KPHN

O. A. Tedrick received the construction permit for a new 500-watt, daytime-only radio station in El Dorado on April 1, 1953.{{Cite web|url= https://cdbs.recnet.com/corres/?doc=43852 |title= History Cards for KPHN|publisher=Federal Communications Commission}} (Guide to reading History Cards) The station signed on seven months later on November 16, 1953,{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1968/1968-BC-YB.pdf|access-date=December 31, 2020|work=Broadcasting Yearbook|date=1968|title=KBTO|page=B-64 (212)}} from studios and a transmitter east of the city limits on US 54.{{r|hc}} Two years after launching, Tedrick transferred the station to the El Dorado Broadcasting Company, which featured additional investors, including other members of the Tedrick family.{{r|hc}}

After the June 10, 1958, tornado in which 13 people died, KBTO became the center of storm warning operations in the event of severe weather, activating a network of ham radio operators and spotters throughout the area.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66521546/|title='Hams' Ease Fears Of Another Tornado|first=Bill|last=Bidwell|agency=Associated Press|page=10|work=The Manhattan Mercury|date=July 2, 1962|access-date=December 31, 2020}} The station also attracted attention during the trial of Francis Gary Powers when it provided its listeners not only with international reports of the case but also with what Radio Moscow was saying on air, transcribed and recorded for 11 to 12 hours a day and summarized in a 25-minute evening program.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66521455/|access-date=December 31, 2020|date=August 19, 1960|title=Station Airs Russian Version|work=Garden City Telegram|agency=Associated Press|page=9}}

The early 1970s were a period of major changes for the station. A 1970 storm ripped the roof off of its transmitter building.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66522980/|access-date=December 31, 2020|date=June 12, 1970|page=1|title=Three Persons Die In High Winds, Rain|work=Council Grove Republican}} The next year, it was sold to the Neosho County Broadcasting Company, owner of KKOY in Chanute, and the call letters were changed to KOYY on November 29.{{r|hc}} Neosho had other plans, too: that same month, the company was granted an FM station to broadcast on 99.3 MHz.{{Cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1971/1971-11-08-BC.pdf|work=Broadcasting|date=November 8, 1971|access-date=December 31, 2020|title=New FM stations|page=56}} Three months later, on February 15, 1972, KOYY-FM signed on the air with a 60 percent simulcast of the AM, carrying middle of the road music.{{cite web|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1974/1974-BC-YB.pdf|work=Broadcasting Yearbook|date=1974|page=B-80 (276)|title=KOYY|access-date=December 31, 2020}}

KOYY-AM-FM was sold in 1977 to Michael Horne and Guy Russell, owners of station KIKZ at Seminole, Texas, for $320,000.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1976/1976-09-06-BC.pdf|access-date=December 31, 2020|date=September 6, 1976|work=Broadcasting|pages=40, 41|title=Changing Hands}} The Horne family sold its interest to Russell three years later.{{r|hc}} The call letters on both AM and FM outlets changed to KSPG-AM-FM in 1984, with the stations airing country music.{{r|rr87}} This ended a brief period of fully split programming on the frequencies.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/69153088/|accessdate=February 1, 2020|work=Wichita Eagle-Beacon|title=Little Station Big on Weather|page=6Z, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/69153230/ 7Z]|date=January 17, 1984|first=Hurst|last=Laviana}}

The late 1980s and early 1990s would see a series of changing hands for KSPG and KSPG-FM, with the stations eventually being split from each other. The first transaction took place in 1987, when Gary Violet bought the pair from Russell for $425,000.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1980s/1987/RR-1987-10-23.pdf|work=Radio & Records|date=October 23, 1987|page=8|title=Transactions|access-date=December 31, 2020}} Two years later, an agreement was reached to sell the pair for $1.1 million to Richard Smith of Columbus, Georgia.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1980s/1989/RR-1989-03-17.pdf|access-date=December 31, 2020|date=March 17, 1989|work=Radio & Records|title=Transactions|page=10}} The deal, however, collapsed. In the meantime, Violet upgraded KSPG-FM, changing its frequency to 99.1 MHz at higher power and its format to urban contemporary; the AM also began broadcasting at night with 40 watts.{{r|rr91}}

A second buyer appeared in 1991: New Life Fellowship Inc. of Wichita, paying $1.05 million for both stations.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1990s/1991/RR-1991-08-09.pdf|work=Radio & Records|date=August 9, 1991|access-date=December 31, 2020|title=Transactions|page=6}} New Life, headed by David and Tammie Brace, was in the middle of a series of radio deals that would establish itself with a presence in the market. It already owned contemporary Christian KZZD (90.7 FM), which it had started in 1989, and in 1991, it won a bid to purchase KSOF (91.1 FM), then a classical music station owned by Friends University.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66531107/|title=Church wins bid for KSOF radio|work=The Wichita Eagle|date=July 25, 1990|first=Rhonda|last=Holman|page=3C|access-date=December 31, 2020}} New Life had quickly grown a radio empire, and while the El Dorado FM, rechristened KTLI, took on new importance as its lone commercially operated station, the AM was increasingly out of place. By 1993, KSPG AM, renamed KSRX, was being leased to a company which ran it as an El Dorado-based station with country music and local news.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66531400/|access-date=December 31, 2020|date=November 1, 1993|first=David|last=Algeo|work=The Wichita Eagle|page=10D|title=Christian radio stations are converting listeners}}

