(from the pages of the 1987 Northwest Pioneer Broadcasters’ newsletter)
Most of us old-timers would recognize the first three commercial broadcasting stations in Tacoma, KMO, KVI and KTBI.
The Department of Commerce, under its then Secretary, Herbert Hoover, started issuing licenses for broadcasting in the early 1920s. Prior to that time, there was only Ship to Shore radio, wireless and experimental amateurs. Many of those amateurs applied for the new category of wireless license for their home built stations. Many electronic companies who sold radio parts to build receivers also applied for the new broadcast license, feeling that you had to have a station on the air in order to sell parts and receivers. The William A Mullins Electric Company located at 1130 Broadway in Tacoma, received their broadcast license in late March of 1922 according to government records. The station was licensed on 360 meters, or about 830 kilocycles on the AM dial. In fact, all broadcast stations were licensed on the same frequency. At that time, the call letters of KGB were assigned and the station went on the air in the spring of 1922 from its location in the Tacoma Ledger newspaper building. The newspaper handled the news programming while the technical matters were under the control of the Mullins Electric Company.
KGB will best be remembered for its first manager-announcer, Al Stenso, who actually broadcast his marriage on July 19, 1922. The marriage was carried out in the transmitter room of the station with minister in tow. In the midst of the tubes and wires it was not your normal elegant church setting for the most important event of one’s life, but Al was a pioneer and that has gone down in broadcasting history as the first recorded Live marriage on early radio.
The Tacoma Ledger purchased KGB in 1923 and increased the station power from 10 to 50 watts, changed the frequency to 1190 and started operating Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings from 7 to 10pm. In September of 1925, the station signed off and did not return to the air. Demands were starting to be made for music royalties, and the Tacoma Ledger was not about to make payment to performance rights organizations when the station was a complete financial loss.
Since it was off the air for an excess of three months, which was the normal license period of that day, the radio division of the Department of Commerce deleted the license and call letters in late December of 1926. The next station to be licensed in Tacoma following KGB, was KMO on April 1, 1922.
We’ll get back to KMO later. The next Tacoma station to come and go was KFBG, which was licensed to the First Presbyterian Church.
It was also at 830 on the dial with 50 watts. The transmitter was located at the old church building at South 10th and G streets. It only broadcast when there was a service in progress at the church. For reasons unknown, the station was dismantled when the church moved to its present site of Division and Tacoma Avenue. Since the station had been silent for more than three months, on December 15, 1925 the radio division canceled. KFBG’s call letters and license. In November of 1922, KFEJ was assigned to Tacoma for a station owned by Guy Greason. It was located at 1724 South J, probably Greason’s home. KFEJ might have been the first listener supported station, as he asked businesses and the general public to subscribe and pay monthly for the service of mainly records
In January 1924, it was reported that KFEJ had not been in operation the past seven months, and the local radio inspector recommended to the bureau that KFEJ, being off the air, could be canceled. It was on April 11, 1924. In January of 1923, a temporary permit was granted St. Patrick’s Church with the call letters KFFD. It was 10 watts, installed at the church. Its permit was returned to the government, and in late January 1923 KFFD was deleted. This was a case of building a station for one special occasion.
So, KGB, KFEJ, KFFD, and KFBG all came and went in Tacoma between 1922 and 1926.
By mid 1926, only KMO remained on the air in Tacoma.
