The Journal of San Diego History
SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
Winter 1980, Volume 26, Number 1
Thomas L. Scharf, Editor
By MARIE BRENN CRANE
A Master of Science graduate in Mass Communication
From San Diego State University
Although Dr. Lee DeForest had operated a wireless “radio” station in downtown San Diego as early as 1906, to be followed by the United States Navy facility on Point Loma during that same year, the development of commercial radio in San Diego did not follow until the early 1920.1 Amateur wireless operators interfering with military communications and World War I had caused the government to place wireless facilities under its control with Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover in charge. It was February 1920 before the government relinquished any control of the airwaves, and then only two frequencies were made available to citizens who wished to broadcast. 360 meters (833.3 kilocycles) was for news, entertainment and lectures; and 485 meters (618.6 kilocycles) was for broadcasting government information such as weather reports.2
The airwaves were quickly filling and interference, overlapping and pandemonium ensued. The air resembled a tower of babble. When radio station KDKA Pittsburgh announced the Harding-Cox presidential election returns, radio had its practical beginning.3 This new communication medium, radio, was providing news, weather reports, culture and entertainment, all free. It was an exciting time in our nation’s history.
A station in New York, WEAF, soon devised a method to cover broadcasting costs, and thus the first commercial was heard.4
Broadcasters recognized the need for regulations and appealed to Secretary Hoover. He subsequently called a series of four radio conferences, beginning in 1922, which resulted in the creation of the Federal Radio Act of 1927 and its five member regulatory commission. Later President Franklin Delano Roosevelt would call for further clarity in broadcasting regulation, and Congress created the Federal Communications Act of 1934 with its seven member Federal Communications Commission (FCC).5
This, then, was the climate in which commercial radio in San Diego began its development. On January 1, 1922 there were only thirty licensed commercial radio stations in the nation. By the next year, however, the number had grown to 556.6 In San Diego, a city of 75,000, nine stations were licensed and began broadcasting in 1922. The first station, KON, was built by Jack Wiseman of Alpine and put into operation late in 1921 but officially licensed in 1922. Later came KDPT, licensed to the Union-Tribune Publishing Company and the Southern Electrical Company. Soon KYF began broadcasting in the Thearle Music Company, KDYM in the Savoy Theatre, KDYO for Carlson & Simpson Company, KFBC (KGB) in a home in Normal Heights, KEN and KFFA were owned and operated by doctors Banks and Shelton, and finally KVU was put into operation by the Boulevard Express Company.7
Broadcasting costs were high in 1922 and financing and equipment difficult to obtain; thus, of the nine stations originating that year only KFBC (KGB) remained on the air.
Long-time residents, including pioneers in San Diego broadcasting, do not agree as to which is the older of the two continuously licensed stations; KGB or KOGO. The records clearly indicate that KGB is the older. The confusion as to which came first arises in part from the fact that KGB began broadcasting as KFBC, “The Normal Heights Station,” on Friday, July 14, 1922, and did not become KGB until 1927.8 Further confusion is also understandable; for KFVW, the second continuously licensed radio station in San Diego, first aired on June 3, 1925 at a frequency of 1220 kilocycles with 500 watts of power, only to leave the air before the end of the year. The station resumed operations in March, 1926, at its new location atop the U.S. Grant Hotel. One month later KFVW’s call letters were changed to KFSD. This station became KOGO on February 15, 1961.9
W.K. Azbill was the owner-builder-operator of KFBC, a 10-watt station which operated on the available 360 meter wavelength. Since federal regulation did not yet exist, the station shared air time with the other small stations then operating in the city. Wayne Prather remembers Azbill’s station as a “crazy, homemade set-up,” adding that these pioneers used old telephone parts and anything available in building these early stations.10 KFBC was located at 5038 Cliff Place, and operated initially on “Limited Commercial” license number 549.11
The station remained in operation in Azbill’s Normal Heights residence at its original 10 watts of power until early 1923, at which time power was raised to 20 watts. Power and frequency changes occurred often among these small early stations, for licenses were issued by the Department of Commerce every three months during the confusing years before the FRA came into being. Not only were there many stations, but also there was much frequency-overlapping in the scramble for air space. The year 1924 brought numerous power changes to KFBC. In February, the little station returned to its original 10-watt level, but resumed power of 20 watts two months later.
By this time KFBC had become a “Class A” station and in May was assigned to operate on 278 meters (equal to 1080 kilocycles), using a power of 15 watts. Hours of operation were now Thursdays and Sundays from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and included the broadcast of a sermon on Sundays.12
Available records do not indicate reasons, but in July licensed power was again reduced, this time to 5 watts.13
In the spring of the following year, 1925, the kilocycle assignment was 1340 and licensed power was again increased to 10 watts. No more changes occurred until early 1926, when KFBC was shifted to 1390 kilocycles and licensed in February to 30 watts of power.14
Station ownership also changed frequently over the years. In September 1926 the Union League Club of San Diego County “acquired” KFBC from Azbill “through the lease of all operating hours,” according to the only records located. The records further indicate that later in 1926, Arthur Wells Yale, M.D., “acquired all Union League holdings, including the radio station.” No mention was made of sales or prices involved in these acquisitions. Still later in 1926 the station moved downtown to the Balboa Theatre Building. Dr. Yale took charge of programming and used KFBC to air his political views.15
A new dial position of 1210 kilocycles was assigned to the station in June 1927 by the newly created Federal Radio Commission, and the power was raised to 100 watts. At this time, rival station KFSD was assigned to 680 kilocycles, operating on 500 watts of power. In August 1927, Dr. Yale became the sole licensee.16
In November of this same year, KFBC moved to 207 Electric Building, on Ash Street between Seventh and Eighth Streets. Station records indicate that “at about this time, KFBC became a commercial enterprise with the hiring of George Bowles as Station Manager”; and that on March 27, 1928, as a result of a change requested by Bowles on behalf of Dr. Yale, call letters were changed to KGB.17 By June 1928 Bowles had risen to Vice President as well as Station Manager, and on July 11, 1928 KGB was sold by Dr. Yale to the Pickwick Stages System. Pickwick owned bus lines and hotels on the Pacific Coast, and the new owners subsequently formed the Pickwick Broadcasting Corporation to operate their new stations. KGB’s slogan at this time was “The Voice of Sunny San Diego.” Studios and transmitter were moved to the Pickwick Terminal Hotel Building at the corner of First and Broadway, where the station remained until 1944.18 Pickwick Broadcasting Corporation subsequently formed a three-station “chain” including KNRC-LA and KTAB-SF.19
From this point, KGB’s history becomes even more confusing, for sales and affiliations occurred rapidly, as follows:
December 1928: KGB became an affiliate of the Don Lee-owned chain.
January 1929: KGB licensee became Pickwick Broadcasting System.
August 1929: Don Lee chain affiliated with nationwide Columbia chain (KGB thereafter a full-time CBS-Don Lee affiliate).
May 1931: KGB was sold by Pickwick Broadcasting Corporation to Don Lee, Inc.
August 1932: KGB licensee became Don Lee Broadcasting System, Inc.
1936: Don Lee (and KGB) joined Mutual Broadcasting System and dropped the CBS affiliate.20
At the time that KGB became a CBS-Don Lee affiliate the station had an air slogan of “Music for the Sick,” intended to reflect the interest in programming for those who were unable to leave their beds or homes.21
Chain affiliation brought nationwide recognition to the station, with Broadcasting Advertising of May 1929 announcing a staff addition, stating that
Ernest L. Landsberg, formerly with KFWC, Pomona, California, . . . has been appointed sales manager of the Pickwick Broadcasting Corporation, owners of KGB San Diego . . . . Luther L. Putnam, formerly with national exploitation and publicity department of Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation, New York, is now in the sales department, and writing some of the continuity for KGB.22
The same trade magazine listed commercial radio stations and their time on the air, with the additional information that Robert G. Binyon was manager “full time” of KGB.23
The San Diego Union reported the sale of KGB to Don Lee, Inc. as occurring on May 9, 1931 and added that the station was to join CBS. Mr. Don Lee was quoted, as well as program contents for the dedicatory program to be aired that day. Lee predicted that San Diego was on the threshold of its greatest growth era. Programs to be heard included the Sunkist Musical Cocktail, Gus Arnheim’s band, Sierra Symphonies, and something entitled “Social Growth.” The newspaper also added that Binyon would be Station Manager.24
The San Diego unit of CBS-Don Lee, KGB, was taken over in 1932 by C. Ellsworth Wylie. Power was raised to 1000 watts by the end of that year, and KGB was well launched into its second decade of broadcasting.25
As the decade of the 1930s began, KGB’s programming was being aimed at a diversified audience. The local newspaper recorded the program for each day. The following sample indicates a partial listing for one day, August 19, 1930:
7-7:30 am. The Lark 7:30-9 am. Sponsored programs 9-9:15 am. Health Talk 7:45-8 pm. Chiropractic program 8-9 pm. Highway Highlights 9-10 pm. Male quartet26
