KTOP AM 1490

An AM radio station operating on 1490 kHz and licensed to Topeka, Kansas, with studios serving the Topeka metropolitan area. The station is owned by Cumulus Media and its transmitter and antenna are located in northern Topeka on NW Buchanan Street near the Kansas River. KTOP first went on the air in July 1947, becoming the second radio station to serve Topeka. The station was founded by T. Hall Collison and Norville G. Wingate, both World War II veterans, who filed their FCC application in January 1946. The FCC approved the application in March 1947, and the KTOP call letters were assigned after the FCC selected the Topeka station over competing applicants in California and New Mexico seeking the same call sign. KTOP was affiliated with the Mutual Broadcasting System in its early years. Charles B. Axton purchased the station from Collison in 1950. During the Great Flood of 1951, the United States Air Force airlifted a transmitter to restore the station's broadcast capability after its regular transmitter location flooded. A storm in 1958 toppled the station's tower, though the station returned to air within 23 hours. Over its history, KTOP broadcast a Top 40 format before transitioning to country music and subsequently to an oldies and adult standards format. For much of the 1990s through the early 2000s, the station maintained an adult standards format. On October 4, 2007, the station shifted to a sports format, which it continues to broadcast. The station carries sports programming including college basketball coverage relevant to the Kansas market.