High Hopes for Radio:
Newspaper-operated Radio Stations in Los Angeles and San Diego in the 1920s
Linda Mathews
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Table of Contents
Table of Figures ...... iii Acknowledgements ...... iv Abstract ...... v Introduction ...... 1 Historiography ...... 4 Methodology ...... 13 Growth of Newspapers and Telegraphy ...... 13 Start of Broadcasting in Los Angeles and San Diego ...... 16 Connecting Households with “the Wider World” ...... 18 Newspaper Broadcasting: Imagination Versus Reality ...... 26 Newspapers in the Entertainment Business ...... 37 Where Are the Networks? ...... 41 The Failure of Newspaper Associated Stations in Southern California ...... 47 Bibliography ...... 54 Primary Sources ...... 54 Magazines ...... 54 Federal Publications ...... 56 Secondary Sources ...... 58
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Table of Figures
Figure 1 Schematic of Los Angeles Times’s new radio station opening in October 1922...... 27
Figure 2 Radio On-Air Schedule April 17, 1922 ...... 30
Figure 3 Class A, B, C Station Schedule ...... 33
Figure 4 Chain Broadcasting Circuits end 1927 ...... 42
Figure 5 NBC Radio Broadcast Network Early 1934 ...... 44
Figure 6 Don Lee Network Spring 1934 ...... 45
Figure 7 CBS Network Early 1934 ...... 47
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Dr. Jill Watts for encouraging me to take this path. I had been thinking about completing a master’s degree in history for several years, but after my first appointment with Dr. Watts, I knew this was the right program for me. I would like to thank Dr.
Jeffrey Charles for his encouragement, comments, and insights that helped me get this far. I am
grateful for the constructive comments that Dr. Lewandowski gave about my thesis and project. I
also had a great cohort of fellow students that made this journey fun.
There were a few times when I had to diverge from my path to take care of my family. I
would like to thank Dr. Darel Engen and Dr. Katherine Hijar for their understanding and
compassion. I would like to thank Dr. Charles and Dr. Watts for their support and understanding
when I had to slow down because of my school’s sudden switch to online instruction due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. My colleagues at JCS Pine Hills Academy supported me during this effort
too. I could not ask for better people to work with.
I would like to thank my husband Robert Forgey and daughter Rosalind Forgey for their
love and support. They have had to listen to me talk about radio and newspapers for three years
now. They were always good sports when I dragged them to different archives in Los Angeles
and San Diego. My husband, an amateur radio enthusiast, provided technical explanations about
the different radio equipment when needed. My father, Charles Mathews, passed along any
information he found about radio. I love you all very much.
Finally, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my mother Loretta Mathews who died of cancer during my second semester in this program. She believed in the power of education.
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Abstract
In this thesis, I argue that the newspapers that owned and/or operated radio stations in
Los Angeles and San Diego sought to create new print and broadcast multimedia corporations but ultimately failed because they faced several obstacles that they could not overcome.
Newspapers wanted to use radio to promote their stations and to attract advertising revenue.
However, as radio grew into an entertainment business rather than an information business, the newspaper-owned or controlled stations found that they needed to create live entertainment programming in addition to the news. The cost of broadcasting equipment and programming ultimately led the Los Angeles and San Diego newspapers to sell or discontinue their stations. By the time that network broadcasting reached the west coast in 1930, none of the newspapers in
Los Angeles or San Diego county-owned radio stations. This thesis covers the period of early broadcast radio that occurred from 1920 through 1930.
Keywords: early radio, newspapers, Los Angeles, San Diego, 1920s, broadcasting, west coast Mathews 1
Introduction
In the announcement of their new radiotelephone broadcasting station in April of 1922, the Los Angeles Times promised to dedicate “its sending station to the welfare and the entertainment of the people.” Many newspapers, including those in Los Angeles and San Diego, wanted to participate in the radio craze that had swept the nation after the first broadcasts from the Detroit News station WWJ in 1920. In the April 22, 1922 edition of Editor and Publisher,
Thomas Ormsbee identified several ways that newspapers applied “radio telephony to newspaper publishing.” Newspapers created radio sections that served the purpose of educating the public about radio, extolling the virtues of the new medium, and listing the broadcast schedules of stations. Newspapers that wanted to broadcast their content either built their broadcast station or partnered themselves with local stations. The newspaper-associated broadcast stations understood they had to appeal to local and in some cases national audiences; this led to careful consideration about what to broadcast and a conscious effort to play up the altruistic nature of the programming in their newspapers.1
News broadcasting got its start on Pittsburgh station KDKA, which started broadcasting in early 1920 as amateur station 8XK. Frank Conrad, who had worked for Westinghouse during
World War 1, had access to the vacuum tubes needed for continuous speech broadcasting.
1 Thomas H. Ormsbee, “Newspapers Capitalize Radio Craze in Manifest Ways,” Editor and Publisher 54, no. 47 (April 22, 1922): 16; John S. Daggett, “‘Times’ Radio Station Dedicated Tomorrow,” Los Angeles Times, Apr. 12, 1922; Randall Patnode, “Heralding Radio: The Social Construction of Broadcasting by Newspaper Specialty Sections, 1922–1926,” (PhD dissertation, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1999), 3 – 11; Michael Stamm, Sound Business: Newspapers, Radio, and the Politics of New Media (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), 30 – 31.
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Conrad started to transmit records and live performances for other amateur radio operators.
When a local department store mentioned Conrad’s station in an ad for radio receivers in the local newspaper, the powers at Westinghouse realized that radio could be sold to the general public as well. Historian Susan Douglas has argued that national considerations motivated
Westinghouse to support the KDKA broadcast of the election results in 1920. While the KDKA broadcast was only heard locally, amateur radio operators spread the news of the broadcast throughout the nation, and information about the broadcast was soon picked up by the media.
The broadcast of the 1920 presidential election results over stations WWJ and KDKA were the radio equivalent of the “shot heard around the world”. Interest in commercial broadcasting increased dramatically over the next two years. The total number of commercial radio broadcast licenses issued by the Department of Commerce reached a little over one hundred by the end of
1920. By the end of 1922, there were about 570 radio stations in the United States. Historian
Christopher Sterling estimates that newspapers owned about 10% of these stations. 2
2 Eric Barnouw, Tower in Babel: a History of Broadcasting in the United States (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966), 63; Susan Douglas, Inventing American Broadcasting, 1899- 1922 (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press,1987), 299 - 301; Gleason Archer, History of Radio to 1926 (New York: Stratford Press Inc., 1938), 207; “WWJ First Newspaper Plant,” Radio Digest Illustrated, April 15, 1922, 5-6; “Radio Election News Makes Hit,” San Diego Union, Nov. 5, 1920; U.S. Department of Commerce, Radio Service Bulletin 48 (April 1,1921); "Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson – 1837," Accessed April 12, 2017. http://www.nationalcenter.org/ConcordHymn.html; U.S. Department of Commerce, Radio Service Bulletin 43 ( Nov. 1, 1920); Asa Briggs, "Prediction and control: historical perspectives," Sociological Review 13, no. 1(1965): 39. “Radiophone Broadcasting Stations,” Radio Digest Illustrated, April 15, 1922, 10-12; “Radiophone Broadcasting Stations,” Radio Digest Illustrated, December 16, 1922, 8; “Radiophone Broadcasting Stations,” Radio Digest Illustrated, December 23, 1922, 8; “Radiophone Broadcasting Stations,” Radio Digest Illustrated, December 20, 1922, 8-9; Christopher Sterling, “Newspaper Ownership of Broadcast Stations, 1920-68,” Journalism Quarterly 46, no 2 (1969): 228. Barnouw identifies the Detroit News as the first to broadcast, Douglas and Archer identify KDKA as the first. Regardless of the controversy, the Detroit News was the first newspaper to have a broadcast station. The December 1920 radio service bulletin (no. 44) lists 37 radio stations receiving licenses. KDKA license was listed in the November 1920 Radio Service Bulletin (No. 43). The inaugural issue of Radio Mathews 3
Newspapers in Los Angeles and San Diego were among those who embraced the new
medium of radio wholeheartedly. By the end of 1922, most of the major newspapers in Los
Angeles and San Diego were associated with or owned a radio station. In Los Angeles, four
newspapers owned or jointly operated radio stations: The Los Angeles Times (KHJ), the Los
Angeles Herald (KOG), the Los Angeles Examiner (KWH and KFI), and the Los Angeles
Evening Express (KYJ and KNX). In San Diego three newspapers were associated with radio
stations: The San Diego Union and San Diego Evening Tribune (KDPT), and the San Diego Sun
(KON). In the Los Angeles and San Diego markets, almost 30% of the broadcast stations were
associated with newspapers in some way while the national average for newspaper controlled
radio stations was about 10%.3
This thesis examines how the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Examiner, Los Angeles
Evening Express, Los Angeles Herald, San Diego Sun, San Diego Union, and San Diego Evening
Tribune newspapers attempted to shape the new medium of radio during the decade of 1920 -
1930. I argue that the newspapers that owned and/or operated radio stations in Los Angeles and
Digest Illustrated in April of 1922 lists almost 100 broadcasting stations over three pages. By the end of 1922, Radio Digest Illustrated would need to divide the list of broadcasting stations over three subsequent issues. I trust Sterling's’ overall number of newspaper-owned radio stations at the end of 1922. He puts the number of newspaper radio owned stations at about 50. Exact numbers are hard to come by because of the volatility of station licenses as stations were added and deleted. Some of the stations that applied for licenses never broadcast or did only for a brief time.
3 “Radio Approaches Business Status,” Radio Digest Illustrated, May 6, 1922, 3; U.S. Department of Commerce, Radio Service Bulletin 48 (April 1, 1921); U.S. Department of Commerce, Radio Service Bulletin 60 (April 1, 1922); U.S. Department of Commerce, Radio Service Bulletin 61 (May 1, 1922); Sterling, “Newspaper Ownership of Broadcast Stations,” 228. The May 1922 issue of Radio Digest Illustrated noted that “among the 32 new broadcasting stations licensed recently, Los Angeles secured eight.” Of the 21 of the stations listed that operated in Los Angeles and San Diego in May 1922, seven were associated with newspapers. Mathews 4
San Diego sought to create new print and broadcast multimedia corporations but ultimately
failed because they faced several obstacles that they could not overcome. First, the cost of the
radio transmitting equipment skyrocketed as broadcasters created more powerful studios to be
heard over the crowded airways. Second, disagreements with ASCAP resulted in radio stations
having to pay for copyrighted material and performances, significantly increasing the cost of
broadcasting. Newspaper owners found that news made up only a small fraction of what they
broadcast on their stations. Ultimately, the newspaper owners realized that they did not want to
be in the entertainment business. Third, radio challenged newspapers’ control of the news, and
newspapers associated with the Associated Press (A.P.) called for radio stations to stop
broadcasting A.P. news bulletins. The outcome of what became known as the Press-Radio War
resulted in newspapers losing control of news content that broadcast over radio after the early
1930s. Advertising agencies and entertainment companies such as Warner Brothers were better equipped to create entertainment content that was broadcast locally as well as over the networks.4
Historiography
So why had so many newspapers decided to operate radio stations? In Sound Business:
Newspapers, Radio, and the Politics of New Media, Michael Stamm argues that newspapers used the “new medium” of radio to create the first multimedia corporations. Stamm notes that newspapers had various reasons for becoming involved with radio. Newspapers presented their association with radio broadcast stations as part of their “commitment to public service” in their
4 William Hamilton Cline, “Radio’s Strides Traced on Anniversary of KHJ,” Los Angeles Times, April 17, 1932.
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communities. In addition, newspapers were eager to extend their presence locally and nationally.
