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.

The First Black Radio Announcer (Part 3)

Bass Harris was the first black radio host on the west coast. Each book, and article states that he first was on air at KING-AM in Seattle. Every source I can find repeats that claim. the problem is that either the year of the call letters are wrong.  The biographical information is so spare that it's no help.  He was the son of a local minister, and his program was at least initially brokered time. Hard data is so elusive that I sometimes doubt he existed.  The book Entrepreneurs of Profit and Pride put him on air in the Seattle market for 15 years. Despite the absence of Terra-firma, Radio Ink listed him as one of the 16 African American DJs who were on air in the 1940s. 

In that era many of the few programs hosted by African Americans were on brokered time. That's how Harris broke into the radio biz. He paid his way, then sold enough spots to make it profitable by running a show that attracted those dollars. All sources claim that his program debuted in 1933 on KING-AM in Seattle. But there was no KING-AM in Seattle in 1933, or even 1943. KING-AM didn't sign on until 1949, which did sign on at 1090. White's Radio log lists the station at 10,00 watts actually in the Spring of that year. In the Broadcasting yearbook for 1949, KING is listed as having been started inexplicably in 1927.  But it fills in some small details. They were clearly a share-time broadcasting only 6:00 AM to noon.

Interestingly KRSC-AM and KIRO-AM were founded in 1927. KOMO-AM launched in 1926. KFOA-AM was on as early as 1923. Another source puts him on 1300 KOL-AM in the 1940s. But KOL-AM wasn't on 1300, it was on 1270. On the upside, at least KOL existed in 1933 all 1000 watts of it. KOL-AM is presently on 1300 so I am assuming that's a failure of memory and not of math. regardless the KOL reference cites the program as called Bass Harris's  House of Joy. He mixed pop sides with swing and played both black and white artists in 15-minute blocks.

Some of the confusion may come from a rather unpleasant set of frequency and call changes in the Seattle market painfully shuffling heritage calls around the metro. For several decades the 1090 kHz frequency in Seattle was home to KING-AM, founded in the late 1940s by broadcasting pioneer Dorothy Stimson Bullitt. KING-AM was known as the "Mighty 10-90," featuring great radio personalities such as Frosty Fowler, Ray Court, Mark Wayne and late night talk with Irving Clark.  It became a talk station in 198s.  As of 2004, 1090 became KPTK-AM still airing news/talk.

After all the conjecture I find Bass Harris in a radio schedule in the Long Beach Press-Telegram Newspaper.  He's listed on 710 KMPC-AM October 11th 1952 at 8:00 PM between the St. Francis Hour and a program called "Dance Time." The Book Swingin' on the Ether Waves identifies his KMPC program as "Bass Harris At Home." An article in the Los Angeles Sentinel called him a "longtime star of stage and radio."  If true, he would have already been on air for about 20 years. His program was described as follows:

"Harris will intersperse his own humorous and philosophical poems and monologues with the latest recordings and guest stars."

He appears on 1330 KFAC-AM .according to the August 22nd 1953 issue of Radio Today he had a program at 9:00 AM that Saturday following Unity View and preceding the Federation of Churches program. KFAC was largely classical during the week. In 1955 in another issue of Radio Today I find him on air at 640 KFI-AM at 8:00 AM on a Saturday after the news and before a program called "Jump Jump."  There the trail ends after two long and mysterious decades.

The curse of KKOL

First: Credit where credit is due. I read about this first on Blather watch. A fine site specializing in the scrutinization of talk radio. http://blatherwatch.blogs.com/

Second: Welcome to Post #500!

Up in the Northwest they say that the constant overcast weather makes peopel depressed, ill-tempered even. It might be an aggravating factor in this case. Well, doubtlessly it was another crappy rainy day when 1300 KKOL-AM owners were informed this March by Coast Guard that they needed to shut off their radio station. This was another painful notch in the history of a station that somone was clearly trying to kill for nearly a century.

The irony here is that back in 2002, KKOL became the only US radio station operating from a ship. That january they'd been approved to operate at 1000 watts with temporary facilities to be installed aboard the 175 foot cargo ship, the "Coastal Ranger," in Seattle’s Elliott Bay.

KKOL-AM, first went on the air back in the 1920’s as KOL-AM. One of the first radio stations in Seattle. In the begining the station’s studio and transmitter were located on Harbor Island, just south of downtown Seattle near the ports shipyards. Fifty years later the station left there Harbor Island studios for the Northern Life Tower, downtown Seattle and dropped their historic KOL call sign. But they continued to transmit from the 400-foot tower on the Island.

In the 90’s, the Portbegan expanding their shiping operations as they "containerized" the port. This expansion on Harbor Island encroached on and eventually occupied by the transmitter and tower facilities. In the summer of 2001, the Port came to an agreement with KKOL to abandon the Harbor Island transmitter facility hence the Coastal Ranger install... It was to be temporary, An application was filed with the FCC for a new 50,000 Watt replacement facility about 15 miles south of the Harbor Island site. In 2003 a pier fire nearly took them out again.

Fast forward to today. KKOL-AM finally moves off the boat. Alan Cabodi, VP of Manufacturing for U.S. Oil said in a statement to the FCC that that refinery is now investigating reports of sparks while working with cranes.and that they blame these on the proximity to KKOL's brand new 50k signal. He also said that KKOL-AM was only AM radio station in North America that was operating at high power near a refinery. KKOL retorts that that previously KJR-AM had operated within a couple of miles of the refinery for over two years with its blanketing contour over the refinery with no ill effects other than some telephone interference. More here.

At the request of the FCC, KKOL continues to operate at 25 kW using their nighttime pattern to reduce the signal at the tanker dock while a permanent solution is found. U.S. Oil says they remain unsatisfied with the KKOL owner’s response to the risk of a potential catastrophe and the corresponding hazard to the public safety. More here. The local SBE has a little to say as well.