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KNX Exits Columbia Square - Building To Be Demolished

M

mwebster

Guest
The LA Times reports:
<blockquote>
If everything goes as expected, nobody will really notice.

But with the planned flip of a switch at 11:05 p.m. Friday, another piece of Hollywood's golden age will disappear forever.

Microphones at the last radio station in Hollywood will go dead as announcers and newscasters complete their final on-air shift at the historic Columbia Square broadcast center...

With its porthole-windowed studio doors and chrome-accented, round-cornered interior walls, Columbia Square was considered America's most spacious and technologically advanced broadcast facility when CBS built it in 1938. Legendary CBS President William S. Paley personally oversaw its design and officiated at its dedication.

It boasted eight large broadcasting studios, including one theater-like room that could seat an audience of 1,050.

During the 1940s and '50s hundreds would line up in the building's U-shaped forecourt to get in to see live productions of radio shows featuring Jack Benny, Art Linkletter, Burns and Allen, Edgar Bergen, Orson Welles, Jackie Gleason, Steve Allen, Eddie Cantor, Rosemary Clooney and Ed Wynn....
</blockquote>
Full Text of Article

The article says the last hour KNX broadcasts from Columbia Square will be a retrospective of the building's radio history. The broadcast is scheduled for Friday (8/12) at 10:05 PM PDT (1:00 AM EDT).
KNX Audio Stream: http://winmedcdn.cbsig.net/infinity_knx-am
 
I really couldn't tell by your Post how you feel, but let me say this. Out of all the Radio & TV Stations I have ever visited or worked at, Columbia Square had a Wonderful, Magical, Special feeling to it. This I will never Forget!
 
The article gives no indication anybody is moving to have this building declared an historic landmark and saved from the wrecking ball. Apparently, Viacom is not interested in finding some other use for it (broadcasting museum, university media facility, public broadcasting station or production center come to mind).

I used to listen to the late evening old time radio broadcasts on KNX (now also gone)and it was exciting to me to recall that many of those programs were produced in the same building from which KNX still operated.

I grew up in Detroit. I was too young to remember when they tore down the old mansion which housed WXYZ when they produced The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet and Challenge of the Yukon. I do recall a few years later when a supermarket opened on the site and WXYZ had all their DJ's out there in the station trailer doing remotes from the parking lot and talking about the old building. It was only much later when I read Dick Osgood's station history, "Wixie Wonderland," that I realized what had been late.

Unless somebody steps in out there, Columbia Square seems likely to go the way of Penn Station. But broadcasting has little appreciation of history. Look at all the ET's, audio and video tapes and kinescopes of classic programs that have been dumped into landfills (or in the case of tapes, recorded over).

A some buildings around the country that once played an important part in radio are still there. But I wonder if buildings like 475 Madison Ave and 711 Fifth Avenue still show any sign of their former roles and if the people who occupy offices there now realize what used to be there. In a way, they are lost, too.

Anyway, I plan to listen tonight.




> I really couldn't tell by your Post how you feel, but let me
> say this. Out of all the Radio & TV Stations I have ever
> visited or worked at, Columbia Square had a Wonderful,
> Magical, Special feeling to it. This I will never Forget!
>
 
>
> A some buildings around the country that once played an
> important part in radio are still there. But I wonder if
> buildings like 475 Madison Ave and 711 Fifth Avenue still
> show any sign of their former roles and if the people who
> occupy offices there now realize what used to be there. In
> a way, they are lost, too.

Do you mean 485 Madison Avenue? That was CBS's address
from 1929 until they moved to 51 West 52nd Street in 1965.
711 Fifth Avenue, for those who may not know, was NBC's
original address before moving to 30 Rockefeller Plaza
around 1933.

> >
>
 
Re: Erasing tapes/dumping kinescopes

>> Unless somebody steps in out there, Columbia Square seems
> likely to go the way of Penn Station. But broadcasting has
> little appreciation of history. Look at all the ET's, audio
> and video tapes and kinescopes of classic programs that have
> been dumped into landfills (or in the case of tapes,
> recorded over).


The story has been told (I heard it on WKYC-TV 3 Cleveland's 50th anniversary special in 1998) That one of Mike Douglas's first co-hosts when he started his 90 minute daily talk/Variety show from KYW-3 (WKYC Predecessor)was a young singer by the name of..Barbra Streisand..Douglas said that KYW erased the tapes..to put station editorials on!
 
Re: Erasing tapes/dumping kinescopes

> >> Unless somebody steps in out there, Columbia Square seems
>
> > likely to go the way of Penn Station. But broadcasting
> has
> > little appreciation of history. Look at all the ET's,
> audio
> > and video tapes and kinescopes of classic programs that
> have
> > been dumped into landfills (or in the case of tapes,
> > recorded over).
>
>
> The story has been told (I heard it on WKYC-TV 3 Cleveland's
> 50th anniversary special in 1998) That one of Mike
> Douglas's first co-hosts when he started his 90 minute daily
> talk/Variety show from KYW-3 (WKYC Predecessor)was a young
> singer by the name of..Barbra Streisand..Douglas said that
> KYW erased the tapes..to put station editorials on!
>
Steve Allen once mentioned that a 90-minute interview he did
with Carl Sandburg on the original Tonight Show was destroyed
by NBC. On that show Sandburg played the banjo, sang, and told
stories about Abraham Lincoln (about whom he wrote a three-volume
biography). Allen was justifiably proud of that show and was
quite angry that NBC destroyed it.

