Friday is the 89th birthday for Zimmer sister station Newsradio 950 KWOS in Jefferson City

January 30, 2026 Dilipadmin Mid-Missouri News
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Our Zimmer sister station Newsradio 950 KWOS in Jefferson City is celebrating its 89th birthday on Friday.

KWOS engineer Steve Morse tells 939 the Eagle that the station went on-air on January 30, 1937 and has had several studios. Its first one was inside the Missouri Capitol. KWOS carried then-President Harry Truman’s June 1948 whistlestop speech live from the back of a train in Jefferson City. It also won multiple news awards for its live coverage of the deadly 1954 Missouri State Penitentiary (MSP) prison riot. Four inmates were killed in that riot, and another 50 inmates were injured.

President Harry Truman’s whistle stop presidential campaign stops in Jefferson City on June 16, 1948. KWOS broadcast President Truman’s address live (file photo courtesy of Zimmer Radio’s Steve Morse)

KWOS has had numerous reporters who have moved on to bigger things over the years, including Don Roberts, Earl Fleer and Dick Chapman, who went on to work at heritage news station WCCO.

The station’s studios near Capitol Avenue and Adams were destroyed by a 1940 fire.