KGY: Where The Cedars Meet The Sea

Back in the 1920s a Benedictine monk began experimenting with radio. According to the book The New Washington Father Sebastian Ruth was teaching radio at St. Martins College as early as 1921. The Encyclopedia of American Radio he was a "genuine renaissance man." There is little else written about him but it was his work that brought KGY into existence.

The KGY-AM call letters were issued on April 4, 192. It operated initially at 5 watts on on a wavelength of 450 meters and then 258 meters. They used a small shack for at least three years before building something resembling a proper studio in a log cabin. (Yes, a real log cabin, see below.) They were known in that time as “The log cabin station." and used the slogan "Where the cedars meet the sea.” In a strange coincidence, the same slogan was used by the city of Sea Girt, NJ.

It wasn't until 1932 that the station relocated it's facilities to the Capital Park Building at 11th and Capitol Way... an actual office building made of concrete and steel. the reason for the move was that Archie Taft took over the station. He already owned KOL-AM in Seattle. Archie was not like Father Ruth, he was not a "renaissance man" in any sense of the words. But he was a radio man and in 1934 the antenna moved to a 480 foot tower, and began operating at 2500 watts daytime, 1000 watts nighttime.  In 1935 both KOL and KGY joined the Mutual Don Lee Network.

In 1939, Tom Olsen, a newspaper reporter and native of Olympia, WA purchased 1240 KGY-AM. Olsen was a serious news guy and was involved in organizing the Capitol Radio News Bureau and had ownership stakes in other stations and some local papers in the region. The station was honored in 1997 by the state government of Washington. His daughter, Barbara Kerry still owned the station until 2006. She took over KGY in 1984 when her mother Theresa died. In 2014 her ingrate offspring sold it to Sacred Heart Broadcasting who began sat-casting as KBUP immediately. More here.

DJ Foreman Phillips

Nobody knows the name Bert "Foreman" Phillips anymore, but he was one of the most important figures in the development of Western Swing. A 1979 article in JEMF Quarterly [LINK] remembered him as "Western Swings King Maker." Like many other figures in Country and Western Music, he came from radio. He was born in 1897. As was common in that era, he served in the U. S. Navy during World War I. And after being discharged he got a job selling spots on KFWN. At least that's what all the written accounts say. But nobody seems to have recorded when that was.

In 1935 we know that he became the a sales manager for the Don Lee Network. But that's a substantial gap.  Foreman was 38 years old in 1935. If he served through all of WWI he would have been discharged on or around 1918. The First Whites radio log I have access to is 1925. In that year there is no KFWM, nor is there one all the way through 1935.  A 1921 list made by the Department of Commerce also does not include the list. These are the early days of radio. Another 1922 list included only 67 stations. There was however a 500 KFWM-AM in Oakland, CA owned by the Oakland Educational Society. It is possible, that this was recorded incorrectly in one history and repeated elsewhere. Even if it was KFWM, that station ceased to exist in 1929, leaving a mysterious 6 year gap.

Anyway... fast forward to 1935. Phillips is a sales manager for Don Lee and hosting the Western Hit Parade Show on the Don Lee Network.  This does make sense because the Don Lee Network was affiliated with Columbia before 1935.  In 1936 Don switched to the Mutual Network. I do not know what station Phillips was doing his program from but as Elizabeth McLeod wrote: "only 16 to 20 per cent of commercial programs heard over the Don Lee Network originated with Mutual. The majority were still produced by Don Lee itself, at KHJ or KFRC." (In 1951, the Don Lee sold his Network General Teleradio.)

Foreman Phillips began hosting country barn dances and other western themed events. One early venue for these was the Venice Pier in California. This was in on or about 1941. In 1938 he crossed the street to do his show on KRKD.  In a 1943 Billboard publication it was noted that he was opening other venues around LA.  and that he now had a 30 minute program on KRKD and KPAS. The latter was purported to be a country music news. He was talking primarily about the shows he booked, and the artists that played his shows.  More on KRKD here.

Foreman was cited in one 1944 article in Billboard for the success he had seen. At the time he was said to have several popular programs airing over KRKD. One of which was still titled the "Western Hit Parade." Phillips was booking move venues and with even bigger artists: Bob Wills, Al Dexter, Patsy Montana, Spade Cookley, the Sons of the Pioneers and hundreds of others.

