-----------------------Stimson Bullitt Passes-----------------------

NORTHWEST BROADCASTERS.COM reports that STIMSON BULLITT, former President of KING Broadcasting Co., died SUNDAY at his WEST SEATTLE home. He was 89. BULLITT took over KING BROADCASTING in the 1960s.

KING 5 News:

http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_042009WAB-charles-bullitt-obit-TP.f385 30ab.html

The Seattle PI:

http://www2.seattlepi.com/articles/405323.html

The Seattle Times:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009088473_webbullitt20m.html


Puget Sound Business Journal:

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2009/04/20/daily6.html

kkb, that's 4 now. So much for 3's.

I didn't know there was a son. I had only heard of the 2 daughters who assumed control of the company and then sold it. In counting "in 3s", Ted Rogers is too far back to be part of the current list. It's only that we just found out about him. That alone seems quite strange.

There were quite a few stories floating around Seattle about the late Mr. Bullitt. One of which has him locking himself in his office after Dorothy took King Broadcasting from him. In it, mom is rationalizing with him through the door: "But Stimson, we gave you the lumber company!"

Oh I learned something new here...Stimson Lumber Co. !

Ah yes, I remember it well.

1930 census, Foy, King , Washington . House on Higlands Road value $75,000 and they owned it :

Alexander Scott Bullitt age 50, Lawyer, General Practise. Born abt 1880.

Dorothy S. Bullitt, wife , age 38 , occupation : none. Born about 1892. From the SSDI born 5, Feb 1892... died 27, Jun 1989...age 97 !

Charles S.( Stimson ) Bullitt age 10 " at school ".

Dorothy P. Bullitt age 9 , at school

Harriet O. Bullitt age 5 at home

4 servants in the household. Most from Canada or England , all in their 40s and 50s.

1 Nurse ! Immigrated in 1898
1 Governess..Immigrated in 1918
1 Housemaid...Citizen of the U.S.
1 Cook..... Immigrated in 1929.

Here sits all the money to put KING on the air 17 or 18 years later ( the original call was something else, like KRSC ) in 1947-48.

Get rid of a few servants and you can afford to put a TV station on the air !

I want to say that KRSC was KAY0's old calls on 1150, which was apparently a major concern at one time, owning AM, FM and TV in Seattle.

Stimson Bullitt was one of the first, if not THE first, to do a TV editorial against The Viet Nam War.

Yep, and as is mentioned in several of those linked articles above that Craig posted , Stimson , was politically chastized severely for it and got on Richard Nixon's nowfamous "enemies list".

KRSC channel 5 was put on the air November 28, 1948 by Liberman Radio Sales co. 7 monhts later Dorothy Bullitt bought it and changed the callsign to KING to be consistent with the Radio Station she bought a year earlier on 1090.

KRSC/KING - Channel 5 was the first aired Television station North of San Francisco and east of the Mississippi River.

As mentioned in the links above, Stimson pretty much ran the show, not Dorothy. Atleast post-1960 or so. I have a book that was written about KING Broadcasting and the other notable PDX connection, is how much of the corporate decisions regarding KGW were made in Seattle.

I heard a story once about how Stimson got mugged wrestled out of KING Broadcasting by his mother and sisters. I might have to read that book Paul refered to and see if it was true .

"I want to say that KRSC was KAY0's old calls on 1150, which was apparently a major concern at one time, owning AM, FM and TV in Seattle."

Yes, and KRSC TV was located in what later became KAYO's studios in south Seattle. Not sure, but I think the building may still be standing. (Sodo, for you hipsters)

I think Stimson Bullitt introduced Ancil Payne to his mother back in the 40s or 50s - and she hired Ancil to run KGW.

Around 1970 the Seattle economy was in the tank and a very nervous Dorothy & The Girls brought Ancil back to Seattle to run KING Broadcasting- which he did very well, balancing the need for good business and good broadcasting.

"KRSC/KING - Channel 5 was the first aired Television station North of San Francisco and east of the Mississippi River. "

Really? I did not realize that. I thought they were in Seattle. Maybe you are confusing them with WRSC/WING. Not many stations start with 'K' east of the Mississippi.

"KRSC/KING - Channel 5 was the first aired Television station North of San Francisco and east of the Mississippi River. "

Read it again Jimbo, it is correct.

"North of San Francisco" not San Francisco.

"...EAST of the Mississippi River"? (Emphasis added.)

That's what Jimbo was getting at.

"east of the Mississippi River". OOOPS !

