 50th anniversary. In 2005, the station began carrying the '' Steve Harvey Morning Show''. The Carter Broadcast Group, owners of KPRS and KPRT, along with The Sherman Broadcast Group, were co-owners of an

Urban Contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contemporary r ...

station known as KSJM, “107-9 Jamz”, in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the List of cities in Kansas, most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397, ...

. In late 2007, the two groups sold KSJM to The Ag Network Group, which dropped the Urban format for

Country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

as KWLS "US-107.9" on January 19, 2008. In fall 2009, KPRS added more rhythmic/pop crossover titles from artists like

Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Regarded as a pop icon, he is recognized for his multi-genre musical performances. He was discovered by record executive Scooter Braun in 2008 and subsequently brought to the U ...

Miley Cyrus Miley Ray Cyrus ( , born Destiny Hope Cyrus, November 23, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, actress and director. Regarded as a contemporary pop icon, Cyrus has been recognized for her evolving artistry and image reinventions. She is ...

, Iyaz,

Kesha Kesha Rose Sebert (born March 1, 1987), formerly stylized as Ke$ha, is an American singer and songwriter. Her first major success came in 2009 when she was featured on rapper Flo Rida's number-one single, "Right Round". Kesha's music and ima ...

Katy Perry Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists in hist ...

, and Jason DeRulo. This was most likely due to the implementation of

Portable People Meter The Portable People Meter (PPM), also known as the Nielsen Meter, is a system developed by Arbitron (now Nielsen Audio) to measure how many people are exposed to individual Radio broadcasting, radio stations and television stations. This also ...

s (PPM) in the Kansas City Arbitron ratings. This caused significant controversy, as the only black-owned Hip Hop/R&B station in the Kansas City market was, in the eyes of many of its long-time listeners, attempting to appeal to a new audience. The station has since ended this tactic. In August 2010, the station dropped Steve Harvey, replacing him with "More Music In The Mornings" with J.T. Quick. In April 2011, management made a change within the programming department by replacing operations manager Andre Carson with longtime music director Myron Fears. In July 2011, KPRS repositioned its DJ lineup to help improve its ratings. The morning show changed from "More Music In the Mornings" to "The Morning Jam", and was now hosted by station veterans Tony G and Sean Tyler. Julee Jonez hosts the mid-day show, while J.T. Quick moved from morning drive to afternoon drive, and the night show is rotated by Brian B. Shynin', Brooklyn Martino and Playmaker. In June 2012, KPRS returned to the #1 position in the Kansas City Arbitron ratings. In 2023, KPRS received direct competition when

KCJK KCJK (105.1 FM, "Power 105.1") is radio station licensed to Garden City, Missouri. Owned by Cumulus Media, it broadcasts an urban contemporary music format serving the Kansas City area. The station's studios are located in Overland Park, K ...

, owned by Cumulus Media, flipped to urban contemporary as "Power 105.1." This has caused a drop in ratings for KPRS, although it usually leads KCJK.

HD Radio

In 2016, KPRS launched an HD2 digital subchannel, which aired a classic hip hop and old-school R&B format as "K-103.3 HD-2". On May 15, 2023, KPRS-HD2 shifted to urban adult contemporary as "RNB 106.9", and began simulcasting on

K295CH (106.9 FM).RNB 106.9 Debuts in Kansas City
Radioinsight - May 15, 2023

Station management

* Operations Manager Myron Fears * Community Relations/Public Affairs Director Rich McCauley * Station Voice Pat Garrett

References

External links

Official HOT 103 JAMZ WebsiteRNB 106.9 Website

History cards for KPRS from the F.C.C.'s website.
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