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THE CORRECT DATE OF KFWB’S
FIRST BROADCAST
When was the first official
day of
broadcasting for KFWB? It was March 4, 1925, NOT March 3. The date has
been in doubt and has not been very well documented since 1935. The old
KFWB Website said it was March 25, 1925, but that was corrected by
2003. A book in the 1990s by Jack Warner Jr. and other members of his
family said March 3, 1925. Studio founder Jack Warner Sr.’s
autobiography also gave that date. Two more books about the Warner
Brothers movie studio published in the past ten years also give the
March 3, 1925 date, as does Wikipedia’s article on KFWB radio. But,
according to my research, that date is wrong, by one day.
The best source I have now
shows
that KFWB radio began broadcasting to Southern California and beyond on
the night of March 4, 1925 with 500 watts of power, on a wavelength of
252 meters or 1190 kilocycles on the radio dial. The source for this
date is Radio Digest magazine from Nov. 14, 1925 (page 6, page 10)
(“KFWB, Where Screen Stars Are Air Stars,” page 6.) This issue featured
an article with a special tribute to KFWB.
The article said the new radio
station went on the air March 4, 1925, by direct order of Warner
Brothers studio boss Jack Warner. This was apparently the last day in
the time frame Warner had given his team of Western Electric engineers
and studio electrician Frank Murphy to get the station built. Warner
said it had to be on the air by March 4th or else. When Warner first
announced his intent of putting a radio station on the air, he gave the
workers only 28 days to make it happen. The deadline was met, with the
station going on the air the night of March 4.
(I want to thank media historian Donna Halper for originally finding
the date for me in her personal copy of Radio Digest in 2003, for my
first article on KFWB history for LARADIO.com.)
Further, the February
12,
1925 Los Angeles Times article detailing plans by the Warner Brothers
movie studio to build a radio station stated that radio listeners would
be able to tune in on this new radio station beginning March 4.
In addition, on Sunday March
1,
1925, the Los Angeles Times ran a short article which reported KFWB
would go on the air for the first time “Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m.,”
which was March 4, 1925. Also, a newspaper story in the Santa Ana Daily
Register from February 19, 1929 said, “KFWB’s new antenna and towers
being erected on top of the Warner Brothers Theatre in Hollywood would
be used for the first time on March 4th, the fourth anniversary of
KFWB.”
And finally, the Los Angeles
Times
radio column of March 4, 1935 by Carroll Nye, features details of
KFWB’s 90-minute special program that night to celebrate its 10th
anniversary of its first broadcast on March 4, 1925.
GETTING MORE KFWB HISTORY
STRAIGHT
It has been written that KFWB
was
the first radio station to broadcast Pasadena’s New Year’s Day
Tournament of Roses Parade. However, that is not true. That honor went
to KPSN in Pasadena, on January 1, 1926. The 1,000-watt station, which
lasted only into 1931, was owned by the Pasadena Star-News newspaper at
525 East Colorado Blvd. However, there seems to be truth to the
statement that in the early-1930s, KFWB was the first station to
broadcast the annual Santa Claus Lane Parade in Hollywood, now known as
the Hollywood Christmas Parade.
Another story is that KFWB
launched
the radio career of Bing Crosby, which is only partly true. Crosby, who
had been heard on radio as part of Paul Whiteman’s Rhythm Boys on CBS
in the late-1920s, was heard over Hollywood station KMTR in 1929 until
March 26, 1930, while Whiteman’s band was filming a movie, “The King of
Jazz.” KMTR was an early CBS affiliate in 1928 and 1929, until the
network chose KHJ as its Los Angeles station, starting in January of
1930.
When the Rhythm Boys left
Whiteman’s
band, they began a new radio show over NBC from station KFI in Los
Angeles, on June 27, 1930. On July 5, 1930, they were heard only as
part of a two-hour revue over station KFWB in Hollywood. But the big
break, especially for Bing Crosby, came on July 15, 1930, but not at
KFWB. That’s when the Rhythm Boys were featured with the Gus Arnheim
Orchestra at the Hotel Ambassador’s Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Los
Angeles. Bing became a singing sensation, as his solos stole the show,
and KNX radio’s nightly two hour broadcasts made Bing famous in
California during his ten-month stint at the Grove. So, while Crosby
was heard once in 1930 on KFWB, he was heard in Los Angeles on other
stations before his broadcast over KFWB.
Also, an Internet website says
that
KFWB launched the career of future President Ronald Reagan. This is
also not exactly true. Reagan was working for WHO radio in Des Moines,
Iowa as an announcer and sportscaster in March of 1937. He traveled to
California to report on the Chicago Cubs spring training activities and
without his knowledge, a screen test was made. The test was good enough
for Warner Brothers to sign Reagan to a contract as a movie actor,
which paid more than his radio job. So, while Warner Brothers Studio
owned KFWB, it was not specifically the radio station that launched
Reagan’s acting career in Hollywood. However, the studio knew of
Reagan’s prior broadcasting experience, and he took part in a few KFWB
programs from time to time. I have more details about that later in the
article.
I also ran across a book on
early
talking pictures that said KFWB was only the third radio station on the
air in Los Angeles. This statement is certainly not true. When KFWB
started operating in 1925, there were already 11 stations on the air in
the Los Angeles area and 8 of them were within the Los Angeles city
limits.
- Jim Hilliker, 2015
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