Block Club Chicago reports: How Kennedy-King College’s WKKC Became A Black Radio Powerhouse

The only student radio station in the City Colleges of Chicago brought house music to the masses and launched the careers of DJs and artists in Chicago and beyond.

For over 50 years, WKKC — the lone radio station of the City Colleges of Chicago, housed at Kennedy-King’s Englewood campus, 6301 S. Halsted St. — has helped launch the careers of numerous artists and radio personalities who’ve gone on to leave their mark on the media landscape in the city and beyond. The station introduced Chicago House to generations of househeads and gave local hip-hop artists life-changing airtime.

Ask Black South Siders of a certain age about WKKC and watch their eyes light up as they recall their brief brush with fame or the time they heard The Song That Changed Everything — spun by the late DJ Pink House, Mike Dunn or Sam Sylk, names that defined the ‘80s and ‘90s in local radio.

“KKC was damn near [urban contemporary station] WGCI. They were kind of more commercial than the regular college radio station,” recalled Carrico “Kingdom Rock” Sanders, an elder statesman of Chicago’s hip-hop scene and co-founder of the Chicago Hip Hop Heritage Museum.

To read the full story in Block Club Chicago visit: How Kennedy-King College’s WKKC Became A Black Radio Powerhouse

Photo credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago