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(No Byline) KSD, one of the oldest stations in the United States, after ten years of serving only as an outlet for the National Broadcasting Company, is making great strides in becoming a local station originating programs of its own.

With William H. West, as General Manager, it has undergone a complete reorganization and it originates from seven to ten features a day in addition to the fine chain programs that come through there. KSD is one of the pioneer stations in both popularity and existence and is reclaiming the position that it formerly owned. It was through KSD that a president of the United States spoke for the first time. When President Harding was here in 1923 he spoke on June 21 from the Coliseum on the subject of the “World Court.”

Operating with a minimum of overhead the station is seeking to build up its entertainment features to the highest degree and that it is succeeding is evidenced by the type of programs that are coming from there and have been for the past several months.

Gay Lee, former Director of the Farm Service Hour of KMOX is heard regularly at 11 a.m. over KSD. The Holman Sisters, a piano duo, Francis Jones, violinist, and Elmer Schwartzbeck are also regularly heard on their programs. The program department is headed by Richard Pavey from WLW as Program Director, and he is supported in program work by Chuck Bolte, Alice Vogel, Hilda Gottschak, Don Hunt and Allen Taylor.

W.F. Ludgate, who has been at the station since its beginning is head of the engineering department and is assisted by Robert Coe and C.R. Yarger. There are four salesmen in the new set-up who are Edward W. Hamlin, M.D. Corbett, Frank H. Niehaus, Jr., and Walter E. Wieler.

The announcers heard are Richard Pavey, Allan Taylor, Robert Coe and Chuck Bolte.

Sponsors of the programs heard over KSD include Pevely Dairy Company, who sponsor the “Stars of Tomorrow” broadcast each Sunday afternoon wherein child talent is discovered and given a chance to appear over the air; Minit-Rub, Standard-Tilton Milling Company; Benjamin Moore Paint Company and the Missouri-Pacific Railroad Lines which bring baseball scores to KSD listeners three times a day.

Mr. West, a former Director of Operations at KMOX, is one of the real veterans of radio at the age of twenty-nine. As long ago as 1922 when radio was in its infancy, he installed and operated a radio station at Springfield. Later he came here with the Colin B. Kennedy Radio Corporation and was influential in installing the 50,000 watt station of KMOX, one of the largest in the world.

(Originally published in Radio & Entertainment 4/29/33)

KSD’S NEW STUDIOS, NOW OPERATING WITH HIGH FIDELITY MECHANISM, AMONG MOST ATTRACTIVE IN COUNTRY

DESIGNED TO INSURE REALISM OF RECEPTION ON RADIO SETS IN HOMES – TWO STORIES HIGH, WITH THEIR FLOORS AND CEILINGS SUSPENDED BY SPRINGS.

WALLS SOUND-PROOFED – FINEST OF CONTROL ROOM APPARATUS ENABLES ENGINEERS TO MAINTAIN QUALITY OF TRANSMISSION CONTINUALLY AT PEAK LEVEL.

PROCESS OF BROADCASTING, FROM MICROPHONE TO LISTENER’S EAR, DESCRIBED – HOW STATION IS HELD ON CHANNEL ASSIGNED BY FEDERAL COMMISSION.

REFLECTOR AERIAL ERECTED ON ROOF OF BUILDING NEAR THE POST-DISPATCH TO PREVENT RADIATIONS FROM INTERFERING WITH THISE STATIONS TO THE EAST.

(February 17, 1935, by J.L.S.)

KSD’s new studios, which have been under construction for several months on the Olive street side of the Post-Dispatch building, are now being used for broadcasting.. Architecturally, and in decorative effect, there are no more attractive studios in the country. Not even those in the New York and Chicago headquarters of the national networks are better suited accoustically for quality broadcasting. Their perfection of equipment and mechanism insures KSD transmission of programs with a fidelity to test the reproduction of any radio set likely to be available for some years. They have been designed specifically for use with the 5000 watt transmitter that has been ordered for KSD to be erected and in service some time this spring.

