1954 Radio-Tv Time Machine

January 1954 – Peter Tomnie appointed sales manager, KISW – FM

February 1954 Stone to Manage KUOW TV, U. of Washington Outlet… LOREN B. STONE, general manager of KBRO Bremerton, Wash., and active in Pacific Northwest commercial broadcasting since 1931, has been named manager of noncommercial educational KUOW TV Seattle (ch. 9), it was announced last week by H. P. Everest, vice president of the U. of Washington and chairman of the proposed station’s advisory board. Target date for actual telecasting is next fall. Mr. Stone said Bruce Bartley, owner of KBRO, has assumed managership of that station also.
Prior to his KBRO assignment, Mr. Stone had been with KIRO Seattle 16 years, the last seven as general manager. He started in 1931 with KOMO Seattle.

KING-TV Seattle is the 57th market telecasting Time for Beany, half -hour children’s program created by Bob Clampett Productions, according
to Dwight W. Whiting, general manager of Consolidated Television Sales.

March 1954 –

Bill Shela, KJR Seattle, to KOL same city, as disc m.c. and staff announcer.
Bob Swartz, staff an- nouncer, KHQ Spokane, promoted to program director.
Charles Herring, newscaster-reporter, KING – TV Seattle, to KNXT (TV) Hollywood, in similar capacity.
Norma Wooton, sec- retary to general manager, KEX Portland, Ore., named advertising and sales promotion assistant.
Robert F. Prins appointed public affairs director, KING -TV Seattle, Wash.

April 13. Seattle, Wash. -Vhf ch. 7 proceeding. FCC by memorandum opinion and order, denied petition filed Dec. 10, by Queen City Bcstg. Co. for enlargement of the issues on applications for tv ch. 7 in Seattle, Wash.; further ordered that that part of the hearing examiner’s memorandum opinion and order of Jan. 27, which denied petitions of Puget Sound Bcstg. Co. and ICKA for leave to amend their applications regarding antenna proposals, be reversed, and in all other respects the said memorandum opinion and order be affirmed. Action April 13.

Francis R. Busby to Tacoma sales staff, and Edward D. Dever to Seattle sales staff, KTNT TV Tacoma.

May 1954 – CBUT (TV) Gets Mobile Unit – CBUT (TV) Vancouver, B. C., will have its new $100,000 mobile tv unit in operation by mid-June, according to an announcement of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. at Toronto. The unit was built on a Canadian automobile chassis shipped to England, where the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. built and installed the equipment for the mobile tv transmitter and studio. It has been shipped to Vancouver, and is currently undergoing dry-run tests. The unit is equipped with two tv cameras and has space for a third unit to be added later. It also has a self-contained microwave transmitter and power equipment.

Hear Some Evil…An 8 a.m. newscast on KOL Seattle aided in the arrest of a robbery suspect who later confessed 13 other such crimes in the Seattle and neighboring Portland, Ore., areas. The newscast, The Blue Streak Bulletins broadcast by remote line from KOL’s news bureau in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer building, gave a description of a robbery suspect believed guilty of a holdup of Seattle’s Georgian Hotel the night before. Two citizens, who listened to the newscast, reported later that morning to detectives the whereabouts of a man who fitted the KOL description. This resulted in the arrest of the man, who confessed to the other robberies. Police Chief H. J. Lawrence and Detective Division Chief V. L. Kramer conveyed their thanks for a “nice assist” to Archie Taft Jr., KOL general manager.

Fire Destroys CKNW Studios – STUDIOS OF CKNW New Westminster were destroyed May 9 when a million-dollar blaze devastated the five-story office building where the studios were located. Announcer Sid Lancaster, who turned in the alarm, and chief control operator Bill Duncas, the only persons in the building at the time, aired a running account of the fire until the cable into the studio was burned and they were ordered out of the building by the fire chief. Other station employes, summoned by the broadcasts, helped carry out some of the studio equipment.

June 1954 – KING Promotes D (for Dump) Day “CLEAN -UP WEEK” in Seattle and King County, was kicked off by KING to encourage citizens to clean up, paint up and fix up. KING disc jockeys handled remote broadcasts from city dumps as community clubs throughout the city strived to make D -Day (Dump -Day) the “biggest day of business” in the history of dumps.

Charles Herring, news staff, KNXT -TV Los Angeles, returns to KING -TV Seattle, in newly created position, news director, KING- AM -TV.
Richard Ross named associate news director of same newly combined operation.