Many owners of radio receivers sought to hear radio stations throughout the United States and
the world. This passion for listening for distance, or “DXing”, meant that newspapers with
broadcast stations could come to be known internationally. Newspapers wanted to increase their
circulation and hoped a radio presence would do just that.5
While some newspapers saw radio as direct competition, Stamm maintains that “for
strategic newspapers radio was not the enemy, it was the prize.” He explains that in the past
newspapers had been adept at embracing new technology including telegraphy. Newspapers
were active participants in the four National Radio Conferences called by Herbert Hoover to
determine radio policy. The passage of the Radio Act of 1927 led to the reallocation of
frequencies and the creation of the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) to oversee radio licensing.
Many newspaper-owned radio stations that had survived to this point received favorable clear-
channel frequencies that they did not have to share. The FRC and the National Broadcasting
Company (NBC) actively encouraged newspapers to own radio stations during the 1930s in
hopes of ameliorating the relationship between radio and the press that had soured during the
Press-Radio wars of the late 1920s and early 1930s.6
Many newspapers promoted radio as a unifying force and voice for the nation. Historians
Mary Mander and David Czitrom explore how the discussion around early radio broadcasts and
content contain idealized (utopian) views towards unity, morality, and better conditions for the
5 Stamm, Sound Business, 26-27.
6 Stamm, Sound Business, 52-58; Stamm, 13. For more information about the Press- Radio Wars see Gwenyth Jackaway, Media at War: Radio’s Challenge to the Newspapers (Westport: Praeger, 1995).
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“dispossessed”. Mander argues that in the nineteen twenties, public debate about broadcasting
“placed a kind of power in the hands of technology: the power to bring on an era of peace, harmony, moral perfectibility, and enrichment.” Radio was promoted as a means to create unity in a community and in the community created by all of the people who could receive a broadcast signal. Radio was also seen as a medium that could be used to promote values of home and hearth because broadcasts would be shared by families listening in at home rather than in a public venue. Mander explains that radio was promoted as a medium that could enrich the lives of people, such as farmers, who were not sharing in the economic prosperity of the 1920s. David
Czitrom observes that “Radio broadcasting added a totally new dimension to modern communication by bringing the outside world into the individual home.” He explains that a majority of early broadcasting was driven by radio manufacturing companies selling radio equipment, subverting the utopian promises of radio.7
Historian Randall Patnode explains that publishers saw radio as a promotional vehicle for their newspapers that would increase public goodwill and create additional revenue through increased subscriptions and radio hardware advertising for the newspapers. Patnode argues that, early on, newspapers were not competing with radio for advertising dollars. In addition, early
7 Mary S. Mander, “Utopian Dimensions in the Public Debate on Broadcasting in the Twenties,” Journal of Communication Inquiry 12, no. 2 (1988): 71–88; Mander, “Utopian Dimensions,” 84; Daniel Czitrom, Media and the American Mind: From Morse to McLuhan (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press: 1982),60; Czitrom, 1-88 .
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programming content did not matter as much because most radio listeners were focusing on who
and how far they heard rather than what they heard.8
Yet Patnode also maintains that the relationship between newspapers and radio was
fraught with difficulties because newspaper publishers “failed to see how different radio was
from newspapers.” By the mid-1920s, broadcasters had found a way to recoup some of the costs
of broadcasting through sponsored programming. However, radio-affiliated newspaper
publishers called for a boycott of radio listings in their newspapers because they felt printing the
names of the sponsored programs was free advertising. According to Patnode, “broadcasters
were also using the listings as an incentive to secure program sponsors.” In 1925 the American
Newspaper Publishing Association (ANPA) issued a ban on sponsored program listings in
newspapers. In response, Los Angeles radio station KFI threatened newspapers with the
following notice, “The name of the individual sponsoring program and the name of the artist first
appearing on the artist list, MUST NOT BE OMITTED. Such omission will be considered an
infringement of copyright.” While this was an empty threat, newspapers’ position was
undermined by the fact that local radio magazines, such as Radio Doings, were still printing the
sponsor information. Many newspapers, including the Los Angeles Express, ignored the ban as
well.9
8 Randall Patnode, “Friend, Foe, or Freeloader? Cooperation and Competition between Newspapers and Radio in the Early 1920s,” American Journalism 28, no. 1 (2011): 76; Patnode, “Friend, Foe, or Freeloader?”, 76 – 78.
9 Patnode, “Friend, Foe, or Freeloader?”, 85 – 88; Patnode, 87; “Radio Station Tries to ‘Bluff’ Dailies,” Editor & Publisher, March 20, 1926, 24. Emphasis in the original quote. See Radio Doings February 14-20, 1926 as an example. Mathews 8
Ultimately, newspapers failed to recognize the differences between print and radio.
Patnode argues that newspaper publishers saw radio as an informational medium and ignored the
fact that it was also an entertainment medium. He concludes that “Radio was not destined to be
the handmaiden of the press, but something altogether different, precisely because it structured
experience according to sounds and time rather than symbols and space.” As a result, about half
of the newspaper-owned radio stations listed in 1923 had stopped broadcasting by 1926. 10
A few years later, during the Great Depression, many newspapers saw a precipitous
decline in the amount of advertising revenue. As newspaper revenue from advertising declined,
the advertising revenue of radio continued to steadily grow. Many newspapers blamed radio for
this decline. Consequently, newspapers again refused to print listings of sponsored programs
because they felt this was giving away advertising revenue. Some newspapers stopped printing
any stories related to radio. Newspaper ownership of, or affiliation with, radio became a divisive
issue that would eventually lead to the Press-Radio War in 1932.11
While the decision of who should control radio was out of the listener’s hands, what was played on the radio was negotiated between the broadcasters and the listening audience. Michele
Hilmes maintains that from the beginning of broadcasting there was a push to promote live educational and cultural programming. This was used to separate the new broadcasting stations from the amateur stations. The creation of the Class B license at the end of 1922 helped to further stratify the radio broadcasting field. These licenses allowed stations to broadcast at 400 meters
10 Patnode, 88 -90.
11 Ormsbee, “Newspapers Capitalize Radio Craze in Manifold Ways,” 16; Stamm, Sound Business, 53-58; Stamm, 63 – 65.
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rather than the very crowded 360 meters. In return, these stations promised to provide live performances and could not use recorded music. Many newspapers (including the Los Angeles
Times and Los Angeles Examiner) sought these class B licenses.12
Hilmes states that newspaper-owned stations, regardless of their eventual fate, shaped radio
broadcasting “…both in terms of the relationship of advertising to program content and in the
origination of program forms closely related to newspaper practices.” In particular, she suggests
that the “serial narrative forms” of comic strips and fiction published in papers contributed to the
creation of serialized programming on radio. Newspaper’s influence on the structure of
programming could also be seen in the creation of programming related to the newspaper sections.
For example, many stations had programming related to women’s interests or children’s interests.
Regular broadcasting of news programs on stations not affiliated with newspapers would not
develop until after the Press-Radio War in the early 1930s. Hilmes notes that the newspaper’s radio
station could be used to entice listeners to features in the newspaper and the newspaper gave the
radio station sustained publicity.13
Nevertheless, in his exploration of radio genres, performance styles, and production
practices, Shawn VanCour argues that many of the programming and production norms seen
during the network era owed themselves less to newspapers than to decisions by the FRC. Policy
decisions made by the FRC privileged more powerful stations that could remain on frequency
and programs that were “carefully supervised and maintained to insure satisfactory service to the
public.” VanCour proposes that the 1923 reallocation of frequencies by the Department of
12 Michele Hilmes, Radio Voices: American Broadcasting, 1922 – 1952 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), 48 – 54.
13 Hilmes, Radio Voices, 68; Hilmes, 68 – 74. Mathews 10
Commerce created the expectations of “liveness” in programming. During the period of 1922 –
1925, radio broadcasters created programming practices and production practices such as the program log that led to the creation of different program genres and the organization of programs into regularized schedules. The printing of schedules in newspapers and radio magazines helped formalize these schedules. Randall Patnode observes that the content and purpose of these newspaper radio sections changed between 1922 and 1926. He notes that the earlier radio sections (1922 – 1924) were aimed at hobbyists who were building their own radio receivers.
After 1924, the newspaper radio sections began to focus more on the radio listener that had ready-made receivers.14
This apparent synergy between the press and radio did not avert a later press-radio war in the 1930s. The Press-Radio War was about who would control the news: newspapers or radio.
Gwenyth Jackaway contends that this disagreement was due, at least in part, to a disruption of an older medium by a new medium. The new media challenged the institutional identity, structure, and function of established media. She points out that radio, especially the broadcast of news on the radio, called into question the norms and practices that defined the professionalism of journalism at a time when professional journalism was reassessing their field. Newspaper journalists questioned the knowledge and preparation of the news and of the newscaster that read
14 Shawn VanCour, Making Radio: Early Production and The Rise of Sound Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), 19 – 25; U.S. Department of Commerce, Radio Service Bulletin 65 (September 1, 1922); VanCour, Making Radio, 43; Patnode dissertation, 236 – 240; Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting: From Radio to Cable (Chicago: University of Illinois Press 1990), 63; Barnouw, Tower in Babel, 121-122. Since radio stations initially all had to broadcast at 360 meters, some stations would broadcast at a frequency that was slightly higher or lower than 360 meters to be heard. The Department of Commerce decision in 1923 opened up new frequencies between 300 meters and 545 meters to high power stations (above 500 watts) that promised to feature live performances.
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the news on the air. Because radio challenged newspapers as the primary source of information,
many newspaper owners feared that the public would not buy newspapers when they could hear
the news on the radio first.15
What later became known as the Press-Radio war began as an intra-industry conflict between the newspapers that owned radio stations and those that did not. The newspapers that subscribed to the Associated Press (AP) news service provided news articles to the AP. These newspapers could print AP news articles in their paper and announce them over the air.
