KBUZ was very much a small family business, as the Violets literally built the station with their own hands, as Gary was a certified radio engineer.
From 1980 through 1982, the station aired an eclectic mix of album-oriented rock that attempted to strike a balance in the Wichita radio market between the hard-edged KICT and the more mainstream KEYN.
Violet was initially very skeptical; this was at a time when Michael Jackson had only recently breached the color barrier on MTV, leading to a resurgence of Black-influenced music on the Top 40 charts, and Prince had just begun to emerge as an artist.
The proposed format, even for a few hours on Sundays, would be a striking contrast to the rest of the KBUZ broadcast schedule.
Still not expecting much, Violet turned the project over to Wes Crenshaw, a weekend and fill-in air staff member, who was, at the time, covering afternoon drive.
The new format, which followed an Urban Contemporary design, turned out to be a rousing success in both ratings and revenue, creating the first consistent financial stream for KBUZ out of the coveted Wichita market.
At 6 a.m. on August 5, Kelsey dropped the Urban format and flipped the station to Adult Contemporary as KWKL, "Lite 106.5".
[5] On July 3, 1990, KWKL dropped the oldies format and began stunting with a loop of David Bowie's "Changes", Bananarama's "I Heard a Rumour" and Glenn Frey's "The Heat is On" and a drop between the songs saying "All Good Things Must Come To An End, Out With The Old", referring to the demise of KWKL's oldies format.
The combined firm retained their broadcast properties and spun off their print assets as Journal Media Group.
[17][18] Scripps exited radio in 2018; the Wichita stations went to SummitMedia in a four-market, $47 million deal completed on November 1, 2018.