TEXAS SIGNS ON The Early Days of Radio and Television Richard Schroeder Texas AÒM University Press College Station www.americanradiohistory.com Copyright CI 1998 by Richard Schroeder Manufactured in the United States of America All rights reserved First edition The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, Z39.48 -1984. Binding materials have been chosen for durability. Library of Congress Cataloging -in- Publication Data Schroeder, Richard (Morton Richard) Texas signs on ; the early days of radio and television / Richard Schroeder. - ist ed. P. cm. - (Centennial series of the Association of Former Students, Texas A &M University ; no. 75) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN o-89o96 -813 -6 (alk. paper) t. Broadcasting-Texas- History. I. Title. II. Series. PN1990.6U5536 5998 384.54 o9764 -dcz1 97-46657 CIP www.americanradiohistory.com Texas Signs On Number Seventy-five: The Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students, Texas Ae'rM University www.americanradiohistory.com www.americanradiohistory.com To my mother Doris Elizabeth Stallard Schroeder www.americanradiohistory.com www.americanradiohistory.com Contents List of Illustrations ix Preface x1 Acknowledgments xv CHAPTERS i. Pre -Regulation Broadcasting: The Beginnings to 1927 3 z. Regulations Come to Broadcasting: 1928 to 1939 59 3. The War and Television: 1941 to 195o 118 4. The Expansion of Television and the Coming of Color: 195o to 196o 182 Notes 213 Bibliography 231 Index 241 www.americanradiohistory.com www.americanradiohistory.com Illustrations J. Frank Thompson's radios, 1921 II KFDM studio, 192os 17 W A. Tolson, 1921 21 William P. Clarke, 1921 22 WFANs transmitter, 1922 25 KRLD's transmitter, 1926 28 WBAP's transmitter, 1922 33 WBAP studio, early 192os 34 WOAI's transmitter, 1922 43 Talent performing at WOAI, 1922 44 WOAI's command light board, 1923 45 WJAD studio, 192os 49 Original license for WJAD, 1922 50 "Radio Applause Card," 1926 51 Mary Holliday, 192os 52 Western Electric Double Button, early 192os 75 RCA Model 4 -A -1 condenser microphone, installed 1929 76 Electrical transcription label, 193os 78 Western Electric turntables, installed 1930 8o W. E. Branch 83 WFAA first linked to a network, 1923 93 The Light Crust Doughboys, 1931 97 The Light Crust Doughboys' bus, 1931 98 Truett Kimzey's demonstration of television, 1934 119 Interstate Theater's television demonstration, 1946 136 Test pattern of WBAP -TV, 1948 144 Truman telecast, 1948 147 Amon G. Carter speaking at opening of WRAP -TV, 1948 150 James Byron 16o Weather Telefacts set at WBAP -TV, 1949 164 KLEE -TV studios, 1949 167 KLEE -TV remote unit, 1949 170 www.americanradiohistory.com KLEE -TV camera, 1949 171 G. A. C. Halff 177 Washburn trial, 1955 191 WBAP -TV cameras, 1954 205 Original studio of WBAP -TV, 195os 208 WBAP -TV studio 209 Harold V. Hough 2II X Illustrations www.americanradiohistory.com Preface In 1915 teenager Alfred P Daniel saw a radio tower being built across Buffalo Bayou in Houston. He rode his bicycle to the site, watched, and asked workers every question he could. Daniel went home and started constructing his own radio. Within a few years, he founded WCAK, the first radio station in Houston, and later radio station KPRC. Daniel's illustrious career began in his childhood; this book was born in mine. One morning in 1949 at Sanger Elementary School in Waco, my fourth -grade class was taken into a room used for projecting movies. We saw a ten -minute film concerning a subject about which none of us had heard: television. After the film, my mind would not think of anything else; I was enthralled. A few months later my family drove to Dallas for the weekend. At an aunt's house in the corner of the den was a strangely shaped cabinet. It was a television receiving set. I asked that it be turned on but was informed that WBAP -TV, the only station on the air, did not start broadcasting until five or six o'clock in the evening. After much begging and pleading, Mother and Dad agreed to stay until I saw something on that screen. What I actually saw was unimportant. At that time I was only a "looker -in," the name the Federal Radio Commis- sion gave to television watchers in the 1930s. That was until a Saturday in 1953, when the Waco newspaper announced that radio station WACO was going to have an open house and demonstrate "television." I jumped on my bike, pedaled eight blocks to the station, and just stayed. Lee Glasgow, manager of WACO, had bought television equipment confident that he would soon be granted a con- struction permit for the first station in Waco. The equipment was assembled in a radio studio. Two cameras and a switcher fed images to monitors. I stood in the corner all afternoon, watching. The station's staff was polite; they showed me the cameras and how they worked. I even touched