Keep on Rockin’ – Turning 70

Celebrated daytime radio station KLWN turns 70 this year, and its longtime announcers remain consistent and timely.

KLWN

Booth had found out a 1320 frequency owned by an individual in Texas would be available for Lawrence while he was helping the local newspaper in Oroville, California, put a radio station on the air. He got a group of stakeholders together, and they got to work.

“They took all of their combined money that they put into the business, including his brother, who was one of the primary stockholders, and built KLWN from the ground up, brick by brick, stone by stone, for about $50,000 with all the equipment, with everything in it to broadcast,” says Hank Booth, son of the late Arden Booth.

After Arden’s death, the Booth family sold the station to the Zimmer family in the late 1990s. Hank says the Zimmers did a great job taking care of things after the transition. The Zimmer family grew up with a father who understood the importance of starting a radio station from the ground up, because the family did that in its hometown of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. When the Zimmers purchased KLWN, they maintained the hometown connection it had with Lawrence. As an independently owned family company, it was important to the Zimmers to keep family tradition going, so Hank Booth remained on the air to maintain the deep, local connection established by his father. And now as a part of Great Plains Media, Hank continues that legacy.

When the Booths started KLWN, operations took place in a small building on what is now 31st and Iowa streets. Today, KLWN is located on West Sixth Street as part of Great Plains Media Inc., with several studios and office spaces. The expanded space needed to accommodate KLWN’s growth and its sister stations, “92.9 The Bull” and “105.9 KISS FM.” In 2009, “92.9 The Bull” became the contemporary country station most Lawrencians know today. The Top 40 station, “105.9 KISS FM,” came along in 2012, replacing KLZR, “The Lazer,” at the 105.9 FM frequency which has been part of the KLWN family since it first signed on Aug. 20, 1963, as KLWN FM.

This year, KLWN celebrated its 70th birthday, and many of the people who made the station what it is today are still as consistent and timely as ever.

Hank Booth is one of those people. At 75 years old, he has educated Lawrencians about fascinating people and current events for many years through his show “According to the Record.”

The first episode aired when Hank got back from military service in 1973. He has taken occasional breaks from the show, including when he ran for county commission. “Otherwise, I’ve done the show nonstop for all those years, even with my other jobs as head of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce and head of the Baldwin City Chamber of Commerce, and other positions that I’ve held after I officially retired,” Hank says.

The best part of hosting “According to the Record,” he says, has been meeting people and finding out what their hopes and dreams are. Former president Barack Obama was interviewed by Hank before his presidential election. He has also interviewed and maintained relationships with many local and state government officials throughout the years, such as Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, State Sen. Marci Francisco (D-Kan.) and State Rep. Barbara Ballard (D-Kan.).

“That’s the thing I love about the show is listening to people’s stories, asking the questions for them to tell their dream, their wish, their aspirations for their club, their organization,” Hank explains.

He says he was never expected to follow in his late father’s footsteps in broadcast journalism. His father encouraged him to find another niche, but Hank believes Arden secretly wanted him to be in radio and take over the business.

As a young man, Hank thought of himself as more of a writer and wanted to work for a newspaper in San Francisco. He never thought he would end up in Lawrence for as long as he has, especially working in radio.

However, things changed after serving in the army and meeting his wife. The couple met when Hank was working at a radio station in Wichita to see if he could make it on his own in the business without his father. He worked as the news director at KLEO, an AM-only station.

“AMs were still the thing, and FM was just creeping along back in the ’60s,” Hank says.

After working in radio in various places, including Las Cruces, New Mexico, and Denver, Hank and his wife moved to Lawrence. He thought they’d be in Lawrence about two years to help his father sell advertising for KLWN while Arden was in the Kansas senate.

“We’re still here,” Hank says. “We’re still going. Forty-five years later, we still haven’t escaped to San Francisco.”

Hank says he’s stayed in Lawrence for as long as he has because he and his wife loved raising their kids here with the great schools and teachers. The only thing that has been consistent throughout his years in Lawrence, he says, is “According to the Record.”

Clenece Hills is in her 80s and has been a part of KLWN since 1958, when her family moved to Lawrence. Hills wrote to KLWN inquiring about a job opportunity, and she received a note written on the back of a 4-H livestock sale premium from Arden asking her to come to the station.

As a junior at the University of Kansas, Hills began her journey with KLWN and estimates she has contributed about 9,000 hours since she started her shows “Class Act” and “Timeline.”

On April 11, 2005, Hills began “Class Act”, a weekly talk show from 9 to 10 a.m. Monday mornings. It featured good news about people in the listening area. Students, teachers, coaches and many others who were making news for good deeds and successes were interviewed during the two years the show was on the air. Then in 2012, Hills created her show “Timeline,” which is still on the air today on Monday mornings and covers local and area history.

“I look forward to every ‘Timeline’ program because I prepare my guests, I spend a lot of time, and I prepare myself,” Hills explains. She is looking forward to many of her upcoming guests, including Leonard “Kris” Krishtalka, recently retired, head of Lawrence’s Natural History Museum. Krishtalka will be a guest Sept. 27 on “Timeline” to discuss his new novel, “The Body on the Bed,” which will be released on Sept. 26.

The station continues to stay true to its original purpose of broadcasting local news, weather and sports through shows like “According to the Record” and “Timeline.” Additional shows include “Radio for Grownups,” with Joel Becker, from 9 a.m. to noon weekdays, and “Rock Chalk Sports Talk,” with Derek Johnson, from 3 to 6 p.m. weekdays. “The Clinton Parkway Nursery Garden Show,” with Ann Peuser, airs at 7:30 a.m. Saturdays, and “The Schmooze with Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel” is at 8:30 a.m. Sundays. And, for in depth stories on local businesses and community leadership tune into the “Lawrence Business Magazine Radio Show,” with Steven Hertzog at 9 a.m. Thursdays.

If listeners cannot listen to these shows at their designated time, all of the shows are uploaded in podcast form on SoundCloud and can be accessed via KLWN’s website (klwn.com). KLWN also has an app through which Lawrencians can access KLWN anytime, anywhere.

This fall, KLWN listeners can look forward to more local sports programming. KLWN is the home of KU sports, with live coverage of football and basketball (which can also be heard on sister station KKSW 105.9 Kiss FM), and Royals baseball. Each, Lawrence High and Free State High School football games, as well as many boys and girls basketball, volleyball, soccer, baseball and softball games are broadcast – so if you can’t go in person, listen live.

Hank and Hills agree KLWN will continue to stay relevant and thrive another 70 years by providing local coverage.

“Stay local, stay local, stay local,” Hank says.

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