Entrance to the new studios is from the lobby on the ground floor of the Post-Dispatch Building through a hall decorated in ice blue with wall border in tan figures, ceiling in “off white” and furniture in dark blue. A room for artists and entertainers is decorated in the same color scheme.

The two main studios – “A” and “B” – are entered through a “sound lock,” which is a small room with heavily insulated walls and soundproof doors. One may enter it from the artists’ room or a control room, close the door, then open a door into either of the studios and be sure that no noise from outside will enter with one to mar the effect of a program that is being broadcast from the studio.

Studios Two Stories High Studio “A” is two stories high, 12 feet long and 18 feet wide. Its walls are decorated in light coral and “off white” with silver trim. Its floating floor – suspended on springs and independent of the walls – is in brown with large squares outlined in buff. At the far end is a large recess with draperies of accoustical material that may be expanded to dampen strident tones or contracted to brighten tonal effects. Wall and ceiling lights are in the modern classic style, and there are ceiling corner spot lights so the floor may be illuminated to any desired degree of brilliancy. The walls – of accoustical material backed by blanketing of rock wool and an air space – are designed to be impervious to outside noises. The ceiling, which is done in off white, is suspended by springs in the same manner as is the floor, the purpose being to bar vibrations from the street and other parts of the building.

Studio “B” – also two stories high – is 23 feet long and 15 feet wide.. Its walls are decorated in buff yellow with light cobalt blue trim, while the floor is in gray with trim of blue and terra cotta. Wall and ceiling lights are in the modified Regency style. The floor and ceiling are suspended by springs, and the walls, floor and ceiling have the same accoustical treatment as Studio “A.”

Air-Conditioning System On the mezzanine floor are an observation room with windows looking down into both studios and fitted with loud speakers, and offices for the program director and his assistants. The walls of the observation room are in pale, grayish green and the ceiling in cloudy terra cotta. The floor is covered with a heavy rust-colored carpet, and the chairs and settees are in the modern classical style with rust-colored upholstery.

Both of the new studios and the control rooms, offices and reception room connected with them are air conditioned. Thermostatic control in each room and studio makes it possible to maintain the temperature within one or two degrees. All air entering the studios and other rooms is filtered. The system supplies heat as well as ventilation in winter and properly cooled air in the warm months. The studio hitherto used for KSD’s local broadcasting is now known as “C.” It is reserved for auditions, rehearsals and special auditions. The offices connected with it are used by KSD’s sales force.

You’ve heard it before. The disc jockey gives the very distinct impression that you can call the station with your requests, and they might actually (gasp!) be played.

Most radio listeners are savvy enough to see through this scam today, but request radio actually can be traced back to the earliest days of the industry.

The first federally licensed station in St. Louis, KSD, based one of its earliest broadcasts on a request. In those days, there were few radio receivers. Only a couple dozen stations could be heard in 1921-22, and radio receiving sets were, for the most part, home made devices. But there were some amateur radio operators who took great pride in constructing larger, more-sophisticated electronic receivers. This is what led to the first all-request broadcast of KSD.

As outlined in the master’s paper of Luther Clark Secrest in 1960, the broadcast was staged on March 11, 1922, in a makeshift studio constructed in Room 301-B of the Post-Dispatch Building at 12th and Olive Streets just days after KSD was licensed. St. Louis’ Round Table Club, whose members were businessmen, had scheduled its regular meeting in the St. Louis Club Building at 3663 Lindell, some 25 blocks from the KSD studio, and the night’s entertainment was to center around listening to KSD on a special receiving set.

A representative of the group contacted KSD management, asking for “a program of entertainment” that the club members might enjoy. The ensuing broadcast even made a bit of radio history in St. Louis.

