What's happening at KTWV "The Wave"?

[Thomps2525]

KPOL was named for its owner, John Poole. I suppose KPOL sounded a lot nicer than KPOO. Poole also founded KBIG-740 AM (now KBRT) on Catalina Island. In the mid-1960s he owned Channel 22, KPOL-TV (now KWHY). Poole would later buy tv stations in Flint and Providence.

 

[davideduardo]

A very astute observation, and your conclusion is the most likely correct. The old KPOL had a signal which was among the first in the market to become non-viable for anything mass appeal.

However, it is strong enough in the areas with a high Korean population to be near-perfect for its present format.

Yes... and it went through an intermediate period in Spanish, but the suburbanization of Hispanics proved that the signal was inadequate even for that use. So it changed, for a while, to Sporting News Radio and the went to Korean.

 

[Thomps2525]

An old KPOL "Down With The Dodgers" advertisement notes that KPOL was the most-listened-to station in three dayparts but was beaten in two dayparts by "the Dodger station." Look at the clothing (and the bow tie). I'm guessing that this ad is from 1958, the Dodgers' first year in Los Angeles. Their games were carried by KMPC in 1958-59, then moved to KFI.

http://fadedsignals.com/post/52750384351/kpol-los-angeles-signed-on-in-1952-at-1540-am

 

[K.M. Richards]

KPOL was named for its owner, John Poole. I suppose KPOL sounded a lot nicer than KPOO. Poole also founded KBIG-740 AM (now KBRT) on Catalina Island. In the mid-1960s he owned Channel 22, KPOL-TV (now KWHY). Poole would later buy tv stations in Flint and Providence.

Nope, Steve. Sorry. Poole sold what was KBIC-TV (which never transmitted anything but a test pattern, starting in late 1953) in 1963 and it became KIIX for just under one year before going dark.

Channel 22 was then sold to Hugh Murchison, who owned KPOL-AM/FM, and he put it back on the air as KPOL-TV in 1965. When Murchison retired the following year, he sold the radio stations to Capital Cities and the television station to his partners, who renamed it KWHY-TV and inaugurated the daytime business news format that ran for another 33 years.

Poole was, however, the majority owner of KNJO/92.7 in Thousand Oaks for ten years (mid-1970 to late 1980).

 

[davideduardo]

An old KPOL "Down With The Dodgers" advertisement notes that KPOL was the most-listened-to station in three dayparts but was beaten in two dayparts by "the Dodger station." Look at the clothing (and the bow tie). I'm guessing that this ad is from 1958, the Dodgers' first year in Los Angeles. Their games were carried by KMPC in 1958-59, then moved to KFI.

http://fadedsignals.com/post/52750384351/kpol-los-angeles-signed-on-in-1952-at-1540-am

I recommend checking www.fadedsignals.com regularly as it is a fun read. Each article takes an ad from Broadcasting Magazine and then gives a bit of the history of the station or broadcaster who ran the ad in the past.

(There is also a podcast interview with yours truly, in case anyone really cares)

 

[sweetbabylee]

What's happening at KTWV "The Wave"?

 

[K.M. Richards]

What's happening at KTWV "The Wave"?

Obviously, nothing worth discussing, given the way this thread quickly went off in other directions. Was true when this thread was started back in July, is still true now.

All that is happening there is what has been happening there for several years now. The once-unique station has lost its sense of identity and is trying all kinds of tweaks and overhauls in hopes of regaining some prominence in the market.

 

[TheBigA]

The once-unique station has lost its sense of identity and is trying all kinds of tweaks and overhauls in hopes of regaining some prominence in the market.

It's an interesting lesson for programmers to learn when they turn a musical genre into a radio format, and that genre becomes stagnant. Big mistake.