However, when non-member radio stations read AP news bulletins over the air, they often scooped the local newspapers with their own news. Newspapers that owned radio stations viewed the news bulletins to promote their paper; they would encourage listeners to read their newspaper for additional information. To further complicate matters, news agencies such as the
United Press (UP) and the International News Service (INS) wrote their own news bulletins and provided those bulletins to both the newspapers and radio stations. The AP asked radio stations to stop broadcasting their news releases in 1922. This agreement lasted until the 1924 election when several newspaper-controlled stations broadcast UP news bulletins effectively scooping the
AP bulletins that would appear in the newspapers the next day. In 1925, the AP reversed their decision and allowed the broadcasting of their news bulletins, but the relationship between the press and radio had soured.16
15 Gwenyth Jackaway, “America’s Press-Radio War of the 1930s: A Case Study in Battles between Old and New Media,” Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, 14 no. 3 (1994): 299-303; Daniel Czitrom, Media and the American Mind, 14.
16 Jackaway, Media at War, 299-303, Jackaway, 12-19. Mathews 12
However, early on, many newspapers saw radio as an opportunity to increase the
circulation and influence of their papers. The number of radio stations and the number of
newspapers associated with radio stations grew exponentially in 1922. Historian Christopher
Sterling performed a quantitative analysis of the affiliation of early radio stations. As of February
1923, 39% of radio stations were associated with radio equipment manufacturers. Educational
institutions had the next greatest amount with 13%, and the percentage of newspapers owning
radio stations was 12%. However, the percentage of newspaper-owned radio stations dropped to
between 5% to 7% for the rest of the decade. Sterling notes that many newspapers did not have
the means to compete against larger urban newspapers or to compete against the ever-growing
number of channels that all shared the 360-meter wavelength. This congestion and competition
would affect the newspaper-owned or operated radio stations in Los Angeles and San Diego.17
The newspapers that owned and operated radio stations in Los Angeles and San Diego would attempt to create the multi-media companies that Stamm described. Similar to other papers throughout the United States, the Los Angeles and San Diego papers would describe their interest in radio broadcasting using utopian language. The lack of clear regulation related to radio broadcasting and the lack of a method to recoup radio costs would hamstring the west coast stations in the same way it affected early radio stations throughout the nation. The stations in Los
Angeles that took advantage of the Class B licenses found themselves in the entertainment business in addition to the news business.
17 Christopher Sterling and John Michael Kittross, “The Beginnings of Broadcasting (1920- 1926),” in Stay Tuned: A History of American Broadcasting (New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002), 69-74; Christopher Sterling, “Newspaper Ownership of Broadcast Stations, 1920-1968,” Journalism Quarterly 46, no. 2 (1969): 227 – 254; Christopher Sterling, “Trends in Daily Newspaper and Broadcast Ownership, 1922 – 1970,” Journalism Quarterly 52, no. 2 (1975): 247-256, 320. Mathews 13
Methodology
With the historiography related to newspaper-owned radio stations in mind, this study uses qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the history of newspaper-owned radio stations in Los Angeles and San Diego during the period of 1922 through 1930. In order to determine the dates that these stations first went on the air, this thesis uses Radio Service
Bulletins issued by the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), newspaper articles, and radio news
journals. These same sources are analyzed to determine how long each station was on the air and
when the station either stopped broadcasting or was no longer associated with a newspaper. The
number of stations on the air at a given date was determined by examining the FRC Radio
Service Bulletins, newspaper articles, and station lists in radio journals such as Radio Broadcast
and Radio News.
Nationally, commentators had high hope for the power of radio as a medium that could
help the isolated and infirm, could educate the masses, improve civil discourse, and bring about
world peace through better communication. This thesis does a qualitative analysis of primary
sources including radio magazines, newspaper articles, and radio commentaries to explore the
expectations that newspaper-owned radio stations in Los Angeles and San Diego had for radio.
These sources are used to investigate why these radio stations sold their stations to non-
newspaper interests or stopped broadcasting.
Growth of Newspapers and Telegraphy
With the advent, of the telegraph in 1832, newspapers became familiar with the
adaptation of new technology to their needs. David Czitrom explains that “telegraphy gave rise
to both the modern conception of news and our present methods of newsgathering.” The rise of Mathews 14
the “penny papers” in the 1830s led to a focus on using the telegraph to gather news, with an
emphasis on local and sensational news that would be of interest to the mass public. The larger
circulation of the penny papers and increased advertising revenue allowed their publishers to
invest in early telegraph technology. Czitrom noted that “the news function won out over
editorial and political comment as the key component of the American newspaper.”18
Newspaper circulation continued to grow between 1830 and 1930. During the Civil War,
journalism became more important to the public as they followed news about the battles.
Michael Schudson argues that the Civil War “did not turn the direction of journalism; its impact was to intensify the direction in which journalism had been heading since the 1830s.” The professionalization of newspaper reporting occurred in the 1880s and 1890s with the rise of journalism schools. During the last two decades of the nineteenth century, two different types of
newspapers developed. The “yellow journalism” of papers such as Joseph Pulitzer’s New York
World and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Herald emphasized entertainment and accessibility while papers like the New York Times stressed business information. Advertising became more standardized in newspapers this time with the rise of ad agencies and the advent of standardized pricing for advertising in papers.19
During World War I, many journalists and newspapers had worked with George Creel’s
Committee on Public Information to disseminate propaganda supporting the war. Schudson
noted that “war propaganda directly influenced the wider growth of public relations in the
18 Czitrom, Media and the American Mind, 14; Czitrom, 15.
19Alfred McClung Lee, The Daily Newspaper in America (New York: McMillan Press, 1937), 64-69; Michael Schudson, Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers (New York: Basic Books Inc.,1978), 66; Schudson, Discovering the News, 65-68; Schudson, 90-120.
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twenties.” The twenties saw the start of bylines and specialty sections in the papers. Many
journalists and newspapers felt that they needed to profess new editorial and ethical standards
that promoted objectivity after participating in the propaganda of World War I. As Michael
Stamm explains, “journalists not only defined and codified standards for print journalism after
World War 1 but also began to develop a broader sense of media ethics as they applied these
nascent codes to radio.”20
Two waves of press consolidations took place: the first before World War I and the
second after World War I. These press consolidations paralleled mergers that were occurring in
business and industry-at-large. The Scripps McRae League of Newspapers and the Hearst
Corporation established the first newspaper chains in the 1890s. William Randolph Hearst started the Los Angeles Examiner and several other papers during the first wave. He bought the
Los Angeles Herald, and later the Los Angeles Evening Express during the second wave of newspaper acquisitions after WWI. Many of the Hearst-owned newspapers, including the Los
Angeles Examiner, Los Angeles Herald, and the Los Angeles Evening Express, were associated
with radio stations. The Scripps McRae League of Newspapers acquired the San Diego Sun
before World War I. Harry Chandler, owner of the Los Angeles Times, and John D. Spreckels,
owner of the San Diego Union and the San Diego Evening Tribune, were heavily involved in the
building of their respective cities and radio offered them a way to expand their influence. 21
20 Schudson, Discovering the News, 141-146; Stamm, Sound Business, 26-27.
21 Edward Adams, "Chain Growth and Merger Waves: A Macroeconomic Historical Perspective on Press Consolidation," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 72 no. 2 (Summer 1995): 376 -389; “Newspapers Owning or Affiliated with Radio Stations,” Broadcasting, November 15, 1931,10; Marie Crane, “The Development of Commercial Radio in San Diego,” (master’s thesis, San Diego State University, 1977), 15-21; Joe Stone, “KON Was San Diego’s First,” San Diego Union, Nov. 19, 1972; Charles F. Filstead. “Radio at the Thos. H. Mathews 16
The Associated Press, created in 1849, grew out of the struggle about who should be responsible for gathering the news: the newspapers or the telegraph operators. Many of the rules the Associated Press put in place at this time would later impact who could share the news over the radio. The early AP news service was comprised of seven New York daily newspapers. In
1865, a group of newspapers that were unhappy with the New York centered news provided by
the AP created the Western Associated Press. By the end of the nineteenth century, the AP had
won control over access to the news and Western Union had a monopoly on the telegraph lines.
Newspapers that did not get their news through the AP wires faced getting pushed out of business because of the agreement between AP and Western Union. Still, as historian Czitrom maintains, although the telegraph changed the way that the press gathered its news, it was not a
form of mass communication like radio broadcasting would be.22
Start of Broadcasting in Los Angeles and San Diego
It is not surprising that both Los Angeles and San Diego newspapers were early adopters
of radio. The Los Angeles Times early on experimented with the use of telegraphy as a way to
share its newspaper’s contents, exploring a more public form of communication. The Times, in
conjunction with the Pacific Wireless Telegraph Company, started transmitting news via
telegraph to Catalina Island in 1903. The Catalina newspaper Wireless combined local news
from Catalina with the brief news summaries sent from the Los Angeles Times. The full Los
Angeles Times newspaper was delivered by boat later in the day. The paper ceased operating
Ince Studios,” Radio Journal, June 1924, 279; Stephen D. Bray. “Harry Chandler,” 55-61; “J. D. Spreckels Dies at Home After Long Illness,” San Diego Union, June 8, 1926.
22Schudson, Discovering the News, 4-5; Czitrom, Media and the American Mind,14-29.
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about five months after it started, but the owners of the Los Angeles Times demonstrated their
interest in using new technology to expand their readership before World War I.23
Due to the military and maritime industries in their cities, Los Angeles and San Diego
had an active amateur radio presence before and after WWI. Fred Christian, a former navy radio
operator, broadcast under the amateur call letters 6ADZ as early as 1920. In 1921, he received
one of the first commercial licenses for call letters KNX. He would sell KNX to the Los Angeles
Evening Express in 1924. Jack Wisemen, who constructed the radio station associated with the
San Diego Sun newspaper (KON), had been a military telegrapher before returning to San Diego
in the early 1920s. Dean Farran, who operated the Los Angeles Times station, served as a radio
operator in the U.S. Air Service during WWI. The operations manager at the San Diego Union
and San Diego Evening Tribune station KDPT, Eugene P. Merritt, served in the Navy during
WWI.24
According to the “Radio Broadcasting Stations” list created by Radio Digest Illustrated
in their inaugural issue, California had twenty-six licensed broadcast stations in mid-April of
1922. This was twice as many as any other state. In May of 1922, the Los Angeles Times boasted that “Los Angeles today has more broadcasting stations than the entire state of New York and a
23 "The Wireless" Is a Winner: Daily Morning Newspaper is Born at Avalon,” Los Angeles Times, Mar 26, 1903; Noah Arceneaux, “The Ecology of Wireless Newspapers: Publishing on Islands and Ships, 1899 - 1913,” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 91, no.3 (2014): 562-577.
24 Joe Stone. “KON Was San Diego’s First,” San Diego Union, Nov. 19, 1972; “ ‘Times’ Radio Service Near,” Los Angeles Times, March 12, 1922; Parke Blanton, Crystal Set to Satellite: The Story of California Broadcasting the first 80 Years (Los Angeles: California Broadcasters Association, 1987), 4-7; "Radio Phone to Give News: "Times" to Install Powerful Broadcasting Plant," Los Angeles Times, Feb 26, 1922; “Radio Operator on Ship to ‘Log’ Local Programs,” San Diego Union, May 1, 1922. Mathews 18
greater number than any city or county in the United States.” By June of 1922, the Los Angeles
Times reported that sixty-seven radio stations were operating in the sixth radio district. The
number of people owning radio sets grew as well. By the time of the 1930 Census, 44% of
families in the west owned radio sets, and over 50% of western urban families owned radio sets.
