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KFI Founder's Residence Center of Title Dispute

A

Art Landing

Just before the great depression KFI founder Earle C Anthony went on a building spree, contracting with famed Hearst architect Bernard Maybeck to construct new dealerships in San Francisco and Oakland pus a complex in the Silverlake district of Los Angeles.

Located next to the LaBianca residence (of Tate/LaBianca) murder fame, Anthony sold the estate after the death of his own wife, retiring to another residence in Palm Springs in the mid fifties. The new owners eventually conveyed the property to the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart, who used it as a convent until 2011. whether this had anything to do with low offering prices at the time due to the Manson murder association of the neighborhood is pure speculation. what I can say with accuracy is that the secret prohibition elevator to the buildings wine cellar is not an urban legend - it was still in operating order when the sisters let be ride it in 1995.

Now two of the sisters, claiming title, have sold the property and the buyer has taken possession. This is being contested by he Los Angeles diocese, who also claims title and wants to sell the property itself. The court proceedings start on July 9, according to this article:

http://laist.com/2015/06/30/photos_katy_perry_wants_to_buy_this.php#photo-1

I wonder how much coverage Tim Conway, Mo Kelly or Bill Carroll will give to this unfolding tale?
 
...or, for that matter, anybody on KABC (the former KECA) or KCAL-TV/9 (the former KFI-TV) -- Earle established those stations, too...
 
John & Ken talked about the story the other night but I don't think they mentioned the KFI connection. I might have missed it.
 
...or, for that matter, anybody on KABC (the former KECA) or KCAL-TV/9 (the former KFI-TV) -- Earle established those stations, too...
Click to expand...

Yes, KCAL was originally KFI-TV in 1948; it weas a successor to Antyhony's pre-WW2 license for KSEE-TV, hich never got on the air. After the war NBC constructed its own station on channel 4, which meant NBC radio/tv simulcasts built traffic for then KNBH using KFI radio. KFI-TV had a very strong sports schedule with Tom Harmon and Bob Kelley as play by play announcers; it also carried some DuMont network programs but was never profitable. It got caught up in a union jurisdictional dispute (Anthony wanted his radio union to handle TV engineers as well with what had been a traditional handshake agreement; the unions wanted to control things from New York in writing). With the station shut down by a strike that had nothing to do with wages but everything to do with principle the aging Anthony sold the station to RKO General and it became KHJ-TV. RKO had access to a movie library and began the Million Dollar Theater at a time when most studios still wouldn't license their libraries for telecasting. At the same time Anthony surrendered the license for unprofitable KFI-FM.

In a side note, Anthony's Headlee Blatterman, Paramount's Klaus Landsburg and channel two's Thomas Lee during WW2 were quietly researching a site for their post-war transmitters and settled on Mt Wilson. In KFI's internal newsletters during the war the location was code-named "Mt Anthony" to avoid public disclosure. The site replaced Mt Lee (site of the Hollywood sign) and KSEE's initial proposed transmitter site atop the Hollywood Bekin's building - I don't know where Landsburg's first transmitter was.

KECA by 1948 belonged to the American Broadcasting Company but the KABC call letters belonged to a station in San Antonio. KECA-TV therefore took to the air with no connection to its namesake. KECA radio, however, was acquired (not founded) by Anthony in 1929, then merged circa 1938 with the Hearst owned KEHE, which triggered a frequency change. KEHE had the magnificent studio complex on Vermont, designed to support network class broadcasts and including both an organ an an auditorium. This facility became home to both the renamed KECA and KFI until KECA's forced sale in 1944. KFI-TV studios were in an adjacent building. When Cox Broadcasting acquired KFI a decade after Anthony's death they built new studios at 8th and Ardmore; the Vermont building became headquarters for the Korea Times newspaper for the next two decades. The building was destroyed by the LAUSD after sitting idle and falling into disrepair. An evaluation by an outside firm claimed that the building had no historical value, a judgement preservationists at the time protested in vain.

Getting back to the original subjects, Wikipedia has a detailed history of the feud between the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart and the Los Angeles Diocese that resulted in their being released from vows while allowing certain sisters to retain control of the Los Feliz district convent originally built for Anthony.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisters_of_the_Immaculate_Heart_of_Mary
 
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Mo Kelly is one of the brighter folks at that operation. He will probably cover it. I just wish they moved him to a weekday slot.
 
Kelly is great when he talks about mainstream stuff. On his weekend shows he spends too much time on cartoon superheros and other triviality.
 
Getting back to the original topic, KFI news is covering the court case as it progresses, but nary a word about the connection of the property to the station's founder, Earle C Anthony. Press accounts at least acknowledge that the builder was a Packard distributor,

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2015/07/katy_perry_convent_nun_lawsuit.php#more

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/01/nuns-banish-katy-perry-from-convent.html

One wonders at the reluctance of KFI to acknowledge an angle to this story that the print media is already reporting.
 
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