By 1947, Phillips was said to have 20 hours of air time for his radio programs which were now carried on  KRKD, KXLA and KFOX.  He quit KRKD in 1947. Cliffie Stone took over as host of his long-running radio program "Cowboy Hit Parade." In 1951 be began a three-hour show over KECA-TV in Los Angeles. But it wasn't enough to keep him in the biz. He retired in 1952 and died in 1968. The KRKD tower still stands over Los Angeles but hasn't been used in decades.

Radio Networks Week, part 4

You have probably never heard of the Mutual Broadcasting system. There is a good reason for that.

The Mutual Broadcasting System
It begins in 1929 as the Quality Network, with four radio stations: WLS in Chicago, WOR in New York City, WLW in Cincinnati, and WXYZ in Detroit. The Quality Network operated for about 6 months only in 1929, and failed due to technical and funding problems. Some of those same problems would haunt Mutual for the next twenty years. [Do not confuse QN with WTAW's Texas Quality Network, these are totally unrelated. ] The network was really run by WGN in Chicago and WOR. It was a first attempt, and the second attempt would not come for another 5 years.

In September of 1934, the Mutual Broadcasting System was founded. They aspired to be the largest radio network in history, it was clearly a reaction to the rapid expansion of CBS, NBC and ABC. The other three networks of the day were funded, connected, and had already carved out a huge slice of the radio advertising market for themselves. There wasn't much left of the pie for Mutual. MBS usually trailed 3rd or 4th in number of listeners and in advertising revenue.
http://www.oldradio.com/archives/prog/mbs.htm

As great as it was to have the most stations, it's quality and not quantity that counts. Most of those 300 radio stations were small, low-power, local market radio stations. This economic fact limited their access to large advertisers. It kept them out of the big money.

For it's members the big plus was that Mutual was owned by its stations and not the other way around. But only a few of those stations were real powerhouses and thus called the shots WOR (New York), WGN (Chicago), and the West Coast collection of Don Lee stations held most of the controlling shares in the System. Mr. Lee was another kook of a buisnessman. Mr. Don Lee, He had exclusive distribution rights in California for Cadillac automobiles and seemingly on a lark entered the broadcasting business by purchasing station KFRC in San Francisco and KHJ in Los Angeles. Don Lee had originally affiliated his stations with CBS but he died in 1934 and the new management went with MBS. Don Lee quietly rolled over in his grave.
http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist5/donlee.html
In the 1940s control of MBS moved away from the hundreds of smaller affiliates and into the control of a succession of large corporations: General Tire and Rubber, Armand Hammer, the Hal Roach Studios, and Albert G. McCarthy, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M)... even Amway even owned it at one point. More here.

The executors of Mr. Lee's estate tried to keep the company together, but finally decided to liquidate the broadcasting company and sold most of the stations, the west coast radio network, the 50% share of Mutual to General Tire and Rubber Company in 1952. It became General Teleradio, Inc. became a wholly-owned subsidiary of General Tire. More here.

General Teleradio was renamed RKO General in 1958 after the acquisition of RKO Radio Pictures from Howard Hughes in 1955 for $25 million. General Tire sold the film studio production facilities to Desilu Productions for $6 million in 1956. Mutual was then sold to Hal Roach Studios.

It was at this time that Alex Guterma, the president of Mutual struck a deal with the Dominican Republic. He got paid to ensure that the network would broadcast favorable propaganda for that the Dominican republic. Guterma was indicted and eventually did 3 years in prison for an unrelated SEC violation.

The network was floundering, and the bad publicity wasnt helping. It was quickly sold to John Mc Carthy, a Florida businessman who ran it thru bankruptcy proceedings. 3M bauiled them out. Then the devil hmiself opened his wallet... Amway bought the network on September 30, 1977. Then finally at long last a real media company got their hands on it, Westwood One. In 1985 Westwood one was bought by infinity which was in turn owned by Viacom, a subsidary of CBS Radio. they survived as a brand name until 1999 when even that was folded under CNN radio. Mutual raised the bar in many ways for the other networks . They were the first commercial radio network to convert completely to satellite transmission starting in 1979. Then they became the first network to transmit regular stereo high-fidelity broadcasts in 1982. But in the merge frenzy of the late 80s they have ceased to exist even on paper.