In Los Angeles, almost 60% of families owned a radio set and in San Diego about 50% of
families owned radios. Newspapers in Los Angeles and San Diego wanted a share of this market.
The Los Angeles Examiner boasted at its opening that its radio broadcast would reach the
“50,000 receiving instruments already installed in Southern California homes and the demand for
installation of ‘listening sets’ so greatly surpasses the supply that every factory in the country is
working double shifts to fill the orders.”25
Connecting Households with “the Wider World”
25 “Radiophone Broadcasting Stations,” Radio Digest Illustrated, April 15, 1922, 8-9; John S. Daggett. “City is First in Radio Era,” Los Angeles Times, May 14, 1922; “Who Will Ultimately Do the Broadcasting?” Radio Broadcast, April 1923, 524; U.S. Department of Commerce, Radio Service Bulletin 61 (May 1, 1922); “The Radio Market News Service,” Radio News, July 1922, 55; Steve Craig, “How America Adopted Radio: Demographic Differences in Set Ownership Reported in the 1930 – 1950 U.S. Censuses,” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media (June 2004):, 182; Craig, “How America Adopted Radio,” 184; Steven Manson, Jonathan Schroeder, David Van Riper, and Steven Ruggles. IPUMS National Historical Geographic Information System: Version 14.0 [Database]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS. 2019. http://doi.org/10.18128/D050.V14.0, “Examiner to Build the Greatest Radiophone on the West Coast,” Los Angeles Examiner, March 22, 1922. The trend of California leading the nation with the highest number of broadcast stations would continue throughout 1922. The state with the next highest amount of stations was Ohio with thirteen. In April 1923, Radio Broadcast magazine showed California having 68 radio stations. Nine of those radio stations were associated with newspapers. Texas had the next highest count of radio stations with 34. The Los Angeles Times article does not mention KWH. Radio service bulletin no. 61 indicates that KWH and KFI were licensed in May of 1922. The sixth administrative district included California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and the Hawaiian Islands. United States. Mathews 19
The newspapers connected to radio stations in Los Angeles and San Diego attempted to use radio to enlarge their area of influence and increase their circulation. The Los Angeles
Examiner, when it announced its new station, promised that it would bring the “voice of the great city” to far off listeners in the desert and the mountains. The Los Angeles Examiner proposed that this would join these households “with the whole world from which they have been so long set apart.” The San Diego Sun extolled how radio would allow listeners to hear programs around the world because “radio messages can be heard anywhere on the earth, in the air, under the ocean.” Newspapers often reported how far their station’s signal was picked up. The Los
Angeles Times reported in April 1922 that their broadcast was heard in Salem, Oregon, Denver,
Colorado, and Helena, Montana. The Radio Journal of May 1923 made a special note of a signal from the Los Angeles Times station KHJ being heard as far away as British Samoa on New
Year's Eve in 1922.26
To try to increase circulation, the newspapers felt that they had to promote radio itself.
The Los Angeles Evening Express created an amateur radio club in March 1921. The paper also announced the creation of a radio school around the same time. They started broadcasting using the amateur call letters 6BX in May 1921. The Los Angeles Times sponsored a radio listener club, the Times Radio Club, in its radio columns months before the KHJ radio station started to broadcast. Through the sponsorship of this club, the Los Angeles Times promoted the idea of a radio listener community. The Los Angeles Times sponsored picnics and other gatherings for members hoping to create loyalty to the newspaper and KHJ. The Los Angeles Herald gave
26 “Daily News Flashes to be Broadcasted,” Los Angeles Examiner, Apr 15, 1922; “Radio’s Uses Unlimited,” San Diego Sun, March 30, 1922; “KHJ Also Sets Record,” Radio Journal, May 1923, 256. Mathews 20
readers two options to get a receiving set for procuring new subscriptions to the paper. Readers
that secured fifteen six-month subscriptions would earn a crystal radio set with a range of 10
miles. More motivated readers could obtain an Audion Radiophone Receiving Set with a range
of one hundred miles if they signed up forty six-month subscribers. The readers of the Los
Angeles Examiner could earn a crystal radio set by obtaining ten new three-month subscribers.
The San Diego Union and San Diego Tribune offered young readers a “wonderful little set” if
they collected 20 new subscriptions for the San Diego Union or San Diego Tribune. The San
Diego Sun did not offer a free radio set, but they did offer a list of parts and instructions on how
to construct a radio set for those who wrote to their “Washington Department.” At the opening of
their KNX station in October 1924, the Los Angeles Evening Express offered prizes to listeners
that wired in from ships at sea and other states. They also offered a way for enterprising readers
to earn an Electrical Research Laboratories three-tube radio kit by signing up new readers.27
In order to attract radio enthusiasts and to build a radio audience, some newspapers
associated with radio stations in Los Angeles and San Diego printed instructional sections about
radio in their papers. The topics covered in these sections ranged from how to tune a receiver to
more advanced topics including the physics of radio waves. The newspapers encouraged readers
to write in with their radio questions. In 1922, the Los Angeles Times ran a series of radio articles
on how to build a radio receiver. The newspaper introducing this series of articles stated: “The
27 “Express Will Open Free Wireless School,” Los Angeles Evening Express, March 28, 1921; "Radio Fans, Attention!" Los Angeles Times, Mar 28, 1922; “Audion Radio: The Wonder of the Age!” Los Angeles Herald, July 5, 1922; “Everybody’s Doing It! Why Not You?” Los Angeles Examiner, April 23, 1922; “Tribune-Union Radio Sets Surprise,” San Diego Evening Tribune, May 12, 1922; “Radio Fans, Attention!” San Diego Sun, April 22, 1922; “Milton Stills to Introduce Express Radio,” Los Angeles Evening Express, October 9, 1934, “Many Gifts for Many Fans,” Los Angeles Evening Express, October 9, 1934; “Kids! Free! Big 3-Tube Radio Kit,” Los Angeles Evening Express, October 9, 1934. Mathews 21
Times presents herewith the first of a series of articles by a radio expert, who will explain the
things everyone wants to know about radio.” Although ostensibly aimed at the Times Radio
Club, all readers could follow along. The San Diego Sun newspaper published a series of
informational articles between March 29, 1922, and April 6, 1922. These articles written by the
San Diego Sun’s radio expert Frank George gave a general history of radio and some basic
information about how radio receivers work. All the newspapers responded to questions sent in
from readers concerning radio topics. These questions would be answered by the radio experts
working for the newspapers.28
Newspapers associated with radio stations in Los Angeles and San Diego mirrored the
national pattern in their promotion of the unifying power of radio. In his article “The Social
Destiny of Radio,” printed in the Forum in 1924, Waldemar Kaempffert envisioned a time when
radio would be a “super radio university educating the world.” In his view, radio would not only
bring together the United States but would make English the lingua franca of the world.
Kaempffert commended radio for “achieving the task of making us feel together, think together,
live together.” The Outlook magazine article “Radio - The New Social Force” illustrated how radio was described as “the salvation of democracy” and “a means for general and perpetual peace on Earth.” The Los Angeles Times sponsored a radio listener club in its radio columns months before the KHJ radio station started to broadcast. Through the sponsorship of this club, the newspaper promoted the idea of a radio listener community. C. M. Ripley stated in the Los
Angeles Times in 1924: “If there ever was a cosmopolitan audience in the history of the world,
28 V. H. Bennioff, “Times Radio Department,” Los Angeles Times, March 31, 1922; Frank George, “Radio Radiation,” March 29, 1922; Frank George, “Radio Radiation,” March 30, 1922; Frank George, “Radiographs,” March 31, 1922; Frank George, “Radio Radiations,” April 4, 1922; Frank George, “Radio Radiations,” April 6, 1922. Mathews 22
the invisible audience of radio is one.” Ripley offered that audiences before radio had all been
from the same community and cultural background. Radio had created an audience from many
different communities and socio-economic classes.29
Ever since KDKA’s broadcasting of the 1920 election results, national and southern
California publications had promised that radio would provide uncensored communication. In
the inaugural issue (May 1922) of Radio Broadcast magazine, Dr. Alfred Goldsmith described
radio’s benefits as a communication device that can bring greater understanding between people.
He argued that radio could end isolation and could enable people to become more involved in
government policies and procedures. He also described how radio could lead to better political
and economic communication between nations. Bruce Bliven in his 1924 article “How Radio is
Remaking Our World” stated that he felt that radio would have a “serious influence on our
national political life”. The Los Angeles Times station regularly broadcasted speeches from state
and federal officials. In an article published in July 1924, the Los Angeles Times claimed that
radio would change presidential campaigns because the “pitiless publicity” of radio broadcasts
meant that listeners could listen to every word of the speeches. Kaempffert postulated that
citizens would have a better chance of judging the argument of politicians if they could hear it
directly.30
29 Waldemar Kaempffert, “The Social Destiny of Radio,” Forum, no. 71 (1924): 768; “Radio - The New Social Force,” Outlook, March 19,1924, 466; “Daily News Flashes to be Broadcasted,” Los Angeles Examiner, Apr 15, 1922; “Radio’s Uses Unlimited,” San Diego Sun, March 30, 1922; "Radio Fans, Attention!" Los Angeles Times, Mar 28, 1922; C. M. Ripley. “World Drawn Close by Radio,” Los Angeles Times, May 25, 1924.
30 Edgar H. Felix, “Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith on the Future of Radio Telephony,” Radio Broadcast, May 1922, 44; Bruce Bliven, “How Radio is Remaking Our World ” Century Magazine, June 1924, 149; “Davis Speech Broadcast," Los Angeles Times, Nov 12, 1922; “The Mathews 23
The promise of radio to provide free education and culture through free university
courses and cultural programming was widely publicized in the national and southern California- based radio magazines and newspapers. In the May 1922 issue of Radio Broadcast, J. H.
Morecroft describes a radio experiment where Columbia University created a series of ten- minute talks on the works of Robert Browning. Morecroft stated that listeners were being educated “as a result of the excellent musical programs being broadcasted nowadays by the better class of stations, but it remains to be seen whether people will actually pay for educational programming.” Bliven envisioned universities “giving radio course in every conceivable subject.” A May 1922 Literary Digest article described college courses being broadcast within college classrooms and throughout the nation. Declaring that “every radio home within a thousand miles of Los Angeles will be a college in the near future,” the Los Angeles Examiner announced a series of daily lectures from different branches of science given by the colleges and universities in the Southern California area. The San Diego Evening Tribune sponsored lectures from the local postmaster about the proper way to mail packages and letters. The Los Angeles
Times promised to offer “educational matter of a highly profitable order” when they announced the opening of their new broadcast station in Oct 1922. The Los Angeles Times printed a testimony from a father thanking KHJ, stating, “I know of no finer influence that can be brought into the lives of my children than this daily educational offering of the Times on radio wavelengths.”31
Times – KHJ – On the Air Today,” Los Angeles Times, July 13, 1922; Kaempffert, “The Social Destiny of Radio,” 768.