Sorry...its WEST...........my fault. That would exclude places like N.Y C, Cincinatti, Chicago etc...ah yeah .....
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Anyhow, my Dad and I were talking about KING and the Bullitt family one time about a year ago or so. When I mentioned that Channel 5 was KRSC before it was KING ( and that this was a discussion contributed by Craig and some other local Seattle posters back then ) it jogged his memory of it all when he was a young man, and told me the followiing :

Our family is originally from Tacoma, my Dad grew up there. Before I was born , he went to work for Puget Sound Natl. Bank in Tacoma as a Repo-man"...Well he was in the main branch bank a lot in the course of his job and in late 48 or early 49' the Bank bought a Television Set and put it out in the lobby. Dad remembers KRSC off the air more than it was on. They had a whole lot of failures during a time when it was scheduled to be on the air. Noisey signals, verticle and horizontal lock problems, and it wasnt always the TV set, low signal and just flat NO signal at all much of the time. Everyone at the Bank thought that this Television was never going to fly right and that Radio was still the best way to get information and entertainment. I guess there were letters to the editor in the area newspapers and editorials at the time complaining about how unreliable TV was in Seattle-Tacoma .

Then come the Bullitts' to the rescue. After it was KING the signal and quality improved thoughout the market and the station programming was consistent with the published schedules. TV sales went through the roof. My folks even scraped up enough money to buy a small Sears Airline Set in 1953.

The old KAYO/KRSC building on 4th Avenue South (just south of Lander) is, alas, no more. I worked there for a couple of years during KAYO's News/Talk days. I remember they had a Grauman's Chinese Theatre style set of footprints of country stars out front. The station hangout was a place called Andy's Diner (still there!) where you can, if you're lucky, sit in what was once FDR's private railroad car.

"My folks even scraped up enough money to buy a small Sears Airline Set in 1953."

If it was an Airline, that would have been from Montgomery Ward. Sears brand name was Silvertone.

Thanks Brad, I have not lived in Seattle for awhile but remember driving by the old building years ago! It had a classic "broadcast" look!

Yeah, it was a great old brick building. And home to some surprising large rats!

Monkey Wards..ok...

They had that thing when I was 5 and 6 years old...then we got a new one with a bigger picture tube, it was still an Airline.

I was involved with King Broadcasting in management from 1969 to 1975, and rehired in 1978 & 79.

I can say with some confidence that had Stimson Bullitt been allowed to continue to run the company after 1972, there wouldn't have been one.

I have read the book about King, and there is a lot of "created material" in it.

There are some interesting things that Stimson did, including the Okinawa Plywood company, purchased to supply the US government in Viet Nam, Seattle Magazine, a publication that won a lot of awards and never made a dime, and other business excursions outside of Broadcasting that did nothing but drain the company's resources.

And, to clear up a couple of things. The original radio station that became KING-AM was KENR. Dorothy Bullitt purchased the "KING" call letters from a tugboat captain.

KING-TV was the first TV station in the Northwest, and the only one for something like 4 years during an FCC "freeze" on new TV licenses.

Instead of taking advantage of that situation and ripping off the market, Mrs. Bullitt did exactly the opposite, spending a great deal of the profit to create a Public Affairs department that created programming for a wide set of age groups, living up to the spirit of the Communications Act.

When Ancil Payne took over in Portland, prior to being named as Stimson's successor, I can assure you that any decisions that affected anything in Portland were made in Portland.

The most unsung hero in King Broadcasting history is Jim Kime, who labored in relative obscurity but was Ancil Payne's right hand man and confidant. Jim was responsible for the resurgence of Radio in the company beginning with KINK in 1968 and continuing with KGW in 1969.

Thanks Hal for the clarifications. I worked for the company for a short period in the early 80's, so my interest, while strong, may have some misinterpretations. I appreciate the "inside" comments from someone on the front line.

The book that you and I have referred to was written by Daniel Jack Chasen in the mid-90's. I am not familiar with the author, and I don't know if he ever was emloyed by KING. Whether he had an agenda or not, who knows?

I do appreciate you contributing to this site, as KING-AM was a really good radio station (as was KGW) for many years.

"And, to clear up a couple of things. The original radio station that became KING-AM was KENR."

Correction: Calls before KING 1090kc were KEVR.

Hal Widsten is too modest to say this himself, but he is also a major reason KGW and KING were the successes they were. Hal, Ancil Payne, Jim Kime and many others had the intellegence to know that if they served the public the public would support their stations. What a concept!! If today's owners operated like that they would have loyal listeners and would be viewed as assets to the communities they serve rather than the cold, corporate machines they are now.

Bill, right on the mark. BTW, I may have shared this before, but when I worked at KING-AM in the early 80's, I stumbled across some old Hal Widsten memos. For some reason, I kept them. Fascinating artifacts of 1970's formatics. Hal, if you'd like to see them again I'd be happy to share them with you...just leave me a contact or email me at paul@klce.com. On the other hand, if you don't care, I totally get that too! Afterall, we're talking about ancient history!