Mayor will dedicate KPCB

Tacoma Ledger-April 1, 1927 – New station opens tonight; Hubert Graf to direct string quartet; concert, dance orchestras to aid in making premiere noteworthy.

Opening with a dedicatory address by Mayor Bertha K. Landes, KPCB, Seattle’s newest station, will come on the air this evening at 7:30 p.m.
The station is owned by the Pacific Coast Biscuit Company, and the programs will be transmitted from a deluxe suite of studios in the Central Building, with Louis D. Greenway presiding at the microphone.
The first hour of the dedicatory program will be given over to a string quartet directed by Hubert Graf, Seattle harpist. The other members of the quartet are Blanche Mayer, violinist; Andy Ward, cello; and A. W. Ames, flute.
During the next hour, beginning at 8:30 p.m., the listeners will enjoy the program broadcast by an eight piece concert orchestra, which is to be a regular Tuesday and Friday feature from KPCB.
KPCB, operating on 521 meters, is a Western Electric 50 W transmitter which is installed on the roof of the Pacific Coast Biscuit Company’s local factory.

Microphones will carry sounds of “Battle of Argonne” at Camp Lewis

Tacoma, Friday, April 1–Sounds of battle will be broadcast by radio Thursday evening, April 7, from the 500 W Tacoma station KMO. Plans were completed yesterday for 20 miles of remote control lines leading to microphones close to the night firing in the “Battle of the Argonne,” which is being reproduced for motion pictures at Camp Lewis.
In the “Battle,” troops of the Regular Army at Camp Lewis will be engaged in action with the “German” shock troops of the First National Pictures, Incorporated, in a night attack typical of the Argonne Forest days in France in September 1918.
Officers of the Army, stationed at Camp Lewis are entering into the spirit of the big radio event and have consented to take part in the preliminaries which will include a concert by massed bands, talks by military experts on the significance of the action, and a five-minute chat by Richard Bartholomess, star of the picture that is being filmed as “The Patent Leather Kid,” depicting the regeneration of a drafted soldier. Bartholomess has never spoken on the radio before. The program is scheduled to start at 8:30 o’clock and with the battle will extend the better part of two hours.
Artillery, tanks, machine guns, star shells and all the material of war will enter into the battle that will be enacted at once for the motion picture cameras and the radio microphones. KMO broadcasts on a wavelength of 254 meters.
The radio production is being sponsored by a group of agencies, including the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce, interested from sentimental reasons, due to the fact that the 91st “Wild West” Division, which was organized and trained at Camp Lewis, was in the thick of the Argonne fighting and suffered heavy casualties there.