31 “Lecture by Wireless,” Los Angeles Examiner, April 15,1922; “New Hours for Radio Program,” San Diego Evening Tribune, May 22, 1922; “Gigantic New ‘Times’ Radio Station Will Be Placed on Air Soon,” Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1922; “KHJ is Termed Family Mathews 24
The newspapers also promoted radio’s potential to the isolation of the blind and the
infirm. The Radio Broadcast magazine in their June 1923 issue described how radio receivers in
a veteran’s hospital helped ease the tedium of the patients, noting that they regularly listen to
KHJ and KFI. The Los Angeles Times gave radio sets to “patients in hospitals and inmates of
charitable and other homes” so that they could have “world activities brought to them” through
KHJ broadcasts. The San Diego Sun illustrated how radio was a technology accessible to the
blind by including a picture of an unidentified man with the caption “Blind Radio Fan is Best in
State.” In October of 1923, writer Ben Markson praised the ability of KHJ to help invalids, shut-
ins, the blind, and the aged. He gushed, “Borne on the wings of kindness and unselfishness, there
is broadcast from KHJ a never-ending message of cheer and goodwill.”32
Magazines and newspapers often identified farmers as a group who would be well served
by radio. Randall Patnode explained that farmers were often portrayed as an “other” who “were ideally positioned to profit from what radio did best: bridge large distances and provide an abundance of information and amusement.” Even the Los Angeles and San Diego newspapers wrote about the isolation of farmers. The Los Angeles Times announced in May of 1922 that they
Tutor,” Los Angeles Times, July 12, 1922; Radio Doings, August 25, 1923,17-21; Susan Douglas. Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004), 86. I looked at program guides for the week of July 10, 1922 through July 16, 1922. KHJ was not on the air on Saturday July 15, 1922. KHJ broadcasted from 1:00 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. KHJ broadcasted the weather and crop reports from 8:00 p.m. – 8:15 on the 485 meters wavelength reserved for those reports Monday through Friday as well. KHJ broadcasted on Sundays from 10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. 32 Radio Broadcast, June 1923, 147-148; “Ten Institutions Given ‘Times’ Radio Phones,” Los Angeles Times, March 30, 1922; “Gigantic New ‘Times’ Radio Station Will Be Placed on Air Soon,” Los Angeles Times, Oct 22, 1922; “Blind Radio Fan is Best in State,” San Diego Sun, March 22, 1922; Ben A. Markson, “Radio Fad Sweeps World Turning Sorrow to Joy,.” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 7, 1923. The Times mentions how these receivers have been a “boon to shut-ins” when they announced the opening of their new station in October 1922. Mathews 25
had received permission from the Department of Commerce to broadcast daily weather reports.
The Los Angeles Times noted that the weather reports would “aid Pacific slope farmers in planting and gathering their crops.” Frank George in the “Radio Sparks” column of the San
Diego Sun explained the importance of radio to the farmers “not only does it make isolation of the people living on farms a thing of the past, but it brings the farmer weather, crop, and market news.”33
Farmers in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas used radio to learn about possible adverse weather conditions and to coordinate bringing crops to market. A February 1923 article in the Los Angeles Times titled “Radio Service for Isolated Farmers” described how a transport company used radiotelephony to coordinate and improve the efficiency of the harvest and transport of vegetables from the San Luis Rey Valley in northern San Diego County to market in
Los Angeles. The radio was carried on “a combination service car and ambulance” that patrolled the San Diego County backcountry, going from farm to farm to see what the farmers needed to get to market. The service car would then call San Diego to arrange for a truck to come to transport the crops.34
The Orchard Heating Department of the American Can Company-sponsored programming on KHJ in 1924. During their program, the Orchard Heating Department would give frost warnings to local citrus farmers so they could better use their smudge pots to keep
33 “To Radio Weather News,” Los Angeles Times, May 6, 1922; Radio Journal, August 1922, 161; Frank George, “Radio Sparks,” San Diego Sun, March 29, 1922, 9.
34 “Radio Service for Isolated Farmers,” Los Angeles Times, February 11, 1923; “Radio Telephone Truck Informs Farmers Daily,” San Diego Union, Jan 14, 1923. The San Diego Union described this same service in less detail in January of 1923. Mathews 26
their crops from freezing. Yet not everyone agreed with the imagery of the isolated farmer. A
Los Angeles Times article entitled “That ‘Isolation’” noted that “the automobile and good roads,
the rural telephone, rural mail service, and some other modern conveniences” had alleviated the
isolation of farmers before radio. Undoubtedly, newspapers and magazines exaggerated the
power of radio during a time already undergoing great social change.35
Newspaper Broadcasting: Imagination Versus Reality
Early radio stations were relatively simple, often having the antenna, transmitting
equipment, and performance space in rooms on the roof of a building (see Figure 1). The
performance spaces would be draped with rugs and curtains to improve the quality of sound
transmitted over the air. Many of the early stations transmitted at low power and could only be
heard locally. Remote broadcasts, such as church sermons or concerts, would be transmitted over
telephone wires to the station and then sent out to listeners. Unfortunately, the Department of
Commerce, which oversaw the allocation of radio frequencies, did not anticipate the popularity
of radio broadcasts. They allocated one frequency, 360 meters or 832 kHz, for all broadcasting
stations. The creation of regular schedules for radio programming in the Los Angeles area was
hindered by the necessity of many stations sharing the same frequency of 360 meters.
35 “KHJ to Provide New Features,” Los Angeles Times, Oct 19, 1924; “That ‘Isolation’,” Los Angeles Times, June 18, 1922 Mathews 27
Figure 1 Schematic of Los Angeles Times’s new radio station opening in October 1922. Charles H. Owens, "Gigantic New Times Radio Station." Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1922. The newspaper associated radio stations faced competition for air space from the beginning of broadcasting. All the radio stations in Los Angeles and San Diego initially had to share the same broadcast wavelength of 360 meters. This congestion meant that the different broadcast stations, including the newspaper controlled stations, needed to come to an agreement on how to share the airwaves. When Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover called the First
Radio Conference in February 1922, Hoover was not sure that he had the authority to control broadcast frequencies and licenses under the Radio Act of 1912. Hoover invited the executives of the major radio parts manufacturers, engineers, representatives from different government agencies, and one representative for amateur radio. This first conference covered several topics Mathews 28
including the growth of broadcasting and the interference caused by it, who should be able to be
broadcasters, radio program content, and advertising. Hoover wanted the attendees to agree that
the Department of Commerce should retain the power to regulate radio and that a bill should be
introduced to Congress to give the Department of Commerce the right to issue, revoke, and
suspend licenses. In addition, Hoover wanted to reallocate frequencies to help alleviate the
congestion. The bill was introduced in Congress but stalled and never passed. The one agreement
that did come out of the conference was to curb direct advertising over radio. This issue would
be revisited when the discussion turned to how to pay for broadcasting.36
As early as April 1922, the number of Los Angeles area radio stations broadcasting on
the same frequency became a problem for broadcasters and listeners. The Southern California
Radio Association and the Department of Commerce radio inspector called for a meeting with all
stations that were or soon would be broadcasting in Los Angeles to create time slots where each
station could broadcast without interference from or interfering with others. The first attempt at a
schedule for Los Angeles showed a division of broadcast time between the Los Angeles Times
(KHJ), Bible Institute (KJS), Hamburgers (KYJ - Los Angeles Express), Kinema (KOG - Los
Angeles Herald), J.J. Dunn (KLB), and the Electric Lighting and Supply Company (KNX). In addition, the Los Angeles Times station KHJ and Los Angeles Express station KYJ had received permission from the Department of Commerce to broadcast weather reports at 485 Hz. KYJ broadcast the morning report and KHJ broadcast the evening report. This division of
36 Hugh Slotten, Radio and Television Regulation: Broadcast Technology in the United States, 1920-1960 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), 18-19; Barnouw, Tower in Babel, 94 - 96; Barnouw, 95-96; Louise Benjamin, “Working It out Together: Radio Policy from Hoover to the Radio Act of 1927,” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 42, no. 2 (1998): paragraphs 4 – 9.
Mathews 29
broadcasting time would become more complicated as new stations came on the air (see Figure
2).37
37 John S. Daggett, “Air Jamming Problems Up: Local Broadcasters are to Meet for Discussions,” Los Angeles Times, April 10, 1922; “To Keep Open Radio House: Chamber of Commerce Will Receive Programs,” Los Angeles Times, “Broadcasting Stations in the West,” Radio Doings, August 19, 1922, 24, 31. Mathews 30
Figure 2 Radio On-Air Schedule April 17, 1922 (Radio "On the Air" Schedule Los Angeles Times, April 17, 1922.)
Mathews 31
In May 1922, the heads of the fifteen stations operating in Los Angeles met to discuss the
further congestion of the airways. The broadcasters at the meeting ultimately decided that
“quality, audibility, and class of entertainment should govern the rating of all stations in the
allotment of time on the air and that stations broadcasting news – newspaper stations – were
entitled to a preferential time allotment.” The Southern California Broadcasters Association
created a committee to undertake these tests. The stations were assessed, their “character of
programme counting 50%, audibility 30%, and quality of modulation 20%.” Stations would then
be designated as class A, B, or C stations. Class A stations would receive the most broadcasting
time. In May 1922, the results for these tests were released and all stations associated with
newspapers except for KFI were placed in class A. The class A stations broadcast 36 hours a
week. Class B stations could broadcast 18 hours a week and not at all on Sunday. The San Diego
airwaves were less congested, but radio stations still needed to share the 360 meters’ frequency.
The August 1922 issue of Radio Journal shows six stations including KDPT (San Diego Union
and San Diego Evening Tribune) and KON (San Diego Sun) sharing the 360-meter frequency.