 

[Thomps2525]

K.M., thank you for clarifying the ownership of the short-lived KPOL-TV. Do you know why the original Channel 22 (KBIC) never went on the air? On the Earth Signals site---not to be confused with the Faded Signals site---there is a page of photos taken by KPOL engineer Marvin Collins showing many of the air personalities of the late 1950s and early '60s. One photo shows newsman Lew Irwin, who would later become news director at KRLA and form the satirical news troupe The Credibility Gap.

http://www.earthsignals.com/Collins/0025/

Who would like to rename this thread "The KPOL Discussion"?

 

[K.M. Richards]

K.M., thank you for clarifying the ownership of the short-lived KPOL-TV. Do you know why the original Channel 22 (KBIC) never went on the air?

I can speculate, based on Poole's other early ventures into television.

Poole put channel 53 on the air in Fresno as KBID-TV for five months in 1954 before taking it dark, saying that "the refusal of the networks to affiliate" was the reason (a common cause of failure in the early days of UHF). He also held a construction permit for channel 46 in Sacramento, which was to be KBIE-TV, but surrendered it in 1955.

Obviously the failure in Fresno was the reason he didn't try in the even smaller Sacramento market. But he likely thought there was potential in Los Angeles, if he could hold on long enough. So he kept channel 22 on the air (and technically, it was considered to be "operating") for nine years with nothing but the station ID slide airing (even operating at lower power in 1960-61 when he sold the transmitter's power amplifiers to KNBS-TV in Walla Walla, taking them back when that station failed in less than one year).

It is significant to note that even after Poole sold KBIC-TV and it officially began airing programming as KIIX, channel 22 went dark after one year and stayed dark for another year after that before becoming KPOL-TV, likely being supported by revenues from the radio stations. The only reason Murchison's partners bought the station was because they had the business news idea in mind, and had it not been for that the station probably would have gone dark again ... who knows for how long?

In 1970, they gave up operating in the evening, other than on weekends, and it wasn't until the beginning 1972 that they brokered out the Sunday evening hours to Korean and Japanese language programmers (and the rest of the week wasn't brokered out until mid-year, to Spanish language programmers). SelecTV didn't come along until mid-1978, so if they'd gone dark in 1966 it might have been a dozen years before it went back on the air.

 

[michael hagerty]

I can speculate, based on Poole's other early ventures into television.

Poole put channel 53 on the air in Fresno as KBID-TV for five months in 1954 before taking it dark, saying that "the refusal of the networks to affiliate" was the reason (a common cause of failure in the early days of UHF). He also held a construction permit for channel 46 in Sacramento, which was to be KBIE-TV, but surrendered it in 1955.

Obviously the failure in Fresno was the reason he didn't try in the even smaller Sacramento market.

KM: I had to check, since currently, Sacramento is a much larger TV market than Fresno (Sacramento is #20, Fresno #54). So I pulled up the historical U.S. Census population data for California cities and counties.

In 1950, Sacramento County had 277,140 residents...Fresno 276,515. Factor in the surrounding counties for both cities that would make up a TV market and Sacramento still held a slim lead. That evaporated in the 1960 census when Sacramento County nearly doubled its population and Fresno only gained about 90,000.

 

[kzpo]

From what I heard from those who had UHF in those days KIIX broadcast all black programs.

 

[K.M. Richards]

In 1950, Sacramento County had 277,140 residents...Fresno 276,515. Factor in the surrounding counties for both cities that would make up a TV market and Sacramento still held a slim lead.

With that in mind, I would have to hazard a guess that Poole's thought process was that the failure in Fresno, where the only competition was all-UHF (except for KFRE-TV on channel 12), would have been worse in Sacramento, a market of approximately equal size -- funny, I could have sworn Fresno was larger ... oh, well -- with KCCC-TV/40 already fighting to stay afloat as its network affiliations were stolen away by the new VHFs as they came on the air.

Poole surrendered the channel 46 CP shortly after KCRA/3 signed on and took NBC, and around the time KBET/10 came on the air and took CBS, so those two occurrences must have caused him to see the handwriting on the wall. And in fact, he was right, as KOVR/13 took ABC away from channel 40 two years later after moving from Mt. Diablo to Butte Mountain.

