[rollei_list] Re: OT: Harley Earls and Broadcasting


-----Original Message-----
>From: Marc James Small <marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Mar 23, 2009 10:13 PM
>To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [rollei_list] Re: OT:  Harley Earls and Broadcasting
>
>At 12:53 AM 3/24/2009, Richard Knoppow wrote:
>
> >This arrangement lasted until Don
> >Lee's death in 1935.
>
>Thanks, Richard.  I knew that you would have the 
>full story.  Don Lee, for your records, died on 
>30 AUG 1934, and his son Tommy, continued to run 
>things under the Don Lee name until he sold out to ABC in 1959.
>
>Marc
>
>
>msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
>
     That can't be right. Tommy lee committed suicide in 1950 or 1951. He had a 
company under his name that held the television patents, mostly the work of 
Harry Lubke. I am not sure at this point who this was eventually sold to but 
its possible that is what you are thinking of. It was independent of the 
broadcasting operation. The television station, KTSL, was sold to the Columbia 
Broadcasting System and became KNXT, now KCBS-TV. Columbia had previously had a 
partnership with the Los Angeles Times owning KTTV, channel 11. CBS never liked 
partnerships and dropped KTTV, selling their share back to the Times in 1951 
when they acquired KTSL. Meanwhile, the Don Lee network and its four owned and 
operated stations, KHJ, Los Angeles, KFRC, San Francisco, KGB, San Diego, KDB 
Santa Barbara, were acquired by a group of former Don Lee executives headed by 
Louis Allen Weiss and Willet Brown. They sold out to General Tire and Rubber 
some time after this. At about the same time Don Lee Broadcasting bought KFI-TV 
from Earl C. Anthony and it became KHJ-TV, channel 9. At some point in the 
early to mid 1950's (I am going by memory here) General Tire bought the 
remainder of the Mutual Broadcasting System including WOR, New York, and the 
Boston stations. WGN, one of the founding partners in Mutual was owned by the 
Chicago Tribune, who still owns it. 
     KHJ stopped being a Mutual affiliate when the format was changed to the 
"Boss Radio" R&R format which continued until RKO General, the broadcast 
division of General Tire and Rubber was ruled by the FCC to be unfit to hold 
broadcast licenses. This was partly due to some devious bookkeeping at the 
radio and TV stations and also due to GT&R being involved in a number of very 
questionable business practices. GT&R decided the call KHJ should go with the 
TV station but its buyer, the Disney company decided to drop it in favor of 
KCAL. Disney has no class. The radio station, which holds the second oldest 
license in Los Angeles (KNX is the oldest) became KKHJ, but it was a Spanish 
language stations and KK is not nice in Spanish to the FCC allowed the re-issue 
of the three letter call and it once again became KHJ. So much for musical 
chairs in LA radio. All the calls are now scrambled.
     Don Lee also held a pioneer FM license, that station is now KRTH (K-Earth) 
101.1.  KFI also had an authorization for an FM station with 250,000 watts ERP. 
It would have become the most powerful FM station in the US but ECA decided 
there was no money in FM and never developed it. FM stations are no longer 
authorized with this much power. 
     BTW, KHJ was put on the air originally by the L.A. Times although the 
first authorization was issued to C.R.Kierulff, who was a major supplier of 
electrical equipment. It is possible that Cap Kierulff sold the station to the 
Times but I can find nothing in the old FCC documents to show what exactly 
happened there. 
     A friend is now writing a history of Los Angeles radio and TV stations. I 
have to ask him what stuff he has found that is a mystery to me. Unfortunately, 
the people I knew who were directly involved in the pioneering era of 
broadcasting on the West coast are all dead now so I can't ask the million 
questions I have. 

     This is fifty-thousand watt, clear-channel station, K F I, Los Angeles, 
Earl C. Anthony Incorporated, Southern California distributor for _Packard_ 
automobiles...
     KHJ never mentioned Cadillac but maybe did earlier. Station breaks were K 
H J AM and FM, the Don Lee stations for Los Angeles (pronounced with a hard G). 

     Does anyone remember Lonesome Gal?

     And now, with the playing of our national anthem, we leave the air until 
we return at six AM tomorrow. Good Night. 






--
Richard Knoppow
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Los Angeles, CA, USA
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