On Oct. 15, 1975, at 12:25 p.m., broadcasting at 9.9 watts, the first song played on 90.7 FM KJHK, with song after song following it for the next five decades to come. Since then, KJHK has stayed on the air 24/7, 365 days a year, achieving local, regional, and national fame, consistently nominated and receiving awards for its broadcasting, online work, events, and more, serving Lawrence as the “Sound Alternative” to mainstream radio.
However, that status was not without its rocky roads. From Federal Communications Commission (FCC) violations, student revolts, and a global pandemic, KJHK has continued to persevere and remain on air, serving not only the KU and Lawrence community but also staying on the waves globally for listeners everywhere.
It started in the 1920s. Originally, KU’s first try at radio broadcasting was with KFKU, officially debuting on Dec. 15, 1924. However, a combination of signal interference and the station’s focus on educational programming reduced its airtime to only five hours a week by the 1950s. In Sept. 1952, KU’s public radio affiliate KANU began operations, and later on in 1956, the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications would serve KU under the station name KUOK, a “wireless-wired” cable AM studio run by journalism school students. However, this station was only available in the dorms. During this time, NBA center Wilt Chamberlain hosted his own show on the station during his days as a KU student.
By the 1970s, the popularity of FM broadcasting inspired KUOK to change its format and become a publicly accessible radio station, changing its call letters to KJHK.
On Sept. 6, 1975, at 7 a.m., a Sikorsky helicopter from the “Flying Cranes” of the Kansas National Guard’s 137th Aviation Company hovered over Mount Oread, enlisting the help of station personnel, the soldiers and their helicopter, to hoist KJHK’s new antenna into place on the radio tower behind Marvin Hall. Despite the job finishing at 10 a.m., it would take another five weeks of paperwork delays before the station could finally hit the airwaves.
On Oct. 5, 1975, the FCC gave final permission to broadcast at 90.7 megahertz and granted the station its new call letters. Finally, on Oct. 15, 1975, KJHK was officially born thanks to now conservative political commentator and host of Fox & Friends, Steeve Doocy. Despite now reaching past the residence halls, the station had little public accessibility. Broadcasting at 10 watts, the radius of the signal only stretched about eight to 10 miles, encompassing little outside Lawrence itself.
But what it lacked in size KJHK made up for in its diversity of sound. From its origins, the station aimed to not only serve the interests of the student community but also provide listeners with progressive musical selections and provocative informational programs. For example, KJHK’s fall 1975 program schedule included music shows such as “Jayhawk Jams,” a “progressive music show … that keeps things loose with the best new music in town,” and “After Dark,” a show offering “good progressive sounds … with the host that gives the most.” Alongside the music were talk shows concerning student life, many aimed at minority students, such as “Relevance in Black” for African-American listeners, “The First Americans” for Native American listeners, and the feminist-oriented program “The New Woman.” Nontraditional rock and jazz dominated the musical offerings, and the station’s small Top-40 coverage got axed by early 1976 in favor of more avant-garde fare.
KJHK’s first years were a bit rocky. The station’s student-ran status and “progressive” musical leanings meant its unorthodox sound and rough delivery alienated some listeners. In 1977, one student complained to the University Daily Kansan (UDK) that the “monotonic and mundane voicing” of the student DJs had “succeeded in producing the most boring radio programs in the Lawrence area.”
A 1982 UDK article considered the station’s punk and New Wave selections as nothing more than “mindless babble cranked out at a high volume by orange-haired idiots.” Some KJHK staffers also complained about musical inconsistency, annoyed that the station’s supposedly “progressive” playlists were thrown together willy-nilly by individualistic DHs with no sense of professionalism.
However, many others loved KJHK’s approach to programming. In 1982 the New York Rocker ranked the station as one of the best in college radio. In 1985, SPIN magazine honored KJHK for “developing and promoting” local alternative music and that the station was a favorite in statewide broadcasting awards.
On April 1, 1980, KJHK announced that it was changing its format to “all disco” and flooded the airwaves with the latest hits by the likes of Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor. Apparently oblivious to the date, over 300 angry callers besieged the station, demanding a return of its progressive programing.
On April 1, 1986, plating a constant stream of mainstream pop artists like Madonna, Culture Club, and Van Halen. Alongside a flood of angry callers was a person who threatened to blow up the KU Endowment Association unless the station returned to its old ways.
However, a more authentic format change came in the summer of 1988, inspired by an independent study that suggested KJHK play more Top-40 tunes to broaden its audience. This resulted in at least one campus protest rally and a number of angry letters to the UDK.
However, the station had some more serious incidents than just musical preferences. The station has had several brushes with FCC regulators. In 1989, the federal regulatory agency fined KJHK $2,000 for violations regarding the content of donor announcements.
One of KJHK’s most infamous incidents came in the fall of 1978. On Oct. 5, DJ Dave Grissom was in the newsroom with another student preparing her newscast. In a 2005 article with the Lawrence Journal-World, Grissom said, “I had thought it would be funny if I prepared a phony story and presented it to her to see if she would run it. I wrote up a story about 15,000 people dying in Waterloo as a nuclear reactor exploded.”
Unfortunately for Grissom, after forgetting to throw out the story, another newscaster read the report at 4:50 p.m. According to Steve Doocy, who was the station’s manager at the time, people called the Associated Press about the story and would later air on news channels such as “CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.” By the time KJHK realized the significance of what has happened, it was too late, and the FCC investigators from Kansas City descended upon Lawrence, suspecting the news was the work of anti-nuclear activists. The students involved were relieved from their radio duties for the rest of the semester, but Grissom would go on to become the news director for the next fall.
