KSAC was licensed by the US Government in 1924, at a frequency of 880kc. In 1927 KSAC was moved to a new frequency of 900Khz, then finally settled in 1928 on the 580AM frequency, which it helped until it ceased operation in 2002. The hops around the dial reflected the evolving regulation and licensing of commercial radio broadcast communications in the 1920s.
The KSAC towers began broadcasting KSAC at 580kHz in 1924 with a ring and web design that stretched between the towers, upgraded with advancing technology to a T-cage array between the towers in 1929.
The Nomination form for the KSAC Towers can be found here: (
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From the Nomination form:
"The two KSAC radio towers are located west of Nichols Gymnasium on the Kansas State University campus. They are about 140 feet high and stand about 300 feet apart. The towers themselves have not been visibly altered since their construction in 1924. There is no longer any antenna hung between the two towers.
The KSAC radio towers were constructed in 1924 by the US Wind Engine and Pump Company of Batavia, Illinois, a company that made and sold wind mill towers. Tower supported a flattop antenna, a design copied from ship radio. It consisted of a number of parallel wires stretched horizontally between the towers with the transmitter line from the studio fanning out to join these wires midway between the two towers. The towers themselves were four-sided open-frame metal structures.
The appearance of the towers was changed slightly toward the end of 1929 when a new antenna was installed. The flattop antenna was replaced by a more advanced T-cage antenna. The T-cage consisted of a number of parallel copper wires stretched between metal rings, one mounted on each of the 2K essay towers. This gave the appearance of a “cage” or a tube of wires stretched between the 2K essay towers with the studio link adjoining the “cage” at the midpoint between the towers.
Currently there is no antenna connecting the towers. The North towers being used to microwave the KSAC studio signal from the campus to the KSAC transmitter on Denison Avenue. At the base of this tower is a memorial to Grover C. Cobb, a pioneer Kansas broadcaster.
Statement of Significance
The KSAC radio towers on the Kansas State University campus are an excellent example of early radio towers built in the United States. At the time of their construction in 1924 they represented the finest available radio technology. The original towers remain intact, virtually as they were when constructed. They are now the only remaining towers of their type in Kansas, and are among the very few left in the United States. They are appropriate symbols of broadcasting history and of KSAC’s place in that history.
The history of broadcasting at Kansas State Agricultural College (as it was known until 1959) began 12 years before the KSAC radio station was constructed. In 1912 the physics Department of Kansas state licensed a 1 kilowatt transmitter and began daily weather broadcasts in Morse code. Radio technology was not advanced to the point that voice transmissions were possible. Many farmers and farm boys had crystal detectors and learned code well enough to receive these weather reports. These broadcasts were reported to have been received more than 150 miles away in Winnfield. They are now believed to be the first fixed radio broadcasts of weather reports in the United States. Professsor Hamilton of Kansas State brought these broadcasts to the attention of the US Secretary of Agriculture and a similar service was soon inaugurated by the Army and Navy.
In 1922 Professor Eric Lyon established a new 100 watt radiotelephone station (WTG) capable of broadcasting the human voice and music. The occasional broadcasts from WTG were heard by Kansas listeners with crystal receiving sets within a radius of 150 miles.
10 years after the first Morse code transmissions the first commercial broadcasting station began operations, noticeably the Kansas City Star station WDAF in Kansas City, Missouri and KFKB, owned and operated by Dr. John R. Brinkley at Milford, Kansas
Remote broadcast from Kansas State a\Agricultural College began on February 11, 1924 on Dr. Brinkley’s KFKB station. Three far-sighted K-State faculty each contributed $50 of their own money to lease telephone wires to link the universities remote studio with that of KFKB. Programming for so much radio time had become by this time a severe burden to the physics department, so it was decided that the extension division would assume control of programming duties.
Construction of a new 500 watt radio station with call letters KSAC began on August 20, 1924. The towers that were put up then are those that stand today. By special permission of the Acting Secretary of Commerce, station KSAC began broadcasting with a five hour nationwide “Aggie” program. The operation of the station has been continuously the responsibility of the extension division.
In 1920 6K SAC made radio connection with commercial radio station KFAB, then in Lincoln, Nebraska, one full-time broadcasting of quality programming became too great a burden on KSAC staff. It was felt that each station could share the same frequency, each broadcasting at separate fixed times in the day. Considerable difficulty in timesharing resulted from this union. Trouble originated over KFAB’s refusal to allow KSAC to broadcast the Kansas State basketball games in their entirety. In addition, KSAC officials received numerous complaints from their listeners concerning the weakness of the station signal. KSAC engineers also wish to change to a lower frequency to provide a better signal. For these reasons KSAC ended its affiliation with KFAB on October 30, 1928.
After the break from KFAB, KASC changed its frequency to 580 and began a timesharing with WSUI, a sister educational station at the University of Iowa at Iowa City, Iowa. KSAC was licensed to operate at 100 watts daytime and 500 watts at night. The time sharing with WSUI was quite satisfactory. However, the Federal Radio Commission preferred time sharing stations to be located close to one another. As a result of the FRC policies KSC switched from time sharing with WSUI to time sharing with WIBW, a commercial station located in Topeka, Kansas on Nov. 30, 1929.
The radio signal generated by KS he was modernized in 1947 when the station built a new 424-foot ¼ wave vertical antenna on Denison Avenue just north of the main campus. The connection between the campus studios and the transmitter was by phone lines.
From 1947 both towers were nonfunctioning. In August, 1974, the north tower of the two original K SAC radio towers was pressed into service once again. Since that time it has been used as a tower to microwave the studio signal on campus to the transmitter on Denison Avenue."