| Show 6— The Herald Journal Logan Utah Sunday March 30 1986 Photos courtesy of The first local radio station to broadcast in FM was State College) the forerunner of By John J Wise KVSC (Voice of the KUSU present-da- y correspondent Even with the advent of television inthe late 1940s and early 1950s radio broadcasting in Cache Valley has continued to grow and today at least seven local radio stations occupy airwaves on AM and FM frequencies Cache Valley residents as early as 1938 were tuning to AM 1200 KVNU (Voice of Northern Utah) when the station went on the air with its inaugural broadcast Nov 20 of that year KVNU was the first radio station in Cache Valley and the seventh in the state according to Jonathan Bullen president of the Cache Valley Broadcasting Company which owns both KVNU and KVFM radio and Northern Utah Community TV in Logan Since then many changes have occurred in both radio and television In addition to television competadvertising ing with radio for the dollars television “pulled many of the more talented people away from radio and into television" Bullen said He said the competition between TV and radio forced people in both mediums to “take a harder look at programming and make changes to suit more specific needs" One of the big changes that took place in radio as early as the 1950s was the shift toward radio personalities Disc jockeys became more than a voice between records — they became and listeners began to personalities recognize them as such Bullen said early DJs had personalities but they v ere not “egos” like the DJs of today Another event that shook the radio business in the 1950s was the development of FM radio Seen as a new technology then Bullen said his father Reed Bullen who owned and managed KVNU until recently was “hesitant to get involved in FM radio then AM radio signals could travel greater distances and few people back then had FM Station manager Jerry Allen said KVSC began broadcasting about 4V4 hours a day in 1950 with a "carrier current" signal from a transmitter station stopped at the university That infant with 1951 resumed and in broadcasting broadcasting an FM antenna in 1953 “FM radio then was considered an albatross" Allen said “Few people had FM receivers and the receivers that were available were big and cumbersome The 1950s were a very lean period for FM radio Many people in radio then thought that with television radio would soon become a thing of the 10-wa- tt 10-wa- tt past” KVSC and later KUSU were operated by USU students “The station was a training station for university K VN U students studying broadcast journalism" Allen said noting that two former students Don Quayle and Lee went on to become the first two Frischknecht presidents of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting of which KUSU is a member station Allen said he joined KUSU in 1961 after working at KVNU During that year the station installed a new transmitter with a 1000-wacapacity and moved from 881 to 915 on the FM dial In 1971 with the formation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting KUSU added National Public Radio programming to its daily broadcasting schedule In 1979 KUSU was selected for the first satellite network in radio according to Allen He said NPR programming was transmitted over telephone lines prior to the satellite tt “With KUSU being on the satellite network we get more dependable communication but we are also able to send locally produced programs throughout the NPR system" he said “Today’s programming format is news and inform ationfine arts" The 1950s were exciting times both for radio and televison TV was partly an outgrowth of radio both in the type of and the personalities programming featured in the early black and white days of TV broadcasting A number of successful people in television and radio spent their early careers in Logan working for KVNU and other radio stations Bullen said about 0 university students have been employed at KVNU in the past 400-50- "Many have gone on to big successful careers" he said After the initial impact of TV and FM radio local radio stations began to get more sophisticated more competitive See RADIO on page receivers" who went on to make good Early radio personalities included Morgan White in television Among the important people in local radio was KVNU's Reed Bullen shown doing a 'live remote' (with the mike left photo) and at the control panel (top center photo) with his father Herschel Announcers were often on hand at events such as Richmond Black and White Days (right) t |