The growing multiculturalism of the 1980s brought controversy to KJHK as well as the station becoming entangled in debates over racial and gender discrimination. In 1983, the KU campus group, Blacks in Communications, complained to the student senate that KJHK failed to provide enough programming for Black students, claiming that only three of the station’s 168 broadcasting hours per week were aimed at minority listeners.
In 1986, station DJ Kiesa Harris filed a complaint with the KU office of affirmative action, claiming that her feminist-oriented program “Womonsong” had been bumped to a less desirable time slot due to its controversial content. At the time, KJHK program director David Hale had termed the show to be too “lesbian-orientated” and moved it from its normal Saturday 6-9 p.m. to 3:30-5 p.m. One male listener took the station to task in the UDK, asking, “Has KJHK forgotten their roots and reason for being on air—to provide a ‘Sound Alternative’? ” Mediation would later defuse the incident, but “Womansong” remained on the air unchanged.
In 1987, KJHK was granted the power to increase to 100 watts, but only a year later the FCC would fine the station after an excited DJ would yell “Fuck you, Billy Tubbs!” multiple times after KU’s men’s basketball title game against Oklahoma. This would later lead the school administration to remove music with explicit language and messaging.
A particularly tense incident took place in February of 1988 when KJHK invited two local members of the Ku Klux Klan to take part in a debate about racial issues on the talk show “Jay-talk 91.” Despite being unable to find any opponents willing to share a microphone with KKK members, the station decided to go ahead with the show. However, pressure from the Lawrence African-American community, who opposed giving the KKK a free podium, convinced university officials and the school of journalism to cancel the visit. On Feb. 19, 1988, KU Executive Vice Chancellor Judith Ramaley told the UDK that security concerns had been a major factor in the decision.
Through the 1990s, KJHK maintained its alternative course, continuing to win broadcasting awards and appear near the top of “best station” polls around the state and nation. In December 1994, KJHK became one of the first radios to offer a live, continuously streaming internet signal. Controversial topics like sex and homosexuality, such as a 1992 debate between gay leaders and Topka anti-gay activist Fred Phelps, continues to find airtime and inspire debate. KJHK would continue to offer the same for years to come, advancing its mission of provisioning sound alternatives to the everyday radio experience.
In 1999, in response to pressure to have a firmer grasp of the day-to-day operations after multiple controversies, the journalism faculty took control of the student-built and ran music programming of the station. The then-current and former staff were furious about the destruction of their legacy as the station was re-branded to J-Rock 91.
Previously, in 1985, the journalism school had lost its television station, Channel 30, which served as a broadcast student laboratory. The department turned to KJHK as the only environment where students could gain the same broadcasting experience.
During much of 1988 and the beginning of 1989, protests, benefit concerts, and full-page advertisements in the UDK told the station’s side of the story and their efforts to expel the past, with “Save KJHK” rallies popping up as far away as Kansas City.
The current and former students would successfully force the journalism faculty to reinstate the Sound Alternative and go back to the “wide-open rock-n-roll prairie” era, changing the formatting but mandating that students adopt the alternative formats of their choice. This remains in effect today, ensuring the creative, alternative, and progressive legacy that KJHK was founded in. This was a rare victory for not just KJHK staff but student protests in general. To read more about the revolt, check out this article!
In 2004, after 28 years of supervision, the station would be transferred to control of KU Memorial Unions after the journalism school decided it could no longer support the station’s operational budget.
Once housed in Sudler Annex, affectionately known as “the Shack,” the small limestone building once hosted (description). But the building was not up to code with the American Disabilities Act and was considered too expensive to repair. Construction in the Kansas Union would begin in November of 2009, costing nearly $500,000, providing students with state-of-the-art equipment to replace outdated equipment. The station would officially move on May 6, 2010, with the city of Lawrence declaring that Friday, May 7, be KJHK day.
Then the union’s director, David Mucci, said that the station would fit into other programming that unions do for students, particularly the programs administered by the Student Union Activities. Mucci said that the fact KU leaders were willing to transfer KJHK’s administration to another campus entity instead of letting its FCC license drop was a sign students had been successful in running the station.
In 2020, when the world fell silent due to the Covid-19 pandemic, KJHK still remained on the airwaves 24/7, 365 days a year. Volunteer DJs adapted to playing at home, and staffers still continued to create content despite the scary situation outside of their homes.
Today, KJHK is funded in part by student senate media fees, as well as donations from underwriting and fundraisers. While KJHK is sure to have more adventures ahead, we’re proud of how far the station has come and everyone who has put in so much love and care behind the sound alternative. In 2024, KJHK was awarded “Best in the Nation” at the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System’s conference, a pinnacle event in the broadcasting community that gathers aspiring broadcasters and industry professionals from high schools and universities across the nation.
In 2025, KJHK would go on to celebrate its 50th birthday, hosting a 3-day celebration with music festivals, station tours, and a large-scale concert at the Granada with opener Dalima Kapten and main act Mei Semones. This celebration brought current students and alumni across the country together for a weekend of celebration of everything KJHK has created and stood for.
A lot can get lost over 50 years, so we hope we did our best to tell the story of KJHK. Have some history of your own to share? Fill out the form here to become a part of the story!