Check out an ancient film of KOMO KJR (Seattle) radio from 1937. It's dated, but quite enjoyable. I'm not sure how to link directly to the clip (I'm still a bit low-tech), but go to komotv.com, scroll down and click on "Joes Vault: State of the Art, 72 years ago."

Go to their website, pull up the page you are talking about, copy it and paste it into a post on this list. It's something that anyone smart enough to log on to a computer should be able to do.

There is no such site as komotv.com. You enter that in your address bar and it automatically goes to komonews.com. No biggie. But, I went all over that page and could not find anything closely resembling what you are talking about.

Help us out please.

Well, my apologies are in order. Upon further review, there it is, right there on the website's front page. To save everyone the effort, clicky dis:

http://www.komonews.com/news/vault/41752307.html

You can thank me later.

Try http://www.komonews.com/news/vault/41752307.html

It's a great film! To me, what stands out the most is the manpower that went into producing local programs for single stations back then. One aspect of this operation that is similar to present-day radio stations is the idea of consolidated radio studio complexes and transmitter sites. The film shows that both KOMO (then 920 kc) and KRJ (then 970 kc) diplex their signals into a single tower. A single transmitter operator simultaneously takes care of both stations.

Thanks for properly posting the link. One of these centuries, I'll be fully high-tech! Enjoy.

Follow my instructions in my first post scotty. It's so easy, even I can do it!

Well I must say I am impressed by the journalistic skills of this big time reporter.

I had no idea that KJR only existed on the FM band these days!!

Did you notice that the reporter stumbles a few times while narrating the film? Hearing that reminded me of how much we take the ability to edit out mistakes for granted. Can anyone shed some light (no pun intended) on how the sound was recorded for this film? My guess is that the narration was directly printed onto a piece of film as the narrator watched the film for cues, and that the sound and picture films were then combined to produce a finished product.

Film sound methods have changed over the years, and during the period when the film was made there were a lot of options.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_film

My snark was referring to the present day KOMO TV reporter who did the flashback piece, not the film reporter.

A couple of things stand out to me.

Tours were encouraged (by attractive receptionists, no less) to get more people interested in the product. Brilliant!

I, too wondered about "no smoking". I'll take an educated guess it didn't have anything to do with being P.C., more to do with not damaging the equipment.

What is most interesting to me is radio was about to change from entertainment blocks to music-driven formats within the next 10-15 years from when this was filmed. Television had a lot to do with it. Reminds me how internet is killing the newspapers today. This kind of media change is nothing new.

Oh, and the only thing that seems to have survived from 1937 is the "Garden" show, which is still s Saturday morning staple for almost every AM talk station!

I see they've corrected the reference to the KJR calls living on on the FM dial today.

>>I had no idea that KJR only existed on the FM band these days!!<<

It still exists on AM: www.kjram.com

For those that didn't see it earlier the article originally said:

"Fisher sold KJR in the 1940's and the calls live on today on the FM band."

Now they have edited off the end of that sentence.

> I, too wondered about "no smoking".

If I remember correctly, this sign was in one of the viewing rooms where members of the general public were invited to view the studio action. Workers are shown smoking in the offices. I suspect that they were afraid of equipment being damaged by smoke (as you mentioned) or they were afraid of cigarettes burning the carpets.

Not only is KJR still on the AM band but you can probably hear it at night, since it's gone to 50kw.

Notice the formal attire in the KOMO film. I'm guessing they didn't have "Casual Dress Fridays" in the 1930s.

Since the word "since" can be misinterpreted to mean "because", I'd like to replace the word (in my above post) with the words "now that".

KJR was a power house in Seattle on FM then and remains so today
on AM. They were a contender back in the 70's and 80's while I was in Seattle. KJR had a solid core of loyal fans, and was a real presence at many events. From their programming to their talent
they have always been a fixture in the Puget Sound.

I was asked to speak today about my radio career to some retirees. I brought up the 10 minute video on the web site about the old studios in Seattle. I then lifted my laptop and said this is how far it's come.

>>KJR was a power house in Seattle on FM then and remains so today <<

I'm not so sure I agree with the "remains so today" part of your statement - that is, unless you consider a station that consistently rates outside of the Top 10 as "a power house".

And the AM does a lot worse than the FM - plus it's facing new competition from the former KIRO-AM.

You are correct, sir!

KJR's glory days are long gone. It was amazing how it "owned" the market in the 1960's & most of the 1970's. Very impressive.

But KJR-AM and FM have had limited success the past decade and a half. They can probably sell the sports station due to the niche, but as noted, KIRO-AM is on deck. As for the FM, seems everytime I visit Seattle they sound different. I think they even tried AC for awhile in the 90's. Foggy here, but wasn't it "The Beat", or "Mix" or something for a short time?

"Foggy here, but wasn't it "The Beat", or "Mix" or something for a short time?"

BOTH!

I liked "95.7 The Beat," but I think it may have been a bit ahead of it's time.