A lot of the standard content of early radio broadcasts was there. St. Louis talent was featured in the live musical presentations, including a piano solo, songs by the Peerless Mixed Quartet and Tremont Male Quartet, and tenor and soprano soloists. There were also a couple of readings and, as Secrest noted, “a portion of the broadcast was devoted to a reading of news scheduled for printing in the following day’s edition of the Post-Dispatch. Radio news in those early days, for the most part, comprised personal comments and views…KSD had an advantage, however, in that it could use the news-gathering facilities of the Post-Dispatch.” It also became the first St. Louis radio station to broadcast news, although WEW had been broadcasting weather and agricultural information.

In those days, the Post-Dispatch was an afternoon paper, and one can imagine that the publication’s management saw the new radio station as a vehicle to steer more readers away from competitive papers and toward theirs. But newspaper managers would also become leery of giving radio listeners too much news, lest the listeners decide they didn’t need to spend money for the paper when the news was free on the radio.

By all accounts, the March 11 broadcast built on the success of the previous ones. In addition to a positive response from the satisfied listeners at the Round Table Club meeting, letters and telegrams came in from as far away as Vandalia, Ill., about 60 air miles away.

Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 10/2007.)

Station KSD was the first radio broadcasting station to be given a class B license by the United States government. On August 31, 1922, just two months after the station opened, broadcasting was begun at 8 p.m. on the old wave length of 360 meters with a player piano roll of Sousa’s march, “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” At the conclusion of this the KSD announcer told the world of a new honor just conferred upon the station and stated that after an intermission of five minutes the station would again go on the air with its new wave length of 400 meters as a class B station.

The program on this evening was given by Mrs. W.E. Hindle, coloratura soprano, M.A. Worthelmer, violinist, and C.G. Werner, pianist, all St. Louis artists.

In those days all class B stations were on a wave length of 400 meters and class A stations on 360 meters and it was not until the following spring that the wave bands were divided by governmental order, and KSD was assigned its present high wave length of 545.1 meters.

KSD is notable for having made a specialty of high class music. It has broadcast many important addresses, public events, sporting events, etc., but its greatest achievement has been the broadcasting of every symphony program played in St. Louis by the St. Louis Symphony orchestra during the three years of the station’s existence. Classical music, while a specialty at KSD, has not occupied all the musical programs. Many jazz orchestras of national fame have been broadcast by this station, but in jazz, as in classical music, KSD always has stood for the best, and has insisted upon every performance coming up to an established standard.

In some other respects besides the fact that it was the first class B station, KSD has been a pioneer and has set the pace for other stations. It was the first station to make the experiment of broadcasting in the open air. On June 26, 1922, the station was formally opened. It was tested out the preceding night in a manner which not only tested the station, but gave radio transmission experts and idea of the practicability of a new form of broadcasting. A microphone was placed in the footlights on the immense stage at the municipal open air theater in Forest Park, and was connected by remote control apparatus and land wire to the operating room at KSD. One entire act of DeKoven’s “Highwayman” was sent out to the listening public with the simple announcement, “KSD testing.” This not only proved the efficiency of the station, but it also was a demonstration of the feasibility of broadcasting open air performances.

KSD has never had any regular station entertainers. Its idea on this subject has been that variety was the thing most desired. It has, however, had some regular features, notably, the orchestra of the Grand Central, Missouri and Lyric theaters, City Club, Missouri Athletic Association, and Statler and Jefferson Hotels, theater productions, entire performances of grand opera, and other exercises of all sorts have also been broadcast.

KSD was the only station in America to broadcast any of the concerts given by the Sistine choir of Rome, Italy, during its tour of the country in 1923-1924, and was the first station to broadcast high mass from a Catholic cathedral. It was also the first station to send out the voice of a president of the United States. On June 21, 1923, President Harding was in St. Louis on the first lap of his tour which ended with his very sudden and tragic death. He made an address at the St. Louis Coliseum on the world court, and KSD broadcast this speech. Later on KSD broadcast the message to congress of President Coolidge and has sent out several speeches by President Coolidge as well as addresses by practically all the cabinet officers, by all the candidates for president in the last national election, and the entire proceedings of the Democratic and Republican national conventions.

