Dillard began broadcasting from his personal residence, with the original studio and transmitter being built at 32nd and Main streets in Kansas City, Missouri.

In September 1928, it was allowed to move to 1200 kHz with 100 watts, only for a massive national radio reallocation (General Order 40) to send the station back to 1420 on November 11.

Capper purchased the radio station to promote the Kansan and to give him a piece of the growing Greater Kansas City advertising market.

[6] KCKN became national news in the November 24, 1941, edition of Time magazine, after it broadcast a weeklong serial reading of journalist Clarence Streit's famous book, Union Now.

[7] In 1944, KCKN became a basic Mutual Broadcasting System affiliate; it had also reestablished a physical presence in Kansas City, Missouri, with additional offices in the Waltower Building.

[11] After the four-year freeze and reallocation, KCKN applied again, this time for channel 5,[12] in an application mutually exclusive with that of the KCMO Broadcasting Company.

Wayne Stitt was the popular host in the mornings, Joe Farrell shared middays with Frank Hassett, and in the evening it was Eddie Clarke from 9 to 11pm.

Storz knew that to make the new concept successful, he needed to hire the market's highest-rated DJ talent, who would bring their listeners along with them to WHB.

Cy Blumenthal relished the opportunity to take ownership of KCKN in the same market where Storz had so successfully transformed WHB with the Top 40 format.

[20] After a year of success, changes in country music, notably competition from rock and roll, hurt the station, and KCKN tried Top 40.

At KCKN, this entailed luring away Ted Cramer, then the program director of KIMO; Blumenthal appointed Glen M. George as general manager, a post he would hold for the next 16 months.

[20] Cramer then took a job in West Virginia, and native Kansas Citian Harry Becker returned from Texas in 1961 to become program director.

The station purchased a three-story, wood-frame farm house on the edge of town, at 4121 Minnesota Avenue, and converted it into studios and offices.

[23] [15] The kinds of changes that Blumenthal had found successful in the smaller markets with the country audience were put into practice at KCKN.

These changes got the positive results Blumenthal wanted; despite an increasingly competitive radio market, KCKN's listenership grew steadily.

[25] The FM antenna was added near the top of the tower built in 1957, and on May 28, 1963, KCKN-FM signed on, carrying a simulcast of its AM sister 50 percent of the day while originating its own country music format for the remainder.

This, along with the major-market sounding dee-jays, quality production values, reliable news, weather and traffic elements, were key reasons KCKN became a dominant station again in a much more competitive marketplace than it had in those early years of radio.

Chief engineer Jim Jett was using several equalizing techniques to make the signal sound brighter, fuller and bigger than it was to the listener.

The chime gave AM and FM the most identifiable sounder in Kansas City radio, and it took positive advantage of the other enhancements made to the AM side.

[28] In July 1965, Cy Blumenthal sold the radio stations to entertainer Danny Kaye and his business manager Lester Smith.

Because of the success George and Cramer were having with the country music format, Kaye and Smith remained hands-off owners, and KCKN-AM-FM continued with the same on-air product.

[28] The station remained successful, and Kaye-Smith invested heavily in studios, offices, and equipment, reflecting its status as a market and industry leader.

When Time published a full-page article in 1972 on the growth of country music, it featured general manager George and program director Kramer.

[28] One of the first promotional tools used on the street was a striking green Nash Metropolitan car, sporting the station call letters painted across each side and the rear in garish yellow and used as a mobile unit.

Morning and afternoon drive time traffic reports were added with Kansas City, Missouri, police officer Steve Untriff.

[28] Other on-air DJs and newscasters included: Dave Estes (employed 1967–77), Doug Dillon (1966–1975), Bill Abbott (1967–72), Gary Brazeal (1968–73), Jim Beedle (1969–74), JB Carmicle (1972–77), "Moon" Mullins (1961–66, Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, 2009); Dave Morton (News 1965–83), Bill Freeman (ND 1966–1970), Jack Emmerson (ND 1970–72), Mike Shanin (ND 1972–1980), Joe Vaughan (1972–77), Jim Bowlin (1969–73), Pam Voreis, Neil Stempleman, Jim Clark, Tim Wallace, "Uncle" Don Rhea, Noel Scott (1977–1981), Rick Douglass, Dan Roberts, John Leslie, Don Perry, John Duncan, Roger Carson, "Cactus Jack" Call, Don Burley, Charlie Knight, Don Register, Wes Cunningham, Chris Collier, Bill Honeycutt, Jesse Sherwood, Jay Sanders, Bob Compton, Dan Crary, Jack Rudnay (Sports) and Lupe Quintana (one-hour weekly Spanish language program for more than 20 years).

After leaving from Fairfax Airport two days later, Cline, along with Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas and concert promoter/manager Randy Hughes were all killed in the 1963 Camden, TN Piper Comanche plane crash en route to Nashville.

In 1991, the relationship between AM and FM was severed once and for all when KFKF was sold to KCBR-AM Limited Partnership, owned by Bill Johnson, and became KNHN, a news/talk station known as "CNN 1340".

[32] KNHN offered listeners news/talk programming, CNN Headline News audio overnights, and Kansas State University sports coverage.

In 2015, Davidson sold KDTD and KCZZ to TBLC Holdings, owned by Mahan M. Janbakhsh, in a transaction also involving stations in Virginia and North and South Carolina.