The first eight years of radio station KFBC (KGB) revealed a series of growing pains, including both successes and failures, with those involved in its operation learning the commercial radio business from day to day. During the 1930s, KGB was in a secure position financially and the station had enough power to reach a large audience. It was also in the 1930s that innovation in programming emerged, and talented announcers and writers trained at KGB began leaving to become even more successful in New York and Hollywood. In addition, San Diego was considered an excellent market by advertisers due to the large Navy population.27
Jack Bailey began his broadcasting career at KGB early in the 1930s. Lincoln Dellar became Station Manager in 1933; and during his tenure, the staff included neophyte broadcaster Arthur Gordon Linkletter. Linkletter was first an announcer in 1933, Program Director in 1934, and Station Manager by 1936. Gary Breckner was Program Director when Linkletter joined KGB. It was at KGB that Art Linkletter originated the “Man on the Street” shows, “which began the deluge of audience participation shows of all kinds-quiz, stunt, and talk.”28 Further contributions, not all noteworthy, of this famous broadcasting personality included broadcasts from Balboa Park during the Exposition in 1935, and a series:
My first series, which I helped to sell, write and announce, was the Benbough Mortuary Bulletin of the Air, which was a five minute, twice weekly show announcing events of interest around town involving clubs and other groups’ celebrations. My career almost ended right there when my unbridled laughter over something carried over into a cremation, burial, and entombment commercial — which the sponsor was listening to. Mr. Dellar saved my neck and I went on to better things.29
Although Linkletter left San Diego for radio work in Dallas for the Texas Centennial in 1936, he came back to stage his radio show “People Are Funny” at the Fox Theater in May 1947, as a benefit sponsored by the Thursday Club.30 He performed a similar service for the Lions Club in 1950.31
Sidney W. “Sid” Fuller replaced Art Linkletter as Station Manager of KGB in the spring of 1936; and in June, Don Lee joined the Mutual Broadcasting System, dropping the CBS affiliation.32
Programming during the early thirties included numerous live, local shows, such as contests for a role in a movie, Hollywood Hotel. Naomi Woodruff won in San Diego, but she placed second in the final contest in San Francisco.33 “Keyboard Varieties” was a popular program on Friday mornings, sponsored by Westgate Sea Products Company. Gary Breckner, the new Program Director, was the Master of Ceremonies for this program.34
CBS published a brochure on “Day and Night CBS Listening Areas” in 1935, stating that KGB (by now 1330 kilocycles, 2500 watts daytime and 1000 watts evening) “has swiftly risen to first place in popularity and prestige in the San Diego market. . . . KGB proved to have an audience consistently 60% greater than the next most popular station.” The promotion continues:
KGB is particularly effective in getting advertising returns from its responsive audience because of the active support it has won from dealers throughout the San Diego territory.
The city is the center of the third largest market area in California, and the fifth on the Pacific Coast. Army and navy activities in San Diego, with a personnel of 20,000 whose annual pay-roll alone amounts to $24,000,000, help maintain the high-above-the-average retail purchasing power of the city and KGB’s audience.35
The following year, KGB, as noted earlier, dropped the CBS affiliation and joined MBS. Programs for shut-ins began in 1935, being broadcast on the fourth Friday of each month, with visitors welcomed to the studios. It was this audience that prompted the station’s slogan of “Music for the Sick.”36 Much publicity attended another of KGB’s programs involving the handicapped. A program was broadcast entirely by blind persons reading from a Braille script in 1937, an innovation thought praiseworthy by the local press.37
Thearle Music Company, a familiar name in music and broadcast advertising circles by this time, sponsored “Fun at the Piano” beginning July 19, 1937. Store owner Harry E. Callaway informed the newspaper of this new program.38
During the mid-1930s another KGB personality was earnestly working his way up the broadcasting ladder. Larry Rhine, later to become head writer for the television show “All in the Family,” said that Lincoln Dellar hired him as a combination writer-announcer “for purposes of being paid one salary instead of two.” At this time the station was “on the first two floors of the Pickwick Hotel, entering from the side street off Broadway to the reception and business office, then upstairs to a large broadcast studio and compact announce booth.” Harry Witt (later to become Manager) was Business Manager, Bob Elliott was a Time Salesman, and announcers were Gary Breckner, Jim Dillon, and the younger men Hal Chambers, Art Linkletter and Larry Rhine. Rhine created his own early morning show, “The Seven O’clock Club,” spun records “and initiated those who wrote in to be Early Birds.” Rhine also wrote and produced “Public Enemies,” which “dramatized the onslaught of villainous germs against heroic bloodstreams.” He was even “somehow connected” with “The Bathmat Revue,” “Five Minutes with Big Five” — “a rather interesting explainer of how things like the word ‘candidate’ came to be . . . .,” “Pioneers on Parade,” “To the Ladies,” and “my own giant creation of ‘Baron Gonkerdonk and his Helpful Hints to the Housewife.'” On this show, Rhine recalls that: “Came Thanksgiving and I’d be deluged with requests for recipes for the turkey which I hashed up literally and figuratively.”