KCCC-TV itself ceased operation when the ABC affiliation moved, and if Poole saw that coming he could easily see that he was in for a repeat of Fresno if he went on the air.

BTW, the channel 46 allocation was replaced by channel 56 in the 1965 allocation table revision, then became channel 15 in the further revisions a year later to accommodate a channel 58 allocation in Stockton. Channel 40 was moved to channel 29 in 1965, then back to channel 40 when the permittees of KTXL were unable to find a transmitter site that worked on the new allocation. The channel 15 allocation was replaced with channel 31 from Stockton in 1972 when the FCC was going through the land-mobile reallocations of the low UHF channels. Channel 29 was subsequently re-added to the allocation table in 1981.

Are you dizzy yet?

 

[K.M. Richards]

From what I heard from those who had UHF in those days KIIX broadcast all black programs.

They did. Details will be in the History of UHF Television site's article, soon.

 

[radio128]

I recommend checking www.fadedsignals.com regularly as it is a fun read. Each article takes an ad from Broadcasting Magazine and then gives a bit of the history of the station or broadcaster who ran the ad in the past.

(There is also a podcast interview with yours truly, in case anyone really cares)

Well after more than 28,000 posts, David, we finally get to hear what you sound like. The podcast was very informative. Your website is amazing. Hearing you talk I am reminded of the old saying, "You can take the boy out of Cleveland but you can't take Cleveland out of the boy."

 

[semoochie]

Well after more than 28,000 posts, David, we finally get to hear what you sound like. The podcast was very informative. Your website is amazing. Hearing you talk I am reminded of the old saying, "You can take the boy out of Cleveland but you can't take Cleveland out of the boy."

This is almost like "Harpo Speaks!"

 

[davideduardo]

Well after more than 28,000 posts, David, we finally get to hear what you sound like.

Then you'll understand why I did not make a career on the air!!

The podcast was very informative. Your website is amazing. Hearing you talk I am reminded of the old saying, "You can take the boy out of Cleveland but you can't take Cleveland out of the boy."

It helps that I didn't live anywhere afterwards where English was the language I regularly spoke.

 

[Thomps2525]

Ain't it fun to get off topic? Mister semoochie, I have a copy of that Harpo Marx book. It came out in 1961 and was reprinted in 2004. In 2010, Harpo's son Bill---who has had an amazing career of his own---wrote Son Of Harpo Speaks. Those who knew Harpo described his voice as deep and professional-sounding. Bill said that Harpo didn't talk much at home, preferring to listen and observe.

http://www.amazon.com/Son-Harpo-Spe...m_sbs_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1SNVZ5JHPS84A5G1FC7W

 

[semoochie]

Ain't it fun to get off topic? Mister semoochie, I have a copy of that Harpo Marx book. It came out in 1961 and was reprinted in 2004. In 2010, Harpo's son Bill---who has had an amazing career of his own---wrote Son Of Harpo Speaks. Those who knew Harpo described his voice as deep and professional-sounding. Bill said that Harpo didn't talk much at home, preferring to listen and observe.

http://www.amazon.com/Son-Harpo-Spe...m_sbs_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1SNVZ5JHPS84A5G1FC7W

I do like "You Tube": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19prL2ue4pk

 

[Thomps2525]

I don't recognize the fourth Marx Brother in that picture. Was that Zeppo or was it Gummo?

I have heard that Harpo spoke a few words in the 1958 adaptation of Victor Herbert's 1903 musical comedy
The Red Mill. It was an episode of CBS-TV's DuPont Show Of The Month and starred Shirley Jones and Donald O'Connor. Does anyone know if Harpo really spoke during that telecast? I've never seen it and I can't verify that he did speak. In At The Circus, Harpo sneezed loudly but I don't know if that was really Harpo's voice or if someone else provided the sneeze. Harpo's wife Susan said that Harpo would always elicit gales of laughter when he appeared at a banquet or convention because he would step up to the podium and start out, "Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking....."