Here is a link to a scan of a newspaper photo of Houston’s first broadcasting station, WEV.
http://tinypic.com/2woxflw.jpg
The newspaper was very dark, the microfilm was very dark also, and that is the best detail I have been able to get out of a photocopy.
WEV was licensed to the Hurlburt-Still Electrical Co. and operated from their automobile battery service garage at the NE corner of McKinney Avenue @ San Jacinto Street where 1 Houston Center now stands. The company had a store at 1101 Capitol where they sold electrical supplies, lamps, such household appliances as there were, and radios and radio parts. They were one of the largest radio dealers in town. Founded in 1901, they established Houston’s first automobile battery and electrical service garage in conjunction with Remy Electric of Anderson, IN, which was setting up a nationwide chain of battery service garages. They also carried Dayton Electric Laboratories (Delco), Klaxton and Willard batteries. Radio equipment was battery operated in those days so there was some affinity between the two businesses other than the fact one of the partners in Hurlburt-Still was a radio enthusiast. In June of 1920 they built the new garage facility on McKinney which later doubled as the radio station.
The license was issued on March 23, 1922, the fourth in Texas and 108th nationwide. As I posted in another thread on RI a few months ago, the first broadcast was at 10:30am on April 12 on 485 meters (roughly 619 khz), consisting of official weather, market and crop reports taken from government sources as required by law. The station’s license also authorized it to broadcast ‘music, speeches and other entertainments’ on 360 meters (roughly 833 khz). The Houston Press claimed it was the most powerful station south of Kansas City with 200 watts; the Post said when all equipment ordered had been received, it would be capable of putting out 500 watts, but reports of power output were notoriously unreliable and it may actually have had only 10 watts..
Until the 1930s, broadcast antennas were arrayed horizontally. The antenna is actually the part hung between the two masts. This configuration was known as a flattop.
The inset on the left is Alfred P. Daniel, the Dean of Houston Radio. He had been experimenting with radio since he was a teen, as early as 1907. He was the licensee of Houston’s second broadcasting station, WCAK, which he operated from the parlor of his home at 2504 Bagby. He also served as announcer, program director and operator for WEV. After WCAK and WEV both folded, he convinced Ross Sterling, Sr., largest shareholder of the Houston Post-Dispatch, to put the radio station on the air which became KPRC and probably influenced the choice of call letters. He was the first announcer and first program director of KPRC in 1925 and 21 and a half years later the first announcer and first program director of KPRC-FM
The inset on the right is B.J. ‘Ben’ Still, a partner in Hurlburt-Still and General Manager of WEV. After WEV folded in late 1924, he apparently was never involved in broadcasting again.
The history of broadcasting in Texas as it has been told up to now has mainly focused on certain individuals and developments in Dallas and elsewhere but there is an incredible story to be told of what happened here in Houston that has been almost completely ignored.
http://tinypic.com/2woxflw.jpg
The newspaper was very dark, the microfilm was very dark also, and that is the best detail I have been able to get out of a photocopy.
WEV was licensed to the Hurlburt-Still Electrical Co. and operated from their automobile battery service garage at the NE corner of McKinney Avenue @ San Jacinto Street where 1 Houston Center now stands. The company had a store at 1101 Capitol where they sold electrical supplies, lamps, such household appliances as there were, and radios and radio parts. They were one of the largest radio dealers in town. Founded in 1901, they established Houston’s first automobile battery and electrical service garage in conjunction with Remy Electric of Anderson, IN, which was setting up a nationwide chain of battery service garages. They also carried Dayton Electric Laboratories (Delco), Klaxton and Willard batteries. Radio equipment was battery operated in those days so there was some affinity between the two businesses other than the fact one of the partners in Hurlburt-Still was a radio enthusiast. In June of 1920 they built the new garage facility on McKinney which later doubled as the radio station.
The license was issued on March 23, 1922, the fourth in Texas and 108th nationwide. As I posted in another thread on RI a few months ago, the first broadcast was at 10:30am on April 12 on 485 meters (roughly 619 khz), consisting of official weather, market and crop reports taken from government sources as required by law. The station’s license also authorized it to broadcast ‘music, speeches and other entertainments’ on 360 meters (roughly 833 khz). The Houston Press claimed it was the most powerful station south of Kansas City with 200 watts; the Post said when all equipment ordered had been received, it would be capable of putting out 500 watts, but reports of power output were notoriously unreliable and it may actually have had only 10 watts..
Until the 1930s, broadcast antennas were arrayed horizontally. The antenna is actually the part hung between the two masts. This configuration was known as a flattop.
The inset on the left is Alfred P. Daniel, the Dean of Houston Radio. He had been experimenting with radio since he was a teen, as early as 1907. He was the licensee of Houston’s second broadcasting station, WCAK, which he operated from the parlor of his home at 2504 Bagby. He also served as announcer, program director and operator for WEV. After WCAK and WEV both folded, he convinced Ross Sterling, Sr., largest shareholder of the Houston Post-Dispatch, to put the radio station on the air which became KPRC and probably influenced the choice of call letters. He was the first announcer and first program director of KPRC in 1925 and 21 and a half years later the first announcer and first program director of KPRC-FM
The inset on the right is B.J. ‘Ben’ Still, a partner in Hurlburt-Still and General Manager of WEV. After WEV folded in late 1924, he apparently was never involved in broadcasting again.
The history of broadcasting in Texas as it has been told up to now has mainly focused on certain individuals and developments in Dallas and elsewhere but there is an incredible story to be told of what happened here in Houston that has been almost completely ignored.
