On May 28, 1935, KWBW first
signed on the air. It was the first radio station to serve the Hutchinson area and featured programming from the
NBC Red Network. During the "
Golden Age of Radio," KWBW carried NBC dramas, comedies, news, sports,
game shows,
soap operas and
big band broadcasts. In the 1950s, as network programming moved to TV, KWBW switched to a
middle of the road format of popular music, news, talk and sports. Over time, as more music listening shifted to FM, KWBW reduced music and increased talk until it made the transition to
talk radio. From 1989 to 2009, KWBW aired
Kansas Jayhawks football and
men's basketball. The station sold the rights to Kansas Jayhawks games to
KSKU in 2009, citing KSKU's stronger, further-reaching
FM radio signal and KWBW's already-busy schedule airing Hutchinson Salthawks and Hutchinson Blue Dragons games. In 2013, KWBW launched an FM translator at 98.5 MHz for listeners who prefer listening on the FM band. ==References==