The transmitter and antenna are located in northern Topeka on NW Buchanan Street near the Kansas River.

On January 5, 1946, a partnership of T. Hall Collison and Norville G. Wingate, both World War II veterans,[2] filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to build a new radio station in Topeka, originally proposing studios in the Kansan Hotel in downtown Topeka.

The FCC approved the application on March 20, 1947, and after a modification to specify a different studio site,[3] the station began broadcasting in July 1947.

[4] To get the KTOP call letters, the FCC selected the Topeka station over a new outlet being built in Monterey, California and another in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

[2] Within months, Wingate sold his stake to Collison, opting to retire due to poor health.

[9] Harris Publications acquired the station in August 1963;[10] that December, Axton died in a Topeka hospital at the age of 53.

[15] When a court ordered him to put aside $400,000 in restitution after being convicted in March 1994, he filed bankruptcy for himself, his wife, and three businesses, one of them UNO Broadcasting.