one, but they finally made me leave. They needed to lock the doors. The next summer Aunt Mina and Uncle Earl took me to WBAP -TV in Fort Worth. The staff had us sit on studio seats in front of the control room windows. There was an old "shoot- 'em -up- bang -bang" on the monitor; everything was dimly lit and quiet. After a few minutes, four men came through a door. Lights were turned on, two men stood behind cameras, and one stood between. Johnny Hay www.americanradiohistory.com took his place behind a small counter with two or three food items before him. Then, before I could comprehend what was happening, the movie on the moni- tor faded. Hay's image faded in, the man between the cameras pointed his finger, and Hay delivered a sixty- second commercial. For months I "replayed" that in my mind. After KANG -TV and KWTX -TV started operations in Waco, I hung around every dark corner. I watched the stations televise the news, a farm program, a talent contest, a cooking show, a program for women, and Uncle Elihu and P. J. Possum. At home I attempted to construct a look -alike television camera on the back of my wagon. I continued visitations of WBAP -TV during college. One evening I even got in the way of Frank Mills while watching cameramen operate those monstrous TK -40A color cameras for Teenage Downbeat and the six o'clock news -and was barred from the station. During my college studies and throughout my teaching career, stories, events, and observations about historical happenings in Texas broadcasting heightened my interest and curiosity. I listened to stories of Dr. Brinkley on his Mexican border station talking to the continent. I read about KUHT-TV in Houston first using television to educate. I missed school and watched the Harry Washburn murder trial, knowing then that it was making history. I heard remarkable accounts of Gordon McLendon's fantastic "recreations." I visited announcer Johnny Kay in the KRLD radio studios. I learned about "pirate" radio stations in the Lone Star State from a professor. I looked over the shoulder of an engineer at WBAP -TV who toiled one hour aligning the first color cameras in Texas. I stood next to a video engineer at KRLD -TV playing taped commercials on that station's first Ampex i000 videotape recorders. The realization of the number and importance of historic events in Texas broad- casting answered many questions-and begged others. What factors indigenous to Texas culture, its environment, its society, and its broadcasting personnel, staffs, and administrators inspired and drove the profession to produce such an inordi- nate number of industry firsts; attracted numerous social, medical, and religious outcasts to border stations across the Rio Grande; and made early broadcasters believe they could operate pirate radio stations and get away with it? This project is not a sociopsychological analysis of the human spirit striving to be first, rebel- ling against authority, trying what has never been attempted, etc. Nevertheless, these pages may offer an inquisitive reader some insight. Texas broadcast history has been prolific, unique, revolutionary, colorful, in- teresting, and "cutting edge." It has made substantial contributions to the indus- try nationwide. Much has been written concerning this subject. There are dissertations on McLendon and Jim Byron and The Texas News, two master's the- ses on the Texas State Network, books on Mexican border stations and Bob Wills, XII Preface www.americanradiohistory.com individual and station histories, and many other works. Absent was the one single collection encompassing all historic events related to broadcasting in Texas. Be- fore preparing my dissertation, I found graduate school papers a stilted collection of historical facts. For my dissertation I interviewed the professionals in WBAP- TV's history-those who lived it. Their recollections, stories, and anecdotes were fascinating, informative, and, in their own words, a history of the station. I learned to appreciate and write historical preservation text composed of basic Facts clarified, demonstrated, exemplified, and strengthened by the insights of working profes- sionals. Texas Signs On is a documentation of historical facts fortified with personal histories, recollections, and experiences. In industry terms, it is a spin -off of my dissertation. Preparation for the book entailed investigating the holdings of all known historical society collections; newspaper clip files; station historical files; and university, city, and county special collections and archives. Personal recol- lections came from interviews of seventy-one individuals whose careers were in Texas broadcasting. Some important limitations existed. Predictably, large amounts of information, especially station files, have simply been thrown away. Many pro- fessionals had died.