QZVX continues to delve into the stories shared by the Northwest Pioneer Broadcasters. This information comes from the 1987 banquet.
Good Evening, I’m Don McCroskey. A person named George Cole was the first Chief Engineer at KTBI and I think I was the second. But that’s getting a little ahead of the story. In the late 1930’s there were applications for TWO new stations for Tacoma. One was filed by a Michael Mingo who received permission to build but never did in the required time and his call letters and construction permit were canceled. Maybe one reason he did not build his station is that at the same time Mr. C.C. Cavanaugh, a well known Tacoma lumberman; along with a group of well known Tacoma investors; received approval for KTBI. The call letters came from their corporation, Tacoma Broadcasters, Inc.
Cavanaugh originally asked for 1420 with 250 watts day and 100 watts night with the transmitter at 204 South 11th Street. Following a short hearing, the FCC said they could have a construction permit subject to amending their application to 1490, 250 watts fulltime; which they did.
The first studios were in the Puget Sound National Bank Building on the second floor at the rear of the building. The transmitter was erected across the street on top of the Publix Parking Garage.
KTBI went on the air with great flourish and a huge dedicatory program that nearly matched that of Carl Haymond’s many years earlier. The first manager was Eddy Jansen who had come to KVI from KXRO in Aberdeen. Eddy was Secretary of the corporation and maybe left KVI for KTBI because he was given or purchased one percent ownership in KTBI.
Evidently all the publicity for the grand dedicatory program was set for Saturday August 30, 1941 without having the final program test authority from the FCC which allowed them to go on the air. On Friday the 29th, one day before the planned gala opening of the station, no word had yet been received from the FCC. So Eddy rushed a frantic Western Union telegram to the FCC saying that required FCC forms were being delivered air express, all the plans have been made for the Saturday opening and it was most important to the future station good will…. but they be able to go on the air the next day.
Jim Wallace remembers sitting up most of the night with Cecil Cavanaugh and the others while waiting for the final ok from the FCC.
As far as we know KTBI did go on that next day. A full page ad and adjoining story in the Tacoma Times again had Tacoma believing that the coming of KTBI was the greatest event since life itself. Even the Mayor, Harry P. Cain, would be master of ceremonies. The ad showed small pictures of the staff that made KTBI look something akin to NBC New York.
Life at KTBI between August of 1941 and March of 1944 must have been rough. Fun, but rough for C.C. Cavanaugh. With only 250 watts on 1490 and with a tower on top of a building, the day coverage barely served Tacoma and at night the downtown and immediate residential areas were all that could depend on a quiet signal. So in 44 Cavanaugh sold his majority stock in KTBI to Harold S. Woodworth, a former minority stockholder and well known local building contractor. The price was $13,080.00 based on $120 per share of stock.
As early as February 1942 KTBI was trying to find another frequency to improve its coverage. Remember, by this time KVI was broadcasting from Vashon with 5,000 watts and KMO was on 1360 with 5,000 watts. KTBI applied for a move to 1050 but that application was dismissed by request of KTBI in July of 42.
Again in November of 1943 KTBI applied to move to 1220 but that application the station also asked to be dismissed.
On June 19, 1944; Harold Woodworth entered into a contract to sell his stock and therefore control of KTBI to Tubby Quilliam for $18,000, some $5000 more than what he had paid and only three months later.
Tubby sold his stock in KIRO, where he had been manager, and borrowed some money from a Tacoma bank in order to swing the purchase. Tub, as he was known to his friends, continued the search for a new frequency and more power for KTBI. In November of 1944 he filed for 870, 250 watts using the same Publix Garage tower. Then he proposed to move the transmitter to the tideflats area, not all that far from the old Carsten’s site KMO had in the early days.
870 was designated as a clear channel and Tubby’s application was going nowhere. The FCC had been trying to make a decision on allowing more fulltime stations on the clear channels but never did until many, many years later. Finally, probably out of desperation, on March 4, 1946, Tubby modified his application to move to 870 to specify daytime only operation on 810. On October 1, 1946 Tubby was granted a construction permit to build a new studio-transmitter at 2715 Center Street for operation daytime only on 810 with 1,000 watts.
On April 14, 1947 KTBI was granted authority to test its new equipment at Center Street on 810. I installed the transmitter with consultant, Jim Hatfield. I also moved the new board I had constructed at the Puget Sound Bank Building studio to Center Street and wired it up.
On Monday, April 21, 1947, KTBI began broadcasting at 6am at 810 on the dial with 1,000 watts daytime; from their new building at 2715 Center Street. The improvement in coverage was something to behold. With its 265 foot self supporting tower across Center Street its coverage was actually better than KMO’s at 1360. But KTBI had gone from fulltime to daytime. There was no coming back on at 10pm either. Those days were long gone.
