07-05-2025
Kansas City's 1,024-foot red tower could glow from Midtown once again
Kansas City is poised to re-illuminate an iconic Midtown landmark.
The City Council's finance committee forwarded a licensing agreement with Gray Local Media on Tuesday that would allow the city to install and use lighting equipment on the 1,024-foot KCTV Broadcast Tower on East 31st Street.
Once bathed in the glow of over 1,000 lights, the tower would be the first city landmark to be re-lit under the city's Illuminate KC initiative: red for the Chiefs, teal for the KC Current, and other colors to reflect various sentiments.
The ever-looming 1,042-foot KCTV tower was the third-tallest freestanding structure in the world when it began transmitting in 1956.
The tower stopped glowing roughly 20 years ago, owing to rising maintenance costs and difficult logistics. With Illuminate KC, the city hopes to 'shine a light' on Kansas City's landmarks and historic buildings, Phinney Sachs of the mayor's office said Tuesday.
The KCTV Tower will join other illuminated buildings like City Hall, Union Station and the Kauffman Center. The next focus will be lighting the Kit Bond Bridge over the Missouri River, and work has already begun to move that toward reality.
The City Council is expected to vote on the licensing agreement with Gray Local Media, which would last at least 10 years and comes with no cost, on Thursday.
The KCTV tower is visible in the distance as snow blanketed Kansas City in 2023.
Further work is needed, and details are to be announced. The city would need to cover the costs of a structural analysis and installing the equipment. City staff have been working on finding funds, and the council will likely consider funding at a future date. Costs were previously estimated in the mid-hundred thousands of dollars.
The tower was lit in red this winter as a test run and preview of what's to come. A full updated light installation would run up the tower's platforms.