This decision diminished the squabbles between the stations temporarily.38
A review of broadcast performance completed in July 1922 changed the standings to
have KFI, KWH, KHJ, KOG, and KYJ be designated as the class A or long-range stations (see
Figure 3). These stations were all associated with newspapers. The Los Angeles Times protested that this allowed the stations associated with the Los Angeles Examiner (KWH and KFI) to
38 John S. Daggett, “Broadcasting Times Changed,” Los Angeles Times, May 11 1922; “Protest Radio Schedules,” Los Angeles Times, July 23 1922; This is different than the frequency reallocation that took place in 1923; The KHJ (Times), KWH (Examiner), and KOG (Herald-Kinema) stations were all put in class A and KFI, the Examiner-Anthony station was relegated to Class B. The Examiner noted that they would protest the decision to put KFI in Class B to Major Dillon and all the way to Washington if needed. Note that these designations are for Los Angeles area stations only. Radio Journal, August 1922, 161, 163. Mathews 32
monopolize the prime broadcasting time of 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. every day. This also meant that Hearst controlled papers (Los Angeles Herald, Los Angeles Examiner) dominated the broadcast time. The Los Angeles Times station would broadcast during the dinner hour from 6:00 to 7:00. Many stations complained against this type of continual testing because stations tended to overmodulate their broadcasts to get greater distance at the expense of the quality of the actual broadcast. This testing was done at great expense to the station owners as well. The stations that were classified as medium-range stations did not have a chance to be heard later in the day when most people were listening. 39
39 “KHJ Dinner-Hour Station,” Los Angeles Times, July 21, 1922; John. S. Daggett, “Protest Radio Schedules,” Los Angeles Times, July 23, 1922. Mathews 33
Figure 3 Class A, B, C Station Schedule (Radio Stations "On the Air" Schedule Los Angeles Times, Jul 2, 1922.)
The inability of Congress to pass legislation and a court decision that stated that the
Department of Commerce had to give licenses to all that requested them led Hoover to call Mathews 34
another conference in 1923. In the January 1923 Radio Broadcast, Hoover warned “there is
absolutely no adequate solution of the problem open to the Department of Commerce until
pending legislation makes available to the public the use of the wave-band, 1600 – 600 meters,
which is reserved for government purposes.” Hoover also suggested the creation of a new group
of more powerful broadcasting stations that could broadcast at different frequencies. As a result
of the second Washington Radio Conference, additional bandwidths were added, and stations
were divided into different classes depending on the power of the broadcast station. Class A
stations would continue to broadcast between 220 meters and 300 meters and could not transmit
at greater than 500 watts. The more powerful class B stations would transmit at 500 watts or
above and be allocated a wavelength between 375 meters and 545 meters. These stations could
transmit at these new frequencies with the caveat that they had to use live performers (no more
phonograph records). Low power Class C stations were limited to 360 meters and could only
broadcast during the daytime. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover still supported a ban on
direct advertising over the airwaves.40
Radio stations that wanted to be heard above the din had to invest in more powerful
broadcast equipment. In October 1922, the Los Angeles Times announced that it would be
building a “new and tenfold more powerful broadcast station” for $30,000. Noting that “no
tangible remuneration can be written on the ledger today to justify the maintenance of a great
broadcast station,” the Times effused that it built the new, more powerful station “as a monument
to goodwill and to public service.” In November of 1922, the Los Angeles Times’s station KHJ
40 Barnouw, Tower in Babel, 95-96; Benjamin, “Working It out Together”, 226 - 227; “Class B Stations - New Wave-Lengths,” Radio Journal, June 1923, 344; Benjamin, paragraph 17; Barnouw, 121 – 122; Department of Commerce, Radio Service Bulletin 74 (April 2,1923).
Mathews 35
started to broadcast at 400 meters, boasting that it was “the first Class B station to go on the air
west of the Missouri Valley.” In January 1923, KFI, the Los Angeles Examiner station started
broadcasting from a new 500-watt station on top of the Packard building in downtown Los
Angeles. The equipment installed at the site was identical to that of KHJ. In a press release
published in Radio Doings, Earle C. Anthony Inc. stated that the company “appreciate that radio
broadcasting has passed from the hit or miss plaything stage to the serious business of providing
for you programs of merit, both entertaining and educational.” 41
By September 1924, there were five Class B radio stations in Los Angeles broadcasting
at different frequencies. The Earle C. Anthony station KFI (469 meters) was now the broadcast
station for the Los Angeles Examiner and the Los Angeles Herald. The Los Angeles Times owned
station KHJ now broadcast at 395 meters. The Los Angeles Express had bought KNX in
September 1924 and broadcast at 337 meters. The remaining Class B stations were Aimee
Semple McPherson’s Angeles Temple station KFSG and the Bible Institute station KJS. The
earlier call letters for the Los Angeles Examiner (KWH) and for the Los Angeles Express (KYJ)
were no longer in use. The only San Diego station shown in the radio schedule was KDPT, the
San Diego Union and San Diego Evening Tribune station. In January 1923, stations KHJ and
KFI broadcast different programs at the same time. The Los Angeles Times claimed that this
“occurrence is the first of kind in radio history” and that “this perhaps marks the beginning of
what will be common practice as soon as Congress passes contemplated legislation providing for
a wider band of wavelengths for broadcast stations.” In March 1923, KHJ, KFI, and KPO (San
41 John S Daggett, “Gigantic New “Times” Radio Station Will Be Placed on Air Soon,” Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1922; “Times on air again with mightier voice,” Los Angeles Times, Nov. 2, 1922); “KFI: The New Earle Anthony Station,” Radio Doings, December 16, 1922, 6.
Mathews 36
Francisco) broadcast a joint program from all three stations in an early attempt at chain broadcasting.42
Competition for the airwaves continued with many stations broadcasting outside of their allocated frequency. In a major setback for the Department of Commerce, a ruling of the U.S.
District Court of Northern Illinois in 1926 stated that the Secretary of Commerce did not have the authority to assign frequencies. Broadcast stations took advantage of the situation and switched to more desirable frequencies resulting in chaos. Evangelist Aimee Semple
McPherson’s station KFSG was well known for wandering the broadcast frequencies. Congress finally passed the Radio Act of 1927 to clarify that the government had the right to allocate frequencies. The Radio Act of 1927 also created the FRC to oversee the allocation of frequencies.43
By the time frequency reallocation ended in 1928, the Los Angeles Evening Express’s
KNX was the only remaining newspaper-owned station in Los Angeles or San Diego.
Nationally, the number of newspaper-owned stations dropped from 1927 to 1930. After the
Radio Act of 1927, newspapers had more representation in the newly formed Federal Radio
Commission (FRC). Historian Michael Stamm noted that the FRC and NBC network actively
42 John S. Daggett, “City is First in Radio Era: More Stations Here Than in the State of New York,” Los Angeles Times, May 14, 1922; F.W Christian, “Avoiding the Jam in Southern California,” Radio Broadcast, January 1923, 252; “Broadcasters Get Ultimatum,” Los Angeles Times, ,June 22, 1922; Barnouw, Tower in Babel, 100; “To ‘Radio’ Weather News,” Los Angeles Times, May 6, 1922; “Radio Time Table,” Radio Doings, October 25, 1924, 35; “KHJ and KFI on the air at the same time,” Los Angeles Times, Jan 28, 1923; “Giant Trio Broadcast Is Planned,” Los Angeles Times, Mar 16, 1923; U.S. Department of Commerce, Radio Service Bulletin 101 (September 1, 1925). 43 Barnouw, Tower in Babel, 179-180; Barnouw, 195 – 218; Stamm, Sound Business, 48- 54.
Mathews 37
encouraged newspaper ownership of radio in the early 1930s after the Press-Radio Wars.
Although newspapers controlled almost 30% of the radio stations by 1940, the newspaper-owned radio stations in Los Angeles and San Diego were not able to survive into the 1930s due to increasing costs of broadcasting and a lack of a way to recoup broadcasting costs through advertising. 44
Newspapers in the Entertainment Business
The news made up only a small part of the programming broadcast over the newspaper- owned radio stations in Los Angeles and San Diego. As radio stations increased their hours of broadcasting, they needed to broadcast more content. For Class B stations (such as KHJ, KFI, and KNX), this meant live performances and scripted content. A look at the broadcast schedules for the Los Angeles Times in the December 16, 1922, Radio Doings magazine showed that the programming was mainly orchestral and operatic with some children’s programming and news.
Historian Susan Douglas noted that this type of “salon” programming was popular because it reflected the radio station’s goals of being seen as a respectable medium and as “culturally uplifting and proper.” Station KOG (Los Angeles Evening Herald) content was aimed more at amateur radio enthusiasts. The station sent out Morse code transcription practice and news bulletins daily. The Los Angeles Examiner station KWH broadcast concerts using recorded music and news bulletins. The Los Angeles Evening Express Station, KYJ, featured performances by local musical schools. The San Diego Union Tribune station KDPT played
44 Sterling, “Newspaper Ownership of Broadcast Stations, 1920 – 1968,” 229-230; Stamm, Sound Business, 54-58. Mathews 38
recorded music provided by the Thearle Music company for the short time it was on the air. The
news was transmitted on regular schedules by the stations.45
By 1924, the radio schedules contained regular daily and weekly programming. Program
sponsorship appeared in the schedules as well. The Radio Doings magazine for August 3, 1924
schedules for KHJ shows that the station was broadcasting intermittently from 12:30 p.m. to
11:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. There was a news and music hour from 12:20 – 1:15 and
then regular programming did not start again until 6:00 p.m. The daily schedule included a
children’s hour, music from Art Hickman’s Concert Orchestra from the Biltmore hotel, and
programming provided by sponsors. Sunday had organ recitals and religious programming.
There was only an hour of programming on Monday. 46
KFI, owned by Los Angeles entrepreneur Earle C. Anthony, broadcast in the evening from 5:00 until midnight Monday through Saturday. The programming included news bulletins from the Los Angeles Examiner and the Los Angeles Evening Herald, concerts from the
Ambassador hotel, vocal performances, and other community orchestras. The station was not broadcasting continuously throughout the time schedule. There were several one-hour gaps in programming. On Sundays, KFI broadcast church services in addition to the regular programs.47
45 Radio Doings, December 16, 1922, 7 – 19; “Popular Music on Tonight’s Bill,” San Diego Evening Tribune, December 16, 1922; Susan Douglas, Listening In, 86. I chose to look at the Radio Doings magazine schedules because they are more detailed than the daily schedules listed in the newspapers. The magazine also makes it easier to compare the different stations. The newspapers give the schedule to Radio Doings weekly.
46 “KHJ – Los Angeles Times – 395 meters,” Radio Doings, August 3, 1924, 33. 47 “KFI, Radio Central Station of Early C. Anthony, Inc.,” Radio Doings, August 3, 1924, 35. Earl C. Anthony owned the authorized Cadillac dealership in Los Angeles. Don Lee, who would buy KHJ in 1928, owned the rival Packard dealership.