Facilities in these days were crude by today’s standards. Rhine explains:
The announce booth had a panel for punching in or out the CBS network, the booth mike, or the hanging-from-the ceiling carbon mikes in the big studio. To the announcer’s right were twin hand-spin turntables with knobbed gains under each platter so you could seque from one 78 record to another. To the announcer’s left were “transcription” tables for the 33 1/3‘s, with a large dial gain on the wall.
There was a button on the panel which you could double-buzz for the engineer on the roof to fade out the network, if it was a sustaining program, and fade in what we would broadcast locally.”39
On occasion, KGB would originate to the entire CBS network, plus Canada. Rhine remembers that “we announcers vied to be heard coast-to-coast, and we shouted a little to make sure we’d be heard that far away.” There were exciting moments, such as during an earthquake which caused the hanging mikes to swing “like pendula looking for clocks.” On another occasion, while Rhine was announcing a remote from Gay’s Lion Farm, the owner opened the lion’s cage in front of the now-nervous broadcaster.
Rhine recalls spinning dance records from midnight to one, except on “Sunday nights classical music because Don Lee wanted it that way.” Rhine’s sign-off was Longfellow’s “The Day is Done.” Becoming weary of reciting the same poem every night, he took matters into his own hands:
. . . . I scribbled out one myself, horribly cliche, about the moon gleaming o’er the wave crests, and when listeners called in to rave over the sheer beauty of it all, I told them it was written by Shelley or Keats or whoever I happened to think of. And they bought it!40
“All in the Family” gained, and KGB has lost Larry Rhine; but this talented writer remembers KGB as “one of the early loves” of his life.
By 1936, Lewis Allen Weiss was General Manager of all Don Lee — owned West Coast stations, including MBS-affiliated KGB. By mid-1938, KGB was in daily operation from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m., Sunday from 8:00 to midnight. The station was expanding so rapidly that in 1939 it requested FCC permission to raise power to 5000 watts and relocate its transmitter and antenna. The permit was issued on November 27, 1939, but allowed to expire in 1940.41
A name well-remembered and a personality much-loved and respected in San Diego radio circles was that of the late Molly Morse, who began what was to be a twenty-six-year career in broadcasting in 1938 at KGB. Her program was devoted to women’s interests, and was very popular. In a program schedule for the week of June 9, 1946, a notation followed the listing of her program, stating “women’s interest participation program limited to three sponsors daily.”42
As a result of the NARBA (North American Regional Broadcast Agreement) Treaty frequency reallocations, KGB’s dial position was altered on March 29, 1941 from 1330 to 1350 kilocycles. Sidney W. Fuller was now Station Manager of this Don Lee Mutual station. San Diego radio expansion was seriously affected by World War II, and programming took on a war theme wherever possible. The Navy used station KGB for ship signal guidance during the war. F.D. Ide, known as “Fran,” became Station Manager in 1942, and recalled that the local stations cooperated and worked together to further the war effort. KGB originated a show that was heard coast to coast which featured the Marines. The Ide family still has the certificate of award that KGB received for this program. These military shows emanated from the Marine Corps Recruit Depot and the Naval Training Center, and featured important movie stars of the day such as Ginger Rogers, Henry Fonda and Tyrone Power.43
KGB, according to Ide, was the number one station in San Diego at this time. The market, Ide continued, was very good. Automobile dealers furnished a great deal of advertising revenue, with J.R. Townsend and City Chevrolet the largest advertisers.44 Among those with whom Ide worked were Beth Mohr, Traffic Manager from 1941 to 1947; and “Hobby” Myers, who became Commercial Manager in 1945. Both Mohr and Myers are now well-known newspaper personalities. When Myers left KGB to work for KFMB, he took the popular Molly Morse with him.45 “Molly” was subsequently fired from KFMB in 1964, when the station management decided to employ all males.46
Another well-remembered personality in San Diego radio is John Paul Jones, known as Paul.47 Jones went from KFSD to KGB in 1940. He left to enter the Armed Forces in 1941, but returned to KGB for two more years in 1945. He was a respected newscaster, and had become known for his signoff slogan of many years: “It’s a privilege to live in the United States.” An Ocean Beach fan, Richard E. Weeks, wrote a penny postcard on February 23, 1946 to Jones in care of KGB, San Diego, California, which stated:
When the war began, there was a newscaster who always wound up with this remark. This is John Paul Jones reminding you that it’s a privilege to live in the USA. Now I have been hearing the same clear voice, and I’m glad you are back again at your old job.
