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History
KPRS: A Story of a Dream Achieved
by Ann Brown
Urban Network
Think about what a bold idea it was! A Black radio station west of the Mississippi in 1950, a time when segregation was the norm, when the thought of Black music by Black artists being played over the airwaves was foreign and forbidden. Andrew "Skip" Robinson Carter had a dream. "He had this grand idea. He was intent on making this thing a go. He had to prove that he could operate a radio station and that color had nothing to do with it," remembers Carter's widow Mildred, 90.
But turning the dream into reality was a road paved with obstacles. "He went to school in New York [to study engineering], tried to get on an East Coast station and they turned him down because he was a Black man. And they were not very discrete in doing it," says Mrs. Carter. "So he came into Chicago and started to sell time on various radio stations, but this was very difficult. He had to concentrate only on Black businesses." So frustrated was Carter about his attempts to start a station, he wrote a stinging letter to Broadcast Magazine, an industry trade publication, in 1948. Surprisingly, they ran the letter and the former governor of Kansas, Alf Landon, who also owned four stations himself, read and was moved by Carter's plight. "He [Carter] was quite disgruntled," recalls Mrs. Carter. Landon met with Carter and hired him to run one of his stations. That station was KCLO in Leavenworth, Kansas.
Carter turned the station around, according to Mrs. Carter. So impressed was Landon, he gave Carter airtime and helped him get his license from the FCC in 1949. Eventually, Landon gave Carter a transmitter to help him start up his own station. Carter was focused on starting a station in Kansas City. This was actually his dream since age 14.
Born in 1919, and raised in Savannah, Georgia, Carter built his first radio while still in high school. After studying physics at Georgia State for three years, Carter went on to RCA School of Electronics and then to New York University to earn his first-class broadcast license from the Federal Communication Commission in 1947. Carter, who served in the U. S. Army from 1940 to 1945, also worked as a radio engineer in Savannah. When Carter tried to get an on-air spot he couldn't get one because he was told his voice wasn't "Black" enough. But through the years, Carter remained determined to make his mark in radio.
Then at last in 1950, Carter, with the support of Landon, opened the nation's first Black station west of the Mississippi. When Carter finally started KPRS-AM, he did not have the $250 to pay the telephone company to install the necessary lines to get the signal out. Not to be deterred, Carter balanced himself out of his window and hooked up his own lines to the telephone pole. KPRS, 1590, debuted as a 500-watt daytimer.In 1951, KPRS opened its first studio at 12th and Walnut, Kansas City, Missouri. And in 1952, Carter and Ed and Psyche Pate became business partners. They purchased KPRS for $40,000 from the Johnson County Broadcasting Corp. and moved to a new site at 2814 East 23rd Street. Each owned one third of KPRS-AM. Still they had many hurdles to overcome.
By 1969, the Carters had controlling interest in the station. In 1971, there were more developments. KPRS-AM became KPRS-FM and KPRT-AM became a full-blown gospel station. It was now HOT 103 JAMZ and Gospel 1590-The Gospel Source. The studios and offices moved to the Crown Center and the Carters moved to Florida to open a new corporate headquarters. Then four years later in 1975, KPRS Broadcasting Corporation became one of the first fully automated radio stations in the Midwest, and in the country for that matter. Soon after, KPRT became automated as well.
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 the "live" formats. Michael Carter, who actually made his radio debut at age 8 on KPRS-AM, also made KPRS a 24-hour station.
In 1989, Andrew Carter died at his Florida home. The Black radio pioneer's legacy lived on and moved forward. Mildred Carter became chairperson of the board and the stations continued to grow and to solidify its standing in the Black community with various outreach programs and promotions. In fact, in 1990, KPRS-FM jumped from 8th to 5th, according to Arbitron Rating Service. The company expanded its office from 2,400 square feet to 4,200 square feet. Also in the '90s, KPRS stopped playing what it perceived as negative hip-hop and explicit R & B. In 1995, KPRS picked up the Crystal Award from the National Association of Broadcasters. And as the Carter Broadcast Group celebrated its 45th anniversary in 1995, it had its highest ratings ever. KPRS reached the number one slot that year. In the year 2000 the company celebrates its 50th anniversary. To this day in American history, KPRS remains the oldest continually Black-owned and operated station.
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