[1] In the latter half of the 1930s, leaders of big bands sought ways to differentiate their groups from others who played similar music.

Tommy Dorsey began featuring amateur musicians, Benny Goodman moved his trio and quartet into the spotlight, and Kay Kyser added a quiz component.

An article in the trade publication Billboard noted that Dorsey's airing of amateurs followed the example of Major Bowes, and Kyser's contest was a variation on the Professor Quiz program.

[2] In October 1937,[3] Kyser began including the Kollege as a segment in his Monday night broadcasts from the Blackhawk restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, via radio station WGN.

[3] Besides Kyser, the show's personnel included singers Trudy Erwin, Julie Conway, Gloria Wood, Lucy Ann Polk, Mike Douglas, Sully Mason, the King Sisters,[1] Georgia Carroll (Kyser's wife),[6] Harry Babbitt and Ginny Simms.

Other regulars were pianist Lyman Gandee, trumpeter Bobby Guy, and Merwyn Bogue (better known as Ish Kabibble).

[8] Announcers were Ken Niles, Bud Hiestand, Vern Smith, Bill Forman, and Jack McCoy.

[10] The Chicago Sunday Tribune reported in its January 30, 1938, issue that the show's title would become Kay Kyser's Kampus Klass.

It resumed using the title Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge as it began broadcasting from NBC's Radio City headquarters.

[17] The review also questioned Kyser's emphasis on the show's quiz elements when the orchestra and singers had "some excellent talent of which he has every reason to be proud.