Meantime---getting back to the original topic, I have to admit a mistake. It's been a lot of years, and I got quite a bit of the Bennett Kessler story wrong. Digging around, I read her obit just now and was reminded of a few things.
First of all, Bennett did not have an ownership stake in KINC (600 AM, Independence). Bennett met John Heston, who'd been politically active in southern Inyo since the 1960s, and moved in with him and his partner in Independence. I met Bennett in late 1974, when I was helping put KIOQ (now KIBS, 100.7) on the air and she was offering her services and Heston's as a southern-Inyo based news bureau. And once we were on the air, we did in fact use some of their stories.
KINC (later KNYO and KESR)'s owner was a guy in L.A. named Israel Sinofsky. Bennett and Heston were serious journalists, unlike anything the area had seen before. They contracted with Sinofsky to do the news on KINC in early-mid 1975 and fairly soon after had made some serious enemies at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
In March of 1977, a year after I'd left Bishop for Ukiah, the DWP, which owned the land KINC's tower was on, told Sinofsky that he could either have his tower lease renewed or Bennett and Heston doing his news, but not both. He fired them.
They spent the next five years running a newsletter and in 1982, with local investors, leased Channel 12 on the Bishop cable to do local news. In 1996, again, with the help of investors, they launched KDAY-FM (now KSRW) and the TV and online operation followed four years later.
Heston died in 2007, his partner in 2012 and Bennett on January 2, 2015.
First of all, Bennett did not have an ownership stake in KINC (600 AM, Independence). Bennett met John Heston, who'd been politically active in southern Inyo since the 1960s, and moved in with him and his partner in Independence. I met Bennett in late 1974, when I was helping put KIOQ (now KIBS, 100.7) on the air and she was offering her services and Heston's as a southern-Inyo based news bureau. And once we were on the air, we did in fact use some of their stories.
KINC (later KNYO and KESR)'s owner was a guy in L.A. named Israel Sinofsky. Bennett and Heston were serious journalists, unlike anything the area had seen before. They contracted with Sinofsky to do the news on KINC in early-mid 1975 and fairly soon after had made some serious enemies at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
In March of 1977, a year after I'd left Bishop for Ukiah, the DWP, which owned the land KINC's tower was on, told Sinofsky that he could either have his tower lease renewed or Bennett and Heston doing his news, but not both. He fired them.
They spent the next five years running a newsletter and in 1982, with local investors, leased Channel 12 on the Bishop cable to do local news. In 1996, again, with the help of investors, they launched KDAY-FM (now KSRW) and the TV and online operation followed four years later.
Heston died in 2007, his partner in 2012 and Bennett on January 2, 2015.
