With its roots in an act of interracial cooperation, it is fitting that the  Southern Christian Leadership Conference-Greater Kansas City and Jewish Community Relations Bureau-American Jewish Committee bestow the 2020 Evelyn Wasserstrom Award to the Carter Broadcast Group.

 

KPRS was the first black-owned radio station west of the Mississippi River, and today the Carter Broadcast Group is the nation’s oldest black-owned and family-operated radio broadcasting company.

 

The late company founder, Andrew “Skip” Carter, had worked hard to realize his dream of owning a radio station. But he was blocked by prejudice until his 1949 letter to Broadcast magazine, decrying the trials he experienced in the industry, was read by former Kansas Governor and then-radio magnate Alf Landon. Landon gave him the opportunity to secure a transmitter from KCLO-AM in Leavenworth, and in 1950 helped Carter to obtain the FCC broadcasting license that is the foundation of the stations we know today as the Hot 103 Jamz and KPRT-AM.

 

Since hitting the airwaves in May 1950, KPRS (for “People’s Radio Station”) has been a pillar of the African American community and the community at large, not only playing the music of black artists but offering airtime to community groups to discuss issues of the day on long-running talk shows like “Generation Rap.”

 

In 1972 Skip and Mildred Carter moved to Florida, where he died in 1988. In 1987, their grandson, Michael Carter, was named president of the company.

 

In 1996 Andrew “Skip” Carter was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in Chicago, and in 2014 to the Missouri Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.