The Sonny Slater Award was established in 1992 to honor Sonny Slater and to recognize a Kansas broadcaster, who is not an owner or general manager, for long time service to his or her station and community.
How to Nominate
Nominations should be emailed to [email protected] and should include a brief history of their overall body of work and contact information for the nominee. The deadline is August 1.
Sonny Slater was farm director at KSAL Radio in Salina for 40+ years. He retired on May 25, 1990. On retirement, he and his son, Tom bought a 400-acre farm in the Flint Hills near Madison. Sonny and his wife, Esther, moved to the farm. Sonny died December 9, 1991 in a farm accident. He was 64.
Sonny began his broadcast career in 1945 at WIBW Radio, Topeka. He was one of 85 paid entertainers at the station, where he played the guitar and was part of the Kansas Roundup Gang. He worked with a state radio network and with stations in Clinton, IL and Shenandoah IA, before joining KSAL Radio as farm director and singer in 1950. He was featured vocalist with KSAL’s Smoky Valley Boys. During his tenure at KSAL, Sonny was up at 2:30 AM each morning, at the studio by 4:00 AM, and on the air from 5:00 am to 8:30 am. He also aired market and farm news and weather over the noon hour. Before his retirement, Sonny was one of Kansas’ senior broadcasters in terms of years spent covering state farm meetings and workshops and farm Extension events.