And I'd bet there would be a lot of interest in Johnny Carson's
game show Who Do You Trust?, which was his steppingstone to the
Tonight Show. But ABC taped over practically all of those shows.
 
Re: Erasing tapes/dumping kinescopes

> > >> Unless somebody steps in out there, Columbia Square
> seems
> >
> > > likely to go the way of Penn Station. But broadcasting
> > has
> > > little appreciation of history. Look at all the ET's,
> > audio
> > > and video tapes and kinescopes of classic programs that
> > have
> > > been dumped into landfills (or in the case of tapes,
> > > recorded over).
> >
> >
> > The story has been told (I heard it on WKYC-TV 3
> Cleveland's
> > 50th anniversary special in 1998) That one of Mike
> > Douglas's first co-hosts when he started his 90 minute
> daily
> > talk/Variety show from KYW-3 (WKYC Predecessor)was a young
>
> > singer by the name of..Barbra Streisand..Douglas said that
>
> > KYW erased the tapes..to put station editorials on!
> >
> Steve Allen once mentioned that a 90-minute interview he did
>
> with Carl Sandburg on the original Tonight Show was
> destroyed
> by NBC. On that show Sandburg played the banjo, sang, and
> told
> stories about Abraham Lincoln (about whom he wrote a
> three-volume
> biography). Allen was justifiably proud of that show and
> was
> quite angry that NBC destroyed it.
>
> And I'd bet there would be a lot of interest in Johnny
> Carson's
> game show Who Do You Trust?, which was his steppingstone to
> the
> Tonight Show. But ABC taped over practically all of those
> shows.
>

I've read where NBC destroyed the tapes of virtually everything they had in the late 70's, including most daytime shows and the early years of Carson's Tonight Shows (including the first episode). I've also read where ABC taped over episodes of daytime programming from the 70's and earlier as well.
 
Re: Erasing tapes/dumping kinescopes

> > > >> Unless somebody steps in out there, Columbia Square
> > seems
> > >
> > > > likely to go the way of Penn Station. But
> broadcasting
> > > has
> > > > little appreciation of history. Look at all the ET's,
>
> > > audio
> > > > and video tapes and kinescopes of classic programs
> that
> > > have
> > > > been dumped into landfills (or in the case of tapes,
> > > > recorded over).
> > >
> > >
> > > The story has been told (I heard it on WKYC-TV 3
> > Cleveland's
> > > 50th anniversary special in 1998) That one of Mike
> > > Douglas's first co-hosts when he started his 90 minute
> > daily
> > > talk/Variety show from KYW-3 (WKYC Predecessor)was a
> young
> >
> > > singer by the name of..Barbra Streisand..Douglas said
> that
> >
> > > KYW erased the tapes..to put station editorials on!
> > >
> > Steve Allen once mentioned that a 90-minute interview he
> did
> >
> > with Carl Sandburg on the original Tonight Show was
> > destroyed
> > by NBC. On that show Sandburg played the banjo, sang, and
>
> > told
> > stories about Abraham Lincoln (about whom he wrote a
> > three-volume
> > biography). Allen was justifiably proud of that show and
> > was
> > quite angry that NBC destroyed it.
> >
> > And I'd bet there would be a lot of interest in Johnny
> > Carson's
> > game show Who Do You Trust?, which was his steppingstone
> to
> > the
> > Tonight Show. But ABC taped over practically all of those
>
> > shows.
> >
>
> I've read where NBC destroyed the tapes of virtually
> everything they had in the late 70's, including most daytime
> shows and the early years of Carson's Tonight Shows
> (including the first episode). I've also read where ABC
> taped over episodes of daytime programming from the 70's and
> earlier as well.
>
To belabor this point a bit, in 1973 NBC was about to destroy
all eleven years of Groucho's You Bet Your Life television show.
Fortunately, someone called producer John Guedel and told him
what was happening, and would he like a set of prints as souvenirs?
Guedel told him to stop right there and send all the episodes that
hadn't been destroyed (a handful had been) to him. The rest is
history: Guedel persuaded KTLA to carry reruns of the show, the
ratings were good enough to encourage stations in other markets
to pick up the show, and a whole new generation discovered one
of the great highlights of Groucho's career.
 
As a teenager in the 40's while living up the west coast of Canada I remember listening to Steve Allen do a nightly show at midnight on KNX from Columbia Square.

A one-man precursor to the Tonight Show .. with many hilarious bits with the studio audience.

Got a chance to tour the Columbia Square studios in 1957 while Stan Freberg was rehearsing his classic radio show.

Great great memories.
 
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