KKSU (AM)

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KKSU (AM) was a Kansas State University–owned radio station in Manhattan, Kansas. It ran on 580 kHz as a shared-time station with WIBW and served as a longtime part of the K-State Radio Network, delivering agricultural news, livestock reports, and public affairs. The station’s studios and transmitter were on the K-State campus, and it operated from December 1, 1924, to November 27, 2002, for nearly 78 years.

Its early history goes back to the college’s weather broadcasts begun by the physics department as 9YV. KSAC, the station’s original call sign, was granted a license in 1922 and began broadcasting in 1924 on 880 kHz. It moved to 900 kHz in 1927, and in 1928 was shifted to 580 kHz as part of General Order 40, sharing time with WSUI. In 1930, KSAC began sharing 580 kHz with WIBW, a pattern that lasted for many years. KSAC raised its power to 5,000 watts in 1948, giving it a strong daytime signal across much of Kansas. A transmitter fire briefly knocked it off the air around 1950–51.

In 1984, as Kansas State pursued the KKSU branding, KSAC briefly used the call sign KEXT before the KKSU name was officially adopted a few days later. By the mid-1990s KKSU operated weekday afternoons, offering livestock updates, agricultural programming, and public affairs, along with a daily classical music program called Music From the Masters for a time.

Sports broadcasting moved away from KKSU in 2001 to the Mid-America Ag Network. In August 2002, WIBW agreed to buy KKSU’s 580 AM timeslot and take exclusive control of Wildcats sports, ending KKSU’s operations. The station’s final broadcast was November 27, 2002, after which WIBW ran the frequency full-time. The K-State Radio Network continued to produce agricultural and public affairs programming for stations across the Midwest, distributed via satellite and other means.