Products

From the beginning of commercial radio in 1920, Oklahoma City was on the leading edge of this new enterprise. WKY radio went on the air in January 1920, making it one of the earliest radio stations in America. Soon, the station began broadcasting regular programming and was the third station in America and the first west of the Mississippi to broadcast regular daily programs. In August 1928, E.K. Gaylord, owner of the Daily Oklahoman newspaper, purchased the station, and in December of that year, WKY became affiliated with the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). Gaylord's long association with NBC president David Sarnoff resulted in WKY originating programs for NBC out of the Oklahoma City studio from the mid-1930s extending through WKY-TV in the 1970s. WKY and KOMA became the launching pad for several well-known public figures, such as Walter Cronkite, Curt Gowdy, and Todd Storz.

The story of the Oklahoma State Capitol is as wild and unpredictable as the story of Oklahoma itself. The on-again, off-again effort to construct the statehouse lasted five years as Oklahoma City and Guthrie jockeyed back and forth, each laying claim to the capital city. Finally, seven years after statehood, ground was broken on the capitol. Oklahoma's third governor, Robert Williams, seeking to keep costs low, put himself in charge of the Oklahoma State Capitol Building Commission and made the following controversial decision that would be debated for decades afterwards: he would forgo the structure's planned ornamental dome. It would not be added until 85 years later. Dome or no dome, the capitol has served as the People's House, a place for Oklahomans to let their voices be heard throughout the generations.

KAKC AM 970 dominated radio listening in Tulsa, Oklahoma, like no other station before or since. During its heyday, half of all radios in northeast Oklahoma were tuned to this Top 40 station. The "new" KAKC emerged in 1956 with a baby-boom generation raised on rock and roll, the twist, and transistor radios. But it was more than music that kept KAKC on top throughout the turbulent 1960s, Vietnam, and into the 1970s--it was fun! The station was always out doing something entertaining in the community, usually to benefit a charity, and the Big 7 deejays--including Scooter Segraves, Dick Schmitz, and Lee Bayley--became household names. The images in Tulsa's KAKC Radio chronicle the station's entire history, from its beginnings in the Coliseum to its long ride as the dominant force in Tulsa radio.