CHAPTER TWO: AN INDUSTRY BEGINS
BAY AREA RADIO IN THE TWENTIES
Continued

NOTE: THIS SECTION BEGINS WITH PAGE 13 (MISSING 5 THROUGH 12)

transmitter is installed, along with two 300-foot antenna towers— one atop the Tribune building, the other on the roof of the nearby Oakland Bank of Savings; the flat-top antenna now hovers twenty stories above the intersection of 12th and Franklin Streets in downtown Oakland.

Beginning November 23, 1923, when KLX goes on the air for the first time from its new home, the station can be found at a new dial position, 508.2 meters (590 kc). At about the same time, KLX installed a remote-control "sub-station" on the campus of the University of California in Berkeley to present programs over KLX in cooperation with the University's student radio club.

(The University had briefly operated— and at this time still held a license for— its own station, KQI. It is noted that the station, which had been licensed on May 4, 1922, for 500-watt operation on 360 meters, made only one broadcast and then reverted into inactive status.)

By January 1924, KLX was designated as a Class B station and is in operation daily, except Sundays, at 7 p.m. with news and 7:30 p.m. with weather. On Tuesdays at 8 p.m. a studio program was presented; on Wednesdays at that time, "talks on educational subjects" were broadcast from Berkeley; at 8 p.m. Thursdays, "an entertainment program" was aired; while another studio program could be heard at the same time on Fridays, with "other programs as announced." KLX was also utilizing a portable point-to-point transmitter, christened with call letters KGA, to originate live "remote" broadcasts at that time.

OTHER VOICES QUIET AND LOUD

In the fall of 1923, Frank Doeing's KFCM in Richmond was placed into operation on 243.8 meters (1230 kc) and, by the next year, was operating daily from 1 - 2 p.m., with evening broadcasts on Tuesdays and Fridays between 8-9 p.m.

But, by the end of March 1924, the station at the Richmond Radio Shop fell silent, its owner reporting that although he was abandoning his Class A station license, he "will apply for a new license (for a station) at Berkeley soon." KFCM is deleted in April 1924 by the Radio Division. Frank Doeing's station in Berkeley would never be built.

But as one Richmond station departed, another rose to take its place. The Hommel Manufacturing Company, an Oakland-based machine works firm, was granted authority to operate 100-watt KFOU from Richmond in March 1924, using 254.1 meters (1180 kc).

Although few facts remain to detail the life of KFOU, it appears doubtful that any ambitious programming efforts were undertaken by the station. On March 10, 1925, about a year after it went on the air, the station is closed.

At the Warner brothers' station, KLS, which announced itself as broadcasting from "Oakland, the City of Golden Opportunities," during the early 1920s, programs could be heard from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily. On Friday nights, a musical program was aired between 8-9 p.m. On Sundays, the "Radio Church of America" broadcast could be heard from noon until 1 p.m.

The station reduced its power to fifty watts in late summer 1923, but returned to its original 250-watt level early in 1924. By late 1924, KLS would be assigned to Class A 252 meters (1190 kc).

By 1924, KQW, announcing itself as "The Voice of the Garden City," was on the air from 1-1:30 p.m. daily except Sundays, with an additional program on Wednesday evenings beginning at 8 p.m. The station was relicensed in December 1924 as a Class A station, and began to operate on 239.9 meters (1250 kc).

Shortly afterward, a government radio inspector, noting the station during a lengthy, inexplicable silent period, recommends deletion of KQW by the Radio Division. In March 1925, the station is deleted; but, amid loud protests from Herrold, the station's license is swiftly reinstated with the apologies of the Radio Division for their error.

The station returns to the air a month later, newly assigned to 225.4 meters (1330 kc) and having moved from the original Herrold College of Engineering in the Garden City Bank building to the First Baptist Church of San Jose at Second and San Antonio Streets. With KQW installed there, the church decides to apply for its own station and is granted KFVJ, to share 225.4 meters with KQW. (It may be assumed that the two stations shared a common transmitter also, although no facts are given to back this conclusion.) KFVJ broadcasts services from the church and is not operated commercially.

On July 10, 1925, three months after KFVJ went on the air, Charles David Herrold sells his pioneer station KQW to the First Baptist Church. KFVJ is discontinued, and KQW— now dubbed "The King's Quickening Word"— is given 227.1 meters (1320 kc) to operate on, while raising its power to 500 watts. On October 7, 1925, the station moves once more, this time to 230.6 meters (1300 kc).

THE GREENING OF KGO

On Monday, September 7, 1924, the Radio Division grants authority to General Electric to operate its recently-constructed station at East Oakland. The station goes on the air the next day with its inaugural broadcast, identifying itself with call letters KGO (issued in place of the unavailable KGEO— for General Electric, Oakland— requested by the company), using 1000 watts on 312.3 meters (960 kc).

KGO is the second of three General Electric stations to go on the air from coast to coast, the first in line being WGY, Schenectady, N.Y., while KOA in Denver, Colo., will be third.

J.A. Cranston is supervisor of Oakland's new Class B station, with Howard Milholland— known to his legion of Bay Area listeners as "H.M."— as the chief announcer. The station opens a studio in the St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, in June 1924, linked to the station's controls in East Oakland by "a wire under the San Francisco Bay."

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