WATCH: History rekindled as iconic KCTV5 Tower shines again over Kansas City skyline

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - For the better part of eight decades, the KCTV5 Tower has been a central part of Kansas City’s skyline, serving as a towering landmark.

Longtime Kansas City residents will recall that the tower once shone brightly at night, illuminated by hundreds of light bulbs. But for the last 24 years, the tower has been dark.

But that was then. This is now.

On Thursday, Sept. 18, just after 9 p.m., Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas flipped a switch to change the Kansas City skyline at night.

Since June, workers have been installing special, new lights on the tower.

Much more on that in a moment, because to truly appreciate where we are today, we have to take a peek at the past.

The year was 1955. Dwight Eisenhower was the president of the United States. Elvis Presley made his television debut. And KCMO-TV, which would later become KCTV5, was building a new broadcast tower. It took 600 tons of steel, which, when topped with a massive antenna, soared 1,042 feet into the sky.

At the time, it was touted as the second-tallest free-standing structure in the world behind only the Empire State Building. Eclipsing the height of the Eiffel Tower, it didn’t take Paris long to add an antenna, making it slightly taller than the KCMO Tower.

KCTV5 general manager Curtis Miles said the broadcast beacon holds a special place in Kansas City’s history.

“We’re so excited because the KCTV5 Tower has been an iconic part of Kansas City for generations,” he said. “People have counted on that tower, enjoyed that tower and now to have the chance to work with the city to relight it and relaunch it for our entire community is very exciting.”

Miles said it gained iconic status over the decades as Kansas Citians came to rely on the KCTV5 “weather tower,” as it was called back then. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said he remembers when the tower used to light up and said viewers then and now will benefit.

“I know years ago they got a chance to know tomorrow’s weather, to get other indications from it,” the mayor said. “Now we get it back.”

The tower went dark in 2004 as it became too expensive and labor-intensive to replace the hundreds of standard light bulbs that would either burn out or get sheared off by ice falling from the tower.

In the years to follow, viewers routinely asked KCTV5 to turn the tower lights back on. Local civic groups tried to rally public support for a re-lighting. And one idea would have morphed the tower into a brightly lit, gigantic saxophone.

Finally, with the World Cup coming to Kansas City in 2026, KCTV5 and the City of Kansas City, Missouri, entered into a partnership to relight the tower.

Miles said it was an easy decision.

“We’re going to show it off to the world as part of the World Cup? OK, we’re in!” he said. “We think this is going to be great!”

Lucas said relighting the tower will be a landmark moment.

“It really does say something about Kansas City. It is electric... And although it’s an old structure, it almost looks futuristic,” the mayor relayed. “And a lot of people will be saying ‘what is that beacon in the middle of the city? What’s going in Kansas City? What’s this landmark?’”

From now on, when the city lights up landmarks and monuments in unified colors for special occasions, the KCTV5 Tower will be included and shine brightly among them.

The installation of the new lights isn’t for those afraid of heights.

“The wind can sway,” said Trey Beltran of Smithville, Missouri. “For the average person, it’ll be quite scary.”

Beltran was part of a small crew of workers who braved the incredible heights to install the new lights on the tower. For the last three months, Beltran and his band of daring specialists have been working high above Kansas City to install the new LED lights on the tower.

“You can’t just hire anybody,” KCTV5 chief engineer Mike Sulzman said. “Even people that work on towers all the time don’t know how to work on a tower like this.”

Sulzman marveled at the skill and courage it takes to work 1,000 feet in the air. The company doing the work, Precision Communications Inc., is based in Grove, Oklahoma.

“The conditions at those heights, not only the wind, but the heat and everything else that they have to deal with up there,” Sulzman said, “it’s just amazing that those guys can be up there for hours on end every day, day after day.”

It’s taken the crew months to prepare and install 98 special LED lights on the tower. And in another nod to that tower in Paris, the KCTV5 Tower lights are the same as those used to illuminate the French landmark for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Miles said the relighting of the KCTV5 Tower is a long time coming.

“It’s a beacon. It’s going to be different colors, but we’ll be able to shape it, change those colors, and rotate the colors on the tower,” he said. “And again, the more we play with it, the better we’re going to get at it, so we’re excited.”