Participating Organizations

Radio Kansas is owned and operated by Hutchinson Community College (HutchCC). Their effort at public service broadcasting began modestly with a 100-watt student station on September 11, 1972 with the call letters KHCC-FM. As the nationwide public radio system grew, the college decided to upgrade the station to a 100,000 watt professional public radio station. On July 1, 1979 this station was inaugurated as the Wichita area's first full-power public radio service with a staff of five in Lockman Hall on HutchCC's main campus. As KHCC grew, citizens from other parts of Kansas began to inquire about how they could get public radio in their areas. By working with groups of supporters in these communities, KHCD-FM, 89.5 MHz, Salina-Manhattan was built and began broadcasting on January 28, 1988. This station serves the north-central part of the state extending to the Nebraska border. On August 3, 1992 KHCT-FM, serving the Great Bend-Hays area was added to the network. It was cumbersome to say KHCC/KHCD/KHCT every time we formally or informally referred to the network, so we knew we needed something simpler and thus the title Radio Kansas was born.