kprs & AndRew and Mildred Carter

This building housed the first African American-owned station west of the Mississippi – Kansas City’s KPRS-AM. In May of 1950 Skip Carter started KPRS playing original songs by Black artists such as Ray Charles and James Brown. In 1951 the first studio for the radio station on 1590 AM, opened at Walnut and 12th street. In 1952 Carter, Ed and Pysche Pate became business partners and moved KPRS to a new location on in a storefront at 2814 East 23rd Street.

Andrew “Skip” Carter’s fascination with radio started early. Raised in Savannah, Georgia, he built his first radio set at age 14. He would become an industry pioneer, putting the first African American-owned station west of the Mississippi – Kansas City’s KPRS-AM, the forerunner of today’s Hot 103 Jamz – on the air in 1950. It remains the longest continuously black-owned station in the country, owing also to the work of Carter’s wife, Mildred, who suggested filing for an FM license that was granted in 1963. She then assumed chairmanship of the board upon Andrew’s death in 1988. Andrew, who served in the U.S. Army during World II, studied at the RCA School of Electronics and New York University but found efforts to own his own station thwarted by the era’s racial attitudes. He vented his frustration in a letter to Broadcast magazine that was published and read by former Kansas Gov. Alf Landon, who hired him to run a station he owned in Leavenworth, Kansas. Carter and partner Edward Pate went on to launch KPRS, devoting its playlist to R&B and soul. Carter and Pate were inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1995. Mildred’s honors include the Pioneer of Broadcasting Award from the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters.

Images courtesy: Carter Broadcast Group

Content Provided by:

The Black Archives of Mid-America, The Kansas City Public Library and the Local Investment Commission as part of the Black History Month Series.