Salaries were never very high for the employees of the radio stations; and as well-known and experienced as Jones was, his highest salary in broadcasting was $130 per month.48
Management at KGB was interested in establishing a broadcasting site, including transmitter, in Balboa Park in 1941. The plan was strenuously protested by citizens, and the City Council received so many letters in opposition to the proposal that they repeatedly postponed their final decision, as reported almost daily in the newspapers. Finally, due to citizen objections, KGB withdrew its request and dropped “for the present” its expansion plans.49
Studio location did vary slghtly, however, in late 1944, with a move to 1017 First Avenue. KGB’s licensee, the Don Lee Broadcasting System, was transferred to the Don Lee Holding Company in 1947; and by 1950, ownership of KGB’s license had passed to Thomas S. Lee Enterprises, Inc. The FCC approved a major station sale on December 27, 1950 in which all stock in Thomas S. Lee Enterprises, Inc. — including the Don Lee network, a 19 percent interest in the Mutual Broadcasting System, and its group of radio stations plus a Los Angeles television station — was acquired for $12,320,000 by the Akron, Ohio-based General Tire and Rubber Company. The East Coast-based Yankee Network (similar to the Don Lee network) was also acquired at this time.50
The new ownership assumed control on New Year’s Day 1951, and West Coast broadcasting veteran Wilt Gunzendorfer was appointed KGB General Manager. Other well-known San Diegans became involved in operation of KGB, with the late Marion R. Harris becoming General Manager in 1952. More changes in licensee name occurred, with Harris becoming lessee in 1954; and licensee name became KGB, Inc. in 1956.51 Bob Regan, now with the San Diego Unified School District, had been with KGB since 1954; and in the late fifties Harris, by now President as well as General Manager, appointed Regan Station Manager. Subsequently, Regan became Vice President and Station Manager.52 Fred Lewis was KGB News Director from 1963 to 1968, “when the station made the interesting transition from ABC Middle of the Road to Rock and Roll Music.”53 Later, the format was changed to Mellow Music.
Today KGB, San Diego’s oldest continuously licensed broadcast station, is an independent station broadcasting twenty-four hours a day at 1360 kilocycles with 5000 watts of power by day and 1000 watts of power by night. Studios are at 4141 Pacific Highway. The city’s second and third oldest continuously licensed stations, KOGO (KFSD) and KFMB, are also 5000 watt stations in operation around the clock.
KGB established another first in San Diego broadcasting. It was the first radio station to enter “chain”, or network, broadcasting with its first affiliation in 1928. KFSD joined the NBC Blue network in 1929, and no other local station began broadcasting until August 1941 when KFMB went on the air as an independent station. The records indicate that KGB has survived in broadcasting through serious-minded management teams who were determined to succeed in broadcasting, and from numerous sales and early network affiliation which expanded programming and advertising markets.
NOTES
1. The exact installation date is lost. The Amereican DeForest Wireless Telegraph Company was listed in the Directory of the Home Telephone Company of San Diego, California (San Diego: n.p., 1906), p. 7; and in Dana Burks, San Diego City and County Directory 1906 (San Diego: San Diego Directory Co., Inc., 1906), p. 53; G.F. “Jerry MacMullen,” San Diego Union, March 12, 1967, sec. G-2, p. 1:3; (Author does not document his source) and San Diego Union, May 12, 1906.
