photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

K's Tires & Service, 930 E. 27th Street, is pictured in late April 2024.

Let’s take a spin around town with some news and notes.

• If you spin enough, you are going to need some new tires (and they’re helpful in dodging Lawrence’s army of orange construction cones too.) Well, there’s news that a longtime tire dealer in town is expanding.

Plans have been filed at City Hall for K’s Tire Sales & Service to expand at its location at 930 E. 27th St. Plans call for a 3,500-square foot expansion to be built on to the northwest corner of the building. The expansion will house five new service bays, which almost will double the size of the business, which makes its living from selling tires, servicing brakes and other such auto repairs. If you are having a hard time picturing the business, while it has an address off 27th Street, it actually is most visible from Haskell Avenue in southeast Lawrence.

The expansion comes as K’s is celebrating its 25th year in business.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The Quick Stop convenience store and gas station at 1000 W. 23rd Street is pictured on May 5, 2024.

• While your tire options are expanding, you may have one less place to get fuel. Plans have been filed to remove the gasoline pumps at the convenience store located at 1000 W. 23rd St, which is the convenience store across the street from Dillons. (Well, for the time being, as that Dillons, you may recall, will be closing when the new store opens near 23rd and Iowa.)

Removal of the pumps is the latest sign that the convenience store is going all in on the Mediterranean restaurant that it has operated at the site for several years. The convenience store has long been the site of The Fresh Mediterranean Company. The store has had a counter and kitchen that sells falafels, chicken shawarma, gyros and a bunch of rice and hummus-based bowls.

According to the plans filed with City Hall, the removal of the gasoline pumps will allow for more parking at the site, and the plans also call for the convenience store items to be removed from the store, which will provide more room for diners.

This will be one to keep an eye on. The plans have been filed for a couple of months now, but no real signs of work have begun. Lawrence-based Paul Werner Architects is overseeing the project, and Werner told me the project is still moving ahead. The owner is finishing a couple of projects in other communities and then plans to begin the Lawrence remodel.

• The rule of cruising around town is that at some point you have to stop and park. I’m not sure this next place is your No. 1 parking destination, but I’ll pass the info along anyway: The Lawrence Police Department headquarters building in west Lawrence is getting a parking lot remodel.

Plans have been filed to add 41 parking spots at the the headquarters building at 5100 Overland Drive. A few of the spaces will be out front for the general public, but many of them are to the side and behind the building, where staff members park. The plans call for about 40 spaces behind the building to be covered by a canopy equipped with solar panels. The plans also call for electric vehicle charging stations, although it is not clear how quickly that part of the project may happen. The plan lists the canopy and charging station as a future phase.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The radio station studios for 105.9 FM are pictured on Nov. 11, 2024.

• Finally, a drive around town is made a little better with some music on the radio. What type of music will be playing on Lawrence’s largest commercial radio station — 105.9 FM — however has been a question for awhile.

In November, I and several radio trade publications reported that an application had been filed with federal regulators for Kansas City’s largest Spanish language media company — Reyes Media Group — to buy 105.9 KKSW. Upon completing the purchase, Reyes presumably would convert the radio station to a Spanish language format.

However, you may have noticed that Spanish songs aren’t flowing from 105.9 currently. (Happy Cinco de Mayo, by the way.) That’s because the $2.25 million purchase has never been completed. I’ve heard from some — no one connected with the deal, but knowledgeable about radio dealings — that the deal is unlikely to be finalized. I’m not in a position to say that with any certainty, but can report that Reyes Media did file with the Federal Communications Commission a request for an extension on the purchase.

The extension was filed in late February, and was for 90 days. Thus, we should see something later this month — either a request for another extension or the consummation of the purchase. If not, that would be another sign the deal is not happening.

The outcome may have implications beyond music. University of Kansas football and basketball games long have had a home on 105.9 FM. This past basketball season, though, the games weren’t on the station, given that the owners thought the station would change hands before the basketball season concluded. The games were on the sister station of 105.9, which is 92.9 The Bull. That station has a weaker signal in Douglas County — its tower is in Osage County — so evening basketball games were a little harder to pick up in certain locations. If the sale falls through, perhaps those games will return to the more powerful 105.9 signal.

Lawrence’s 105.9 FM is owned by Great Plains Media, which is based in Tennessee and owns a handful of other stations in other states. In Lawrence, it also owns 92.9 FM and 1320 KLWN on the AM dial.

As for the plans by Reyes Media — who didn’t return a request for comment when we reported on the proposed purchase in November — the company likely isn’t interested in 105.9 FM for its Lawrence audience. The signal for 105.9 FM stretches into Kansas City, which would allow the station to serve Kansas City’s sizable Spanish-language population.