Kansas State, Morris Communication battle over broadcasting rights

MANHATTAN, KANSAS - A court battle is brewing between Kansas State University and Morris Communication over a radio station&#39;s rights to broadcast Wildcats football games. <br> <br> Morris, of Augusta, Georgia, owns WIBW, which has broadcast Kansas State football since the 1950s. <br> <br> But the university in December gave the Wichita-based Mid-America Ag Network exclusive rights to broadcast the games in a contract that some sources told The Manhattan Mercury is worth $1.2 million a year, or six million dollars for the life of the arrangement. <br> <br> WIBW reportedly made a final bid of $600,000 a year, which was about twice what the station had been paying for the rights. <br> <br> The new deal is expected to go into effect once the university&#39;s current football broadcast contract with WIBW, signed in 1997, expires in June. <br> <br> But Morris claims it has the right to continue broadcasting the games, despite the new deal, because of a 1969 agreement between former WIBW owner, Stauffer Communications Incorporated, and the university that was filed with the Federal Communications Commission. <br> <br> The time-share agreement -- one of the last of its kind left in the country -- detailed how the university radio station and WIBW were to share the 580 AM radio frequency. Morris said the deal also explains that WIBW has the right to broadcast Wildcats football games, and that&#39;s exactly what it plans to continue doing. <br> <br> Kansas State disagrees and filed court documents in January seeking judicial clarification of that agreement. A Riley County judge will take up the matter at a March 29 hearing.