But the new studio was out of this world. A large control room with, if I do say myself, a very advanced custom board with four 16 inch turntables; a large studio with piano and announce table; and a smaller announce booth which we used as a disc recording room. There was a small kitchen complete with eating area, a separate engineering office and shop, a men’s room complete with shower; and loads of storage room. The design of the building was futuristic with huge plate glass windows in the center of the building with office wings on each side. It would be a modern radio studio today.
After I left, Tubby continued to work with his friend and engineering consulting, Jim Hatfield; to find a full time frequency for KTBI. There was even talk of 50,000 watts on 850 from the KING site on Vashon. But finally Tub settled for 1,000 watts day and night with a three tower directional at night. On February 28, 1951 Tubby received his go ahead. After numerous extensions for construction, on Monday February 11, 1952 a full page newspaper ad heralded the change from KTBI at 810 to full time operation on 850 with the new call letters, KTAC.
You would have thought this would have been the fulfillment of all of Tubby’s dreams and wishes. But after KTBI became KTAC and full time again; it drifted from one manager to another until two years later Tubby himself took over active management and soon sold that beautiful building on Center Street to an engineering firm. He probably needed the money. He moved KTAC’s office next to the Chamber of Commerce in the Winthrop Hotel, largely a trade out. On May 14, 1955; Tubby sold KTAC to Jerry Geehan for something like $8000 cash and the assumption of liabilities.
Before Dick Weeks reviews some of the people and programming of Tacoma radio, I must tell you that Chuck Morris replaced me at KTBI and Dick Velo replaced Chuck as Chief Engineer at KTBI. Dick came from Montana and while he was primarily an engineer, he had one of the best voices of Tacoma radio. He was a very smooth man with records, extremely casual even before a casual announcing style was in vogue.
An interesting footnote to the KTBI story. KTNT-FM went on the air in October of 1948. In January of 1949 KTBI was granted an FM application that Tubby never built. In August of 1948 KTBI and the Tacoma Times jointly filed for a television station the antenna of which was to be mounted on the tower on Center Street. It was never built either. Tubby was a visionary and always ahead of his time. It’s interesting to speculate how the landscape of Tacoma-Seattle broadcasting might have changed had Tubby added KTBI-FM and television in the late 40’s.
By the way, you can still hear the KTBI call letters on the air today. Tom Read picked them up for a 10,000, soon to be 50,000 watt station in Central Washington. Guess what frequency the station is on? Right. 810. Tom, you’ve made it full circle, or 12 years old again and back at KTBI where you started.
KTBI may not have ever been a giant financial success, I don’t know, but it was a great training ground for a good many people who went on to great accomplishments in this industry. I went to ABC in Hollywood, where I retired only a short time ago, Warren Reed went into KTNT-TV as the Crazy Donkey and famous movie host; Tom Read, who started at KTBI in 1949, went on to give Tacoma a new FM station in 1958 and about six more stations around the state; Clay Huntington went into station ownership and politics; Walt Eddy went to New York with the Perry Como TV show; Nate Bridges went to Hewlett-Packard; Jim Jewell went into teaching; Dick Velo went to KVI on Vashon as Chief; Burke Ormsby and Chuck Nee to KTNT; Don Bevilacqua went into station ownership; Herb Pollock stayed with KTBI all through the Jerry Geehan years and became Tacoma’s best known and liked salesman. Herb holds the record as being the longest, continuous Tacoma sales executive and is a great guy on top of it. Having put up with Tom Read at 12 years of age at KTBI should earn Herb some sort of award; John Condon went to KMO and then into the agency business with Dick Weeks;
An earlier story from the 1987 banquet: Dexter Haymond tells more of the KMO story; KVI gets a few chess moves ahead on network affiliation
Nalley Valley View
June 30, 2025 at QZVX
Jason Remington says:
Ahhh… standing where the KTBI studios were, on Center Street, one could smell the aroma from the Nalley Foods plant down the road. Nalley’s pickles! The KTBI studios are gone, as is Nalley Foods.
(2011-Seattle Times) Once a leading local food manufacturer employing more than 800 people, Nalley’s gradually ceased producing chips, peanut butter and pickles. The plant’s owners changed, orders fell off and cheaper substitutes displaced its products on grocery shelves and in cafeterias.
The red paint in the Nalley’s logo is fading fast at its 22–acre complex southwest of downtown Tacoma along South 35th Street.
Founded in 1918 by Marcus Nalley, a young chef living in Tacoma, the company started making potato chips. In the 1950s it opened a large factory in what was then an undeveloped tract just outside urban Tacoma. Because it was the first plant there, the area became known as Nalley Valley.