Mathews 39
The Los Angeles Evening Express bought station KNX in the fall of 1924 and the new
station opened in October 1924. KNX broadcast for an hour in the morning and the evening from
6:00 to 11:00 Monday through Saturday. KNX was on the air for an hour in the morning on
Sundays. The programming consisted of sponsored shows that featured local orchestras and
educational talks. Programs related to different sections of the newspaper were also featured. The
San Diego Union and San Diego Evening Tribune station Los Angeles Evening Express, KDPT,
broadcast one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening Monday through Friday. The
station broadcast news bulletins, time signals, and recorded music.48
One of the problems that beset newspapers that owned radio stations was that they did
not have a clear way to recoup the costs of broadcasting - including paying performers. At the beginning of the radio craze performers, composers, and record dealers were willing to provide their services for free. However, as early as 1922, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) demanded royalties for songs performed over the radio. Radio broadcasters banded together to negotiate with ASCAP to create a fee schedule, but the matter festered well into the 1930s. Not all radio stations were willing to pay the fees. The notoriously anti-union Los Angeles Times turned to using homegrown talent rather than pay the fees “in protest to the arrogant methods employed by the American Society of Authors, Composers, and
Publishers.” Radio stations could not turn to direct advertising because listeners were opposed to
48 “KNX – Los Angeles Evening Express – 337 meters,” Radio Doings, October 25, 1924, 48; “KDPT- The Union – Tribune and Southern Electrical Company – 244 meters,” Radio Doings, August 3, 1924, 38.
Mathews 40
it. As a result, the broadcasters had to turn to an indirect form of advertising – program sponsorship.49
Many newspapers willingly printed program listings for their station and other stations in the immediate area and beyond. According to Randall Patnode, the newspapers “saw the listings as a way of creating a positive editorial environment for radio equipment advertising.”
Newspapers also felt that interest in their newspaper (and the circulation numbers for their newspapers) would increase because of public interest in the station listings and additional articles published related to radio. Radio stations had started to use sponsoring as a form of indirect advertising to help pay for programs; companies and organizations could sponsor a program in return for having their name announced with the program. When newspapers printed the radio programs, they in effect gave free advertising to the sponsors.50
In 1925 the American Newspaper Publishers Association (ANPA) voted to ban the printing of sponsor names. Many newspapers, however, felt that the radio columns were too valuable to the newspaper to stop printing the programs and refused to comply. Earle C.
Anthony, the owner of KFI, refused to follow ANPA’s recommendation. Historian Randall
Patnode noted the irony, “radio seemed to be using the newspapers for free publicity, just as newspapers initially attempted to use radio for goodwill.” Radio magazines such as Radio
49 Stamm, Sound Business, 67-68; Barnouw, Tower in Babel, 119 – 120; “Artists Solve Radio Problem.” Los Angeles Times, Apr. 18, 1924. This is not to say that there was no advertising on radio. Cliff Doerksen argued that many smaller, more rural stations openly advertised on the air. See Cliff Doerksen, American Babel: Rogue Radio Broadcasters of the Jazz Age, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005).
50 Patnode, “Friend, Foe, or Freeloader?”, 76. Mathews 41
Doings continued to print the programs with their sponsorship also undermining ANPA’s efforts.
By 1926, the radio industry was exploring direct advertising as a revenue source.51
Where Are the Networks?
Programming nationally did not change much even after the start of the NBC in 1926. In
1926, AT&T sold its toll broadcasting station WEAF to RCA. In November 1926, RCA announced the creation of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). The NBC network consisted of two different chains that would use the AT&T telephone wires to broadcast to its member stations. The red network broadcast more mass-market sponsored programming while the blue network broadcast the cultural and educational programs that NBC financed through sales of radio receivers. Hilmes noted that there were soon fears about NBC and AT&T having a monopoly over chain broadcasting. AT&T controlled the nation’s telephone lines and access to them. The only other option was to broadcast over the technically inferior telegraph lines.52
51 Jackaway, 87; Patnode, “Friend, Foe, or Freeloader?” 76; Patnode, 63; Patnode, 85-89; “Radio Station Tries to “Bluff” the Dailies,” Editor and Publisher, March 20, 1926, 24. For an example of a Radio Doings printed schedule, see “KFI”, Radio Doings, Dec 17, 1927, 60.
52Barnouw, A Tower in Babel, 189 – 190; Hilmes, “NBC and the Network Idea,” 14; Jim Cox, American Radio Networks (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, Inc., 2009), 13.
Mathews 42
Figure 4 Chain Broadcasting Circuits end 1927 ( R.T. Barnett, "Network Broadcasting: Historical Summary," Bell Telephone Quarterly, XVIII, no.2 (April 1934): 81.)
Newspaper stations would have to cooperate within this burgeoning network system to survive. However, the AT&T business model made broadcasting from the west coast prohibitively expensive because all broadcasts were sent through New York (see Figure 4).
There was a lack of regular broadcast lines to the West Coast until the end of 1929. The cost of laying new lines and redundant lines (in case the main lines failed) was expensive and new repeater stations and switch stations needed to be built to support the new network connections.
This situation would eventually change when the federal government investigated AT&T in the
1930s. In order to share the cost of creating programming, many small networks sprung up on the west coast before stations could connect with the major networks. These networks included the Pickwick network based in San Diego, the Don Lee Network based in Los Angeles, the Mathews 43
Hearst Radio Service based in San Francisco, the California Radio System based in San
Francisco, and the American Broadcasting Network based in Seattle. Most of the Los Angeles newspapers no longer directly owned radio stations at this point because of the expense of broadcasting.53
Earle C. Anthony’s KFI started to do regular network broadcasting with KPO in San
Francisco in early 1926. In early 1927, KFI and KPO joined the National Broadcasting
Corporation (NBC) Pacific Coast network. KFI formed its own radio news service in early 1930.
Radio station KPLA became the official station of the Los Angeles Examiner in early 1929. It would remain associated with KPLA until Earle C. Anthony bought the station and renamed it
KECA in November 1929. Station KECA joined its sister network, KFI, as part of the NBC
Pacific Coast network. The NBC Pacific Coast or Orange network would not be able to broadcast more than one NBC program a night until December 1928 when Bell Telephone established permanent links from Denver and Salt Lake City to the West Coast (see Figure 5).54
53 Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting, 62-63; R.T. Barnett, "Network Broadcasting: Historical Summary," Bell Telephone Quarterly, XVIII, no.2 (April 1934): 106 – 110; Jim Cox, American Radio Networks, 102-106, 193, 201; Marie Crane, “The Development of Commercial Radio in San Diego,” 53; “Tune KYA for Hoover Fete,” San Francisco Examiner, August 7, 1928; “Broadcast Gossip,” Los Angeles Times, May 30, 1927. 54 “KFI—Los Angeles, California—467 meters,” Radio Doings, Feb 13, 1926, 52; “The Pacific Chains,” Radio Doings, February 26, 1927, 17; “KFI Los Angeles, Calif – 640 Kc,” Radio Doings, Jan 4, 1930, 36; “KPLA,” Radio Doings, March 30, 1929, 52; U.S. Department of Commerce, Radio Service Bulletin 152 (November 30 1929); “KMTR,” Radio Doings, Sept. 29, 1928, 52; “KMTR,” Radio Doings, Oct 25, 1930, 23; “Radio Expands Over Country,” Los Angeles Times, December 26, 1928; The November 1, 1925 Radio Doings does not show the network/chain broadcasting but the February 13, 1926 issue of Radio Doings does.
Mathews 44
Figure 5 NBC Radio Broadcast Network Early 1934 (R.T. Barnett, "Network Broadcasting: Historical Summary," Bell Telephone Quarterly, XVIII, no.2 (April 1934): 88)
Like Earle C. Anthony, Don Lee experimented with creating broadcast chains between
the stations he owned: KHJ in Los Angeles, KMJ in Fresno, and KFRC in San Francisco. Lee made the connection between KHJ and KFRC permanent in December 1928 (figure 3). Later in
that month, the Don Lee owned stations participated in a new west coast broadcast chain, the
American Broadcasting Company. On August 11, 1929, the Los Angeles Times announced that
the Don Lee stations would group with stations in Oregon and Washington state to create the Mathews 45
“Don Lee chain of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).” The Los Angeles Times continues to provide news and other content to KHJ after it joined the CBS network (see Figure 6).55
Figure 6 Don Lee Network Spring 1934 (R.T. Barnett, "Network Broadcasting: Historical Summary," Bell Telephone Quarterly, XVIII, no.2 (April 1934): 92)
The Columbia Broadcasting Company started due to a disagreement with David Sarnoff, head of NBC. Arthur Judson, a musician’s agent, had offered to start a talent agency that would supply performers to NBC. Sarnoff rejected Judson’s plan and Judson informed Sarnoff that he would create a rival network to NBC. Judson, along with George A. Coats and others, created the
United Independent Broadcasters (UIB) in January 1927. Coats lined up a series of stations for the new network and used his connections in Washington D.C. to get access to the AT&T lines.
55“Radio KHJ IS in New Hands,” Los Angeles Times, Nov. 27, 1927; “KHJ on Thousand Watts,” Los Angeles Times, Jan 25, 1928; “Don Lee Chain Will Hook Up,” Los Angeles Times, Aug 26, 1928; “Hook-Up Binds Two Stations,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 12, 1928; “New Broadcast Chain Planned,” Los Angeles Times, December 20, 1928; “KHJ Will Join Columbia Chain,” Los Angeles Times, Aug 11, 1929; Cox, American Radio Networks, 104 – 106.
Mathews 46
Throughout 1927, the UIB sought financial support for their new network. The Columbia
Phonograph Company agreed to back the network if it renamed itself the Columbia Phonograph
Broadcasting System. There were also rumors that the Paramount-Famous-Lasky film corporation would back the new chain. Paramount eventually did, but not until 1929. The
Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System broadcast its first program in September 1927.56
The network was renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System after Columbia
Phonograph sold its shares back to UIB. In 1928, William Paley’s family became the majority stockholder in CBS. Paley made a deal with Paramount Studios to invest in CBS in 1929. This gave the new network the financial backing it needed to continue to grow (see Figure 7). The business model for CBS differed markedly from NBC. Hilmes explained, “With no large research department, no receiving set manufacturing division behind it whose sales could offset programming costs, CBS from the beginning presented itself as the advertisers’ network.”
Barnouw noted, “By 1931 virtually all sponsored network programs were developed and produced by advertising agencies.”57
56 Barnouw, Tower in Babel, 194 -195, 201; Socolow, “Always in Friendly Competition,” 29-31.
57 Socolow, “Always in Friendly Competition,” 28 -30; Cox, American Radio Networks, 49-51; Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting, 51; Barnouw, Tower in Babel, 239. Mathews 47
Figure 7 CBS Network Early 1934 (R.T. Barnett, "Network Broadcasting: Historical Summary," Bell Telephone Quarterly, XVIII, no.2 (April 1934): 91).