2. Erik Barnouw, A Tower in Babel: A History of Broadcasting in the United States to 1933 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966), p. 91, citing U.S. Department of Commerce, Radio Division, Radio Service Bulletin, April 1, 1922.
3. Sydney W. Head, Broadcasting in America, 3rd ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1976), pp. 109-10.
4. Time-Life Books, ed., This Fabulous Century, Vol. 111: 1920-1930 (New York: Time-Life Books, 1969), p. 101.
5. Head, Broadcasting in America, p. 132.
6. Broadcasting Yearbook 1977 (Washington, D.C.: Broadcasting Publications, 1977), p. C-112.
7. Marie Brenn Crane, “The Development of Commercial Radio in San Diego to 1950” (Master’s Thesis, San Diego State University, 1977), pp. 28-29 and p. 151.
8. Broadcast Pro-File, “Station Profile of KGB,” Los Angeles, California, 1976. (Typewritten.) Information obtained from Radio Division records, National Archives and FCC documents, p. 1.
9. “KOGO History,” [San Diego, California], n.d. (Mimeographed.); Radio Division records cited in First Decade of American Broadcasting: 1920-1930 (New York: Broadcast Pioneers, 1958), p. 31; letter to KFSD, Inc. from Ben W. Waple, Acting Secretary, FCC, January 25, 1961. Reference number 7000.
10. Interview, Wayne Prather, July 26, 1977; Broadcast Pro-File, “Profile of KGB,” p. 1.
11. Broadcast Pro-File, “Profile of KGB,” p. 1.
12. KGB files of Rick Leibert, researched from Commercial & Government Radio Stations of the United States, issued by the Department of Commerce, Radio Service, 1976; Broadcast Pro-File, “Profile of KGB,” p. 1.
13. Broadcast Pro-File, “Station Profile of KGB,” p. 1.
14. Ibid. See also Note 9.
15. Broadcast Pro-File, “Profile of KGB,” p. 1.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. KGB has a history of programming with concern for handicapped persons, as will be described later.
22. Broadcast Advertising, May 1929, p. 32.
23. Ibid., April 1930, p. 18.
24. San Diego Union, November 5, 1930, p. 11-6:1, May 8, 1931, p. 1:7.
25. Ibid., October 22, 1932, p. 2:2.
26. San Diego Union, August 19, 1930.
27. Interview with Hobby Myers of the Sentinel, in Pacific Beach, San Diego, July 11, 1977.
28. Letter from Art Linkletter, November 24, 1976.
29. Ibid.
30. San Diego Union, April 1, 1936, p. 5:8; May 25, 1947, p. F-2:4.
31. Ibid., February 19, 1950.
32. San Diego Union, April 1, 1936, p. 5:8; June 8, 1936, p. 2:6.
33. Ibid., August 4, 1934, p. 8:3.
34. Ibid., June 6, 1934, p. 5:2.
35. Day and Night Listening Area (n.p.: 1935).
36. San Diego Union, January 12, 1936, p. 11-2:1.
37. Ibid., November 29, 1937, p. 10:1.
38. Ibid., July 8, 1937, p. 9:2.
39. Letter from Larry Rhine, July 14, 1977.
40. Ibid.
41. Broadcast Pro-File, “Station Profile of KGB,” p. 2.
42. KGB Program Schedule: Week of June 9, 1946 (New York: John Blair & Co., 1946), n.d.
43. Interview with Beth Mohr of the San Diego Union, July 19, 1977.
44. Interview with Fran Ide of La Mesa, July 12, 1977. Ide, now retired, is highly respected in San Diego radio circles. Former employees comment on his expertise and kindness.
45. Interview, Myers.
46. Frank Rhoades, San Diego Union, May 27, 1970, p. B-2:1-2.
47. Interview with John Paul Jones and his wife, the former Loomis Nolen, July 11, 1977.
48. Ibid. Verbal information substantiated by Internal Revenue Service records of Jones.
49. San Diego Union, 8, 13, 14, August 20, 1941; October 9, 1941, p. 1:34.
50. Ibid., December 28, 1950, p. 4:1.
51. Interview with Mrs. Marion Harris, November 1976 and June 1977; Interview with Joe Harris of Potrero, son of Mrs. Marion Harris, November 1976.
52. Interview with Bob Regan, former Station Manager of KGB, November 10, 1976.
53. Interview with Fred Lewis, former News Director of KGB, November 10, 1976.