Some of the world’s greatest statesmen and most famous artists have been given to the public through this station. Fifteen countries of the world have been represented on the programs and all five races of man have had their representatives in the studio on various KSD programs.

In several respects KSD is unique. It has no slogan. It does not issue Ekko stamps. It does not read telegrams or letters to its radio audience, and does not permit persons on its programs to say “Hello” to their listening friends. It is unique, also, in having the only woman announcer who has been on the job since radio started. She has announced all programs of every description, night after night, except in vacation intervals, since the station was opened. It has been said of KSD that the voice of “Miss Jones announcing” is sufficient identification for the station without the call letters or the name of the city in which it is located.

(No byline) Radio Digest Oct. 10, 1925

When KSD signed on in 1922, the Pulitzer family proudly touted their new radio station in the pages of their newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Then other stations signed on in St. Louis, and other newspapers gave them plenty of publicity. By the time KSD affiliated with the NBC Radio Network, the local station had assumed a low profile, from which it would not emerge for several years. What happened?

There is no actual documentation available to explain what happened, but scattered newspaper accounts and a first-person memoir of engineer Robert Coe shed light on the subject.

Coe was instrumental in putting several St. Louis stations on the air. He credits the uniqueness factor with creating the early excitement among the public when WEW and KSD, the city’s first two stations, signed on. In 1921 that anticipation and excitement helped him get a job hosting public demonstrations of radio, picking up amateur broadcasts. “It is no real mystery the radio audience grew so rapidly even before there was much attempt at regular planned programming,” he wrote.

So when KSD began its experimental broadcasts they were trumpeted in advance in the paper. As soon as the station was licensed it began regularly scheduled programming, which was arranged by the station’s program manager, Virginia Jones. Since there were only three or four stations in St. Louis at the time, listeners were very interested in knowing when broadcasts were available. During KSD’s first few years, radio stations came and went in St. Louis. The station’s paid staff consisted of three engineer/announcers, one program director/announcer, a secretary and an office boy.

Then late in 1925, the city’s power brokers built a powerhouse station, KMOX. The only real competition among the stations was for broadcast time, since frequencies were often shared and only one station could use the frequency at a time.

But on Nov. 15, 1926, something major happened that changed the local broadcast landscape. The National Broadcasting Company, NBC, debuted, and KSD was on the list of 24 initial affiliates.

Before the network came into being, KSD’s programs were much like those on other stations: Live music concerts, dramatic presentations and lectures, all featuring local talent. The NBC affiliation allowed the St. Louis station to offer much more variety and big-name stars because most of the shows originated from New York.

Robert Coe wrote: “The mystery and fascination of just hearing a voice or a phonograph record over the air was not enough to sustain audience interest…Amateur talent and production was not enough and, more and more, the professionals demanded pay.”

Now KSD was carrying live broadcasts of the Rose Bowl, the Metropolitan Opera and the National Farm and Home Hour. While this was celebrated for its uniqueness, there were soon two other networks doing the same thing on local stations, and KSD fell into a rut. They had closed their local studio operation in 1926, employing only two engineer/announcers and one office girl.

Throughout the late ‘20s, network programming accounted for virtually all of KSD’s airtime. A change came only after the newspaper’s business manager was visited by a committee from the American Federation of Musicians. They pointed out the fact that all other local stations had contracts with AFM and had musicians on their staffs. The AFM reps told Pulitzer that, if a contract was not signed, pickets would go up outside the newspaper offices.

A signature was forthcoming, and musicians were hired. So were more staffers to handle the responsibilities of locally originated music shows. The three-piece band evolved into a twelve-piece orchestra with vocalists, new announcers, news and sports broadcasters followed, and KSD was back in the business of producing programs in its studios at 12th and Olive.

The local publication, Radio and Entertainment, hailed the change in its issue of Nov. 26, 1932. Columnist Fleet Smith wrote “KSD is giving more attention to local programs.” That was it – one line.

(Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 7/09).

by Stanley Adams:

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