On March 15, 1994, local programming on KSRX ceased when operator Lee White, after two years, said he could not continue for economic reasons.{{cite news|title=Localized format lost to Butler Countians|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/75202676/|accessdate=April 4, 2021|page=4D|work=The Wichita Eagle|date=March 22, 1994}} As a result of this event, Randy and Judi Hughes led a group of local businesses that leased the station from New Life Fellowship with a view to purchasing it, returning the frequency to air in the fall with much the same full-service country format it had been airing.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66531400/|access-date=December 31, 2020|date=October 10, 1994|title=El Dorado's KSRX again rides airwaves|first=Anne|last=Fitzgerald|work=The Wichita Eagle|page=3D}} However, by 1996, no purchase had ever been consummated, and Faith Metro Church was in receivership after accumulating more than $10 million in debt and with David Brace awaiting sentencing on four federal convictions of money laundering.{{cite news|title=Brace-affiliated radio stations to be sold|work=The Wichita Eagle|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/75202702/|page=1D, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/75202716/3D]|date=January 19, 1996|first=Bob|last=Cox|accessdate=April 4, 2021}} That year, KSRX changed hands twice, being sold to Michael Glinter (owner of WREN, then in Topeka) in April{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1990s/1996/R&R-1996-05-03.pdf|title=Transactions|work=Radio & Records|date=May 3, 1996|page=6|access-date=December 31, 2020}} and to Elijah Communications in July.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1990s/1996/R&R-1996-07-19.pdf|access-date=December 31, 2020|date=July 19, 1996|work=Radio & Records|title=Transactions|page=8}} Elijah kept the station for two years before Reunion Broadcasting acquired it in 1998.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1990s/1998/RR-1998-06-26.pdf|access-date=December 31, 2020|page=8|work=Radio & Records|title=Transactions}} Under both Elijah and Reunion, the station aired religious programming.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-M-Street/M-Street-Journal/M-Street-1998-09.pdf|access-date=December 31, 2020|work=M Street Journal|date=September 30, 1998|page=2 (40)|title=Format Changes & Updates}}

In 2001, Reunion attempted to sell KSRX to T&T Communications for $375,000,{{cite web|url=https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=100575267&formid=314&fac_num=48538|access-date=December 31, 2020|date=August 13, 2001|title=BAL-20010813AAS APPLICATION FOR CONSENT TO ASSIGNMENT OF BROADCAST STATION CONSTRUCTION PERMIT OR LICENSE|publisher=Federal Communications Commission}} a transaction that failed to be consummated. In the months leading up to the sale attempt, the station had shifted to a secular news and sports talk format, including local high school and college basketball games.{{cite news|first=Jeffrey|last=Parson|work=The Wichita Eagle|title=There will be more basketball on the radio|date=January 19, 2001|page=2C|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/75202734/|accessdate=April 5, 2021}}

Another faith-based organization took control of the station—which had renamed itself KAHS in 2002—when owner Reunion Broadcasting sold KAHS to the Kansas City Catholic Network, owner of the Catholic Radio Network, for $525,000; by this time, KAHS had switched to adult standards programming.{{cite news|url=https://www.nexttv.com/news/deals-108362|title=Deals|work=Broadcasting & Cable|date=October 15, 2005|access-date=December 31, 2020}} The call letters were switched from KAHS to KPHN in 2014, after Kansas City Catholic Network acquired the previous station to use them and renamed it KDMR. While the KPHN designation had originally been established on 1340 AM in Pittsburg, it now phonetically represents Emil Kapaun, a chaplain from Pilsen who died in a prisoner of war camp in the Korean War and who has a sainthood cause before the Vatican.{{cite news|url=https://catholickey.org/2014/12/18/bishops-bless-praise-launch-of-radio-station-broadcasting-in-spanish/|work=Catholic Key|date=December 18, 2014|first=Kevin|last=Kelly|title=Bishops bless, praise launch of radio station broadcasting in Spanish|access-date=December 31, 2020}}

In 2017, KPHN suffered a burglary in which thieves forced their way into the studio-transmitter site and stole all of the station's studio equipment.{{cite news|url=https://www.kwch.com/content/news/Thieves-steal-everything-but-transmitter-from-El-Dorado-radio-station-454311813.html|access-date=December 31, 2020|work=KWCH-DT|title=Thieves steal everything but transmitter from El Dorado radio station|date=October 31, 2017}}

{{reflist}}

{{AM station data|48538|KPHN}}

• {{FCC-LMS-Facility|154641|K244FL}}

{{Wichita Radio}}

{{Religious Radio Stations in Kansas}}

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Category:Catholic radio stations

PHN

Category:Radio stations established in 1953

Category:1953 establishments in Kansas