The Failure of Newspaper Associated Stations in Southern California
Most of the newspaper-controlled radio stations in Los Angeles and San Diego did not survive after the early days of radio. By 1925, only the newspaper-controlled radio stations in
Los Angeles were still broadcasting. The San Diego Union and the San Diego Evening Tribune station, KDPT, stopped broadcasting at the end of 1924 and the Department of Commerce deleted the call letters from their list of active stations in April 1925. It is unclear whether the
San Diego Sun station KON ever started broadcasting on a regular schedule. The Los Angeles
Herald and the Los Angeles Examiner papers no longer had their radio stations and were leasing Mathews 48
broadcasting time on KFI. The Los Angeles Herald call letters, KOG, were deleted in April
1923. The Los Angeles Examiner call letters, KWH, were deleted in April 1925. 58
By February 1926, KFI stopped broadcasting news from the Los Angeles Examiner and
Los Angeles Herald. The Los Angeles Herald started to broadcast news over radio station KMTR in April of 1928. The station KMTR became part of the Hearst Radio Service created in August
1928. Harry Chandler sold the Los Angeles Times station, KHJ, to Don Lee in 1927. The Los
Angeles Times noted that it “retains a connection with the station for the broadcasting of daily news, major events of notable public interest and other matters within the functions of a newspaper.” Don Lee built a new station for KHJ in January 1928 that would allow it to operate at 1000 watts.59
58 Crane. “The Development of Commercial Radio in San Diego to 1950.”, 43-44.; U.S. Department of Commerce, Radio Service Bulletin 61, May 1, 1922; Radio Doings, May 21, 1923, 22; “Examiner Radio Studio.” Radio Doings, May 21, 1923, 22; U.S. Department of Commerce, Radio Service Bulletin 60, April 1, 1922; “Radio KHJ is in New Hands,” Los Angeles Times, Nov. 12, 1927; “KFI—Los Angeles, California—467 meters,” Radio Doings, Feb 13, 1926, 52; “Examiner Radio Studio,” Radio Doings, January 5, 1924. There was no formal announcement from the KDPT about ending broadcasting. Jack Wisemen hypothesized that KDPT stopped broadcasting because the Southern Electric Company, owner of the radio equipment, went bankrupt. In the May 21, 1923 issue of Radio Doings, it states “These programs are rendered in the Examiner Studio and broadcasted by remote control over the leased wire of the Southern California Telephone Company from Radio Central Station KFI.”
59 “KFI—Los Angeles, California—467 meters,” Radio Doings, Feb 13, 1926, 52; “The Pacific Chains,” Radio Doings February 26, 1927, 17; “KFI Los Angeles, Calif – 640 Kc,” Radio Doings, Jan 4, 1930, 36; “KPLA,” Radio Doings, March 30, 1929, 52; U.S. Department of Commerce, Radio Service Bulletin 152 (November 30 1929); “KMTR,” Radio Doings, Sept. 29, 1928, 52; “KMTR,” Radio Doings, Oct 25, 1930, 23; Edward Murphy, “Throngs in Attendance Every Day at KYA,” San Francisco Examiner, August 19, 1928; “Radio KHJ is in New Hands,” Los Angeles Times, Nov. 27, 1927; “KHJ on Thousand Watts,” Los Angeles Times, Jan 25, 1928; “Don Lee Chain Will Hook Up,” Los Angeles Times, Aug 26, 1928; “Hook-Up Binds Two Stations,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 12, 1928; “New Broadcast Chain Planned,” Los Angeles Times, December 20, 1928; “KHJ Will Join Columbia Chain,” Los Angeles Times, Aug 11, 1929. The November 1, 1925 Radio Doings does not show the network broadcasting but the February 13, 1926 issue of Radio Doings does.
Mathews 49
In November 1928, KNX (Los Angeles Evening Express) entered into a five-year association with Paramount-Famous-Lasky studios. The KNX station, now broadcasting on a clear channel frequency at 5000 watts, moved to the new Paramount Pictures – Los Angeles
Express station on the Paramount studio lot. The Paramount-Famous-Lasky organization felt that the relationship with KNX would allow them to promote their studio, movies, and pictures.
The Los Angeles Express indicated that “Paramount is planning to help us bring from all parts of the world the best entertainment that can be found. Over the coming years, we will be available to them for much which otherwise would not be available for any price for radio programs.” This arrangement between the Los Angeles Evening Express and Paramount-Famous-Lasky lasted until 1931. In February 1931, Guy Earl Jr., the owner of the Los Angeles Evening Express and the Western Broadcast Company, sold the Los Angeles Evening Express to Paul Block. The Los
Angeles Evening Express merged with the Los Angeles Herald when William Randolph Hearst bought the paper from Block in December 1931. The Western Broadcast Company continued to operate KNX on the Paramount Studio lot until the station was bought by CBS in 1936.60
Although many of the newspapers were associated with radio stations, none of the newspapers that owned radio stations still owned them at the start of network broadcasting. San
Diego station KGB broadcast news from the San Diego Sun starting in October 1929. This
60 Department of Commerce, Radio Service Bulletin 130 (Jan 31, 1928); “KNX,” Radio Doings, June 21, 1930, 20; “Talks Forecast Radio Future,” Los Angeles Evening Express, November 15, 1928; “KNX Hearers Praise ‘Clear Channel’ Bill,” Los Angeles Evening Express, November 13, 1928; Paul Block, “An Announcement,” Los Angeles Evening Express, February 12, 1931; “ ‘Express’ Now Openly Hearst,” Los Angeles Times, December 10, 1931; Guy C. Earl Jr. transferred ownership of KNX from the Los Angeles Evening Express to the Western Broadcast Company in January 1928. See U.S. Department of Commerce, Radio Service Bulletin 130 (January 31, 1928).
Mathews 50
arrangement continued until November 1930 when KGB joined the Don Lee network. The San
Diego Evening Tribune and the San Diego Union-sponsored programming on KFSD starting in
1926. The November 5, 1931 issue of Broadcasting showed four Los Angeles newspapers to still be associated with radio stations: the Los Angeles Times with KHJ; the Los Angeles Herald with KMTR; the Los Angeles Evening Express with KNX; the Los Angeles Examiner with
KFWB. The article did not show any newspapers in San Diego associated with radio stations.61
So why were newspapers in Los Angeles and San Diego that operated radio stations unsuccessful at creating multimedia companies at the beginning of radio? Randall Patnode argues that “newspaper editors and publishers fundamentally misunderstood the nature of radio and its developing role in society. Cynthia Meyers explains that the American radio system was created because of the decision of the Department of Commerce to have commercially owned broadcast stations rather than government-owned stations. She noted that rather than taxes
“advertising, particularly indirect advertising seemed a simpler and less politically fraught way to pay for programming.” The fact that there was no clear regulation for assigning radio licenses and frequencies until 1927 also affected the development of commercial broadcasting.62
The newspaper controlled radio stations in Los Angeles and San Diego operated in a very crowded field from the start of broadcasting in 1922. With that many stations sharing the same frequency, the newspaper controlled radio stations needed to earn the support of their listeners.
61 “KGB,” Radio Doings, Oct. 19, 1929, 46; John S. Daggett, “Coast’s New Radio Chain On Air Next Wednesday,” Los Angeles Times, Nov. 2, 1930; “Choice Program Chosen For Broadcast Tonight,” San Diego Evening Tribune, Apr 22, 1926; Blanton, Crystal Set to Satellite, 7; “Newspapers Owning or Affiliated with Radio Stations,” Broadcasting November 15, 1931, 10.
62 Patnode, “Friend, Foe, or Freeloader”, 76; Cynthia B. Meyers, A Word From Our Sponsor: Admen, Advertising, and the Golden Age of Radio (New York: Fordham University Press, 2013), 33. Mathews 51
The newspapers felt that they were better positioned than other radio broadcasters because they
could advertise their station through their pages and hoped to increase their readership through
the presence created by the newspaper and its radio station. The newspapers located in Los
Angeles had the resources to invest in radio broadcasting, but the costs became higher than the newspapers could recoup through advertising in their paper. As radio broadcasting became more popular it also became more competitive. Stations that started at 50 watts of power in 1922 needed to broadcast at over 1000 watts in 1927. With the advent of clear channel frequency allocations in 1928, stations needed to broadcast at 5000 watts.63
Since the powers in radio (including Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover) frowned
upon direct advertising, there was no good way for the newspaper controlled stations to recover
the money spent on their radio stations. Radio stations eventually developed sponsored programs
to defray some of the costs but running a radio station remained a money-losing proposition.
Each station developed its own programming independent of the other; it was not until the
network era that stations could share programming. Marking the eighth anniversary of KHJ,
John S. Daggett boasted in the Los Angeles Times that “Born entirely of a spirit of giving, the station was operated by the Times for five years and six months without one nickel of compensation.” 64
The newspapers that owned or controlled radio stations in Los Angeles and San Diego
assumed that they could run their radio stations like a newspaper. Instead, these newspapers
found they were in the entertainment business as well as the news business. William Hamilton
63 “KNX Hearers Praise ‘Clear Channel’ Bill,” Los Angeles Evening Express, November 13, 1928.
64John S. Daggett, “KHJ Today Will Observe It’s Eighth Anniversary,” Los Angeles Times, April 13, 1930. Mathews 52
Cline of the Los Angeles Times explained that the decision to sell the station KHJ was due to the realization that “its tendency was away from its original purpose, which was the rapid dissemination of news.” He went on to note that “In the case of KHJ, there seemed to be some danger that the entertainment tail would soon be wagging the news dog if, in fact, it was not already doing so.”65
While the newspapers in Los Angeles and San Diego were not successful in creating
multimedia organizations, the movie studios were. Czitrom proposes that one important
difference between film and radio was that film was not a pure form of communication like the
telegraph or radio; rather it was a new art form. Hilmes explains that Hollywood had been
interested in radio since the start of commercial broadcasting in 1920 but was not able to pursue
this interest because of “federal regulation of broadcasting and the ever-present threat of antitrust
litigation.” By the time that commercial radio broadcasting began, film was an established and
thriving industry. Starting with the Nickelodeons in the first decade of the twentieth century,
motion pictures established themselves as another form of “urban commercial amusement”.
Hilmes argues that the close relationship between the film and radio industries led the film
industry to have “a central role in the evolution of economic structures, program forms, and
patterns of distribution in broadcasting” that would continue into early television. 66
The Hollywood studios were able to create multimedia companies that included radio
because they viewed radio as an entertainment medium. Similar to how the newspapers wanted
to use radio to promote the newspapers, the movie studios wanted to use radio to advertise their
65 William Hamilton Cline, “Radio’s Strides Traced on Anniversary of KHJ,” Los Angeles Times, April 17, 1932.
66 Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting, 8; Czitrom, Media and the American Mind, 43; Czitrom, 30, Hilmes, 1. Mathews 53
films and actors. Unlike the newspapers, the content created by the studios could be used to
create programming for their stations and the networks. The genres of programming created by
the studios for radio, the variety show, dramatic series, publicity, and gossip show, and movie
adaptation, would be carried over to television with mixed success. The Radio Act of 1927
would continue to have an impact on television and then the internet because it set the regulatory
structure for television and the internet. The newspapers in Los Angeles and San Diego thought radio should be “the handmaiden of the press” like telegraphy had been. Instead, they found that radio broadcasting involved much more than they had anticipated. Newspapers lost control of the dissemination of news over the new medium of radio. Moreover, they would not be able to control the subsequent new media of television and the Internet.67
67 Patnode, “Friend, Foe or Freeloader, 90; Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting, 63. Mathews 54
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Mathews 56
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