July 1954 – KING -TV’s First Color – COLOR tv made its bow in Pacific Northwest with Salute to Seattle telecast by KING -TV. Seattle outlet has been testing color bar test patterns and plans motion picture films in color by early autumn.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR, BROADCAST MAGAZINE:
EDITOR:
RE KMO -TV SALE PAGE 9 JULY 12 ISSUE. KOMO -TV SEATTLE IS EXCLUSIVE NBC AFFILIATE FOR WESTERN WASHINGTON. NO NBC SHOWS RUN ON KMO -TV TACOMA SINCE DECEMBER OF LAST YEAR WHEN KOMO -TV WENT ON AIR. PLEASE CHANGE YOUR FILES ACCORDINGLY.
RAY BAKER, COM. MGR. KOMO -TV SEATTLE, WASH.

August 1954 – KOMO -TV Begins Color Operations – KOMO -TV Seattle inaugurated colorcasting last Wednesday with the network pickup of the
Army -RCA `Television on the Battle Front” demonstration from Ft. Meade, Md. KOMO -TV, an NBC -TV affiliate for Seattle and western Washington, now is scheduled to receive in color the network’s The Marriage series and the “Spectacular” series when the latter debuts next month. The start of color – casting by the ch. 4 station was exactly eight months after it began regular tv programming -Dec. 11, 1953.

Full Power for KOIN -TV – KOIN -TV Portland, Ore., increased to full 100 kw Friday as new Ideco tower and six -bay antenna went into operation. Oregon Gov. Paul Patterson took part in inaugural. Engineering tests of ch. 6 signal said to show fivefold increase in Goldendale, Wash., and Eugene, Ore., 125 miles away.

September 1954 – AP Sets Hook-Up Between Seattle, Alaska Stations – AP has set up a communications link between Seattle and radio stations and newspapers in widely scattered cities in Alaska. The news service, in announcing the nearly 2,800-mile long, two-way, 24-hour circuit last week, said the hook-up was “one of the longest leased news circuits ever established.” The continuous news link connects the AP’s Seattle bureau with 15 newspapers and these radio stations: KAM, KTKN Ketchikan; KINY, KJNO Juneau; KIFW Sitka; KFAR, KFRB Fairbanks; KENI, KFQD Anchorage.

KMO RADIO SALE

November 1954 – Duane Bock, news editor, KOL Seattle, to KMO Tacoma, Wash., in same capacity.

Art Primm, newscaster, to KIRO Seattle as news editor; Alex West, sales staff, KCBS San Francisco, to KIRO as sales account executive.

On the other side of the nation, Dick Van Dyke, comedian and entertainer, formerly with WSB -TV Atlanta, Ga., to WDSUTV New Orleans on Dick Van Dyke Show; Tex Mason, radio, tv and motion picture cow- boy personality, to WDSU -TV.

Jeanne Tabscott, formerly with KGA Spokane, to program staff, KCBS San Francisco, as script typist.

November 11, 1954 – BEER & WINE ADS UPHELD IN VOTE – OVERWHELMING defeat of a Washington State initiative measure to prohibit beer and wine advertising on television was registered by state voters at the polls Tuesday. Elroy McCaw, KELA Centralia, president of Washington State Assn. of Broadcasters, attributed defeat of Initiative 194 to the “aggressive campaign waged by all media- radio, television, newspaper and outdoor.” The almost three -to-one defeat was based on a vote of 186,738 for the prohibition and 551,051 against with 4,331 precincts out of 4,686 re- porting. Initiative 194 would have banned beer and wine advertising on state television stations from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mr. McCaw said the censorship issue was a major factor in the measure’s defeat as was the “first step toward prohibition” angle. The Washington victory has “vast national significance” since the `Bryson battle con- tinues,” according to Henry Owen, KING Seattle, co- chairman of a steering committee set up by WSAB to fight Initiative 194. W. W. Warren, KOMO Seattle, also a co-chairman of the group, saw the Washington State victory as a “clear indication that the viewer wants as little tampering with his television fare as possible. We believe the viewer considers himself thoroughly competent to decide what he wants to see and when he wants to see it.”
Carl Downing, WSAB manager, said defeat of the measure “clears the atmosphere” as far as beer and wine advertising in other media, including radio, is concerned.

KJR was sold by Ted Gamble and C. Howard Lane for $150,000 to John F. Malloy and Lester M. Smith [BT, Nov. 8]. Mr. Gamble sells his 90% interest in KJR in order to exercise his option to acquire a one-third interest in KOMO -AM -TV. Mr. Malloy is owner of KVSM San Mateo,
Calif., and 10% owner of KROY Sacramento. Mr. Smith is manager of KVSM. Messrs. Gamble and Lane are part owners of KOIN AM-FM-TV Portland, Ore.