KBEQ
 |
|
| City | Kansas City, Missouri |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Kansas City Metropolitan Area |
| Branding | Q-104 |
| Slogan | "#1 For New Country" |
| Frequency | 104.3 MHz (also on HD Radio) 104.3 HD-2 for Classic 80's CHR |
| First air date | 1960 (as KBEY) August 15, 1973 (as KBEQ) |
| Format | Country |
| ERP | 100,000 watts |
| HAAT | 301 meters |
| Class | C0 |
| Facility ID | 48961 |
| Callsign meaning |
KBE = KBEY and KBEA Q = used in Q-104 branding |
| Former callsigns | KBEY (1960–1973) |
| Owner | Steel City Media (MGTF Media Company, LLC) |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | q104kc.com |
KBEQ-FM (104.3 FM, "Q-104") is a country radio station that broadcasts in the Kansas City media market. Prior to adopting its "young country" format in 1993, KBEQ was Kansas City's sole Top-40 station. It also broadcasts in HD Radio. The station's studios are located at Westport Center in Midtown Kansas City, and the transmitter site is in the city's East Side.
Like many FM stations in the 1960s, KBEQ served as a counterpart to Mission, Kansas AM station KBEA (1480 AM). Starting in 1960, KBEY (as it was called at that time) played big band and easy listening music, running a no-announcer automation system. In August 1970, the format switched to "underground" rock, playing exclusively album cuts including blues, folk, some classical, and jazz. Previously, KUDL's FM station KCJC had ended its underground format, and one of its longtime DJs, "Little Willie," was part of the first KBEY air staff. KBEY's "rock" format began with 20 hours of music played on the old automation system, and 4 hours live each evening with Bill Scott, until the air staff could be assembled. Unfortunately, Bill's previous job was as "Robert W. Walker" ("El Walkero") on KUDL and he had a non-compete contract. He assumed his restriction was for the character, KUDL assumed it was for him, personally, and as a settlement within a few weeks he was forced to leave the job. In 1971 KBEY devoted the midnight to 6 a.m. time slot to jazz, hosted by Bobby Kline, which developed a huge following over the next couple of years.
On August 15, 1973, with the growing popularity of FM radio, KBEY retired its format (and air staff, under friendly terms) and debuted their long-running CHR format (developed in San Diego and sweeping the country at the time) as "Super-Q, Q-104", changing the call letters to KBEQ, and gradually chipped away at AM powerhouse WHB's longtime popularity with the slogan "Super-Q plays favorites." Under the ownership of Mark and Connie Wodlinger, public service announcements were called "Q Tips."
A Super-Q contest which had been so popular in San Diego that it tied up the city's phone network (a dangerous problem they publicized wildly) was replicated on a smaller scale in Kansas City. The vast numbers of people hurriedly dialing the station's number for the contest would create many wrong numbers, and Southwestern Bell in Kansas City responded in the same way as other cities, by creating a new phone exchange just for radio/TV and other entities that might get large numbers of calls suddenly, one which would not lead to any other exchange by mis-dialing any one of the digits, so there would be few or no wrong numbers. KBEQ jammed up the lines so much with the Treasure Hunt contest that the station was assigned Kansas City's first 576-7xxx number. It was 816 576 7104, but the 576-7xxx system worked in the 913 area code, too, covering Missouri and Kansas stations in the metro area.
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