Early KMJ

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You just got home from school and it’s Channel 30 Fun Time! Or maybe Nancy Allen's Movie Matinee on Channel 24. Don’t forget the BOSS 30's #1 KYNO. If you were sophisticated, you only listened to KFIG on some new airwave called FM. We honor the late great Al Radka here at Lost Fresno whose motto was Lettuce Eat it!
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shirleyken
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Early KMJ

Post by shirleyken » Mon Dec 24, 2018 1:25 pm

In the early 1920’s, Fresno’s first radio station, KMJ, was designed and built by my father, Norman Douglas Webster. He and my mother had met in the Radio Club at Fresno High. My mother liked to tell this story: In 1927, there was tremendous public interest concerning the Dempsey-Tunney fight, to take place in Chicago on Sept. 22nd. Radios were still scarce, so Station KMJ arranged for loud speakers to broadcast the fight at Courthouse Park in downtown Fresno.

A huge throng gathered for the event, including my mother. She was cutting it close because I was born the next day, Sept. 23, 1927.
In the early 1930's, the radio was on all the time at our house, tuned to KMJ, Fresno’s only station at the time. Programming was loose and unscheduled. At times there were long periods of silence, broken by anybody who wandered into the studio and wanted to sing a song or read a poem.

I remember listening every weekday to what had to be one of the first soap operas, “Marie, the Little French Princess.” Sometimes I heard my father’s voice. Although he worked as the station’s engineer, he occasionally substituted as announcer. Mother sometimes came to the station and read the news.
Called a radio pioneer, my father went on to become chief engineer for McClatchy Broadcasting Company.He designed and built the first radio stations in Merced, Modesto, Sacramento and Reno. Until KARM arrived in 1936, KMJ was the only radio station in Fresno.

Jim Bonkowski, W6LFB

Re: Early KMJ

Post by Jim Bonkowski, W6LFB » Wed Sep 16, 2020 10:36 pm

Enjoyed the history lesson on KMJ, Shirley!

As a kid in the 50's in Fresno, I used to listen to "X-Minus-One" - a half hour sci-fi show on KMJ on my crystal set. Think I also recall the Sunday comics read from the Fresno Bee on KMJ. Then there was NBC radio's weekend "Monitor" program.

Didn't know about the Merced station, but McClatchy (back in the 50's and 60's) owned KOH Reno, KFBK Sacramento (50kw by the way), KBEE Modesto, and KERN Bakersfield, in addition to the Fresno, Sacramento and Modesto Bee newspapers. KMJ Ch. 24 was also the first TV station in Fresno, and KMJ-FM 97.9 was one of the first 3 FM stations in Fresno, the others being KARM-FM and KRFM (KFRE).

A few years back, KMJ was granted by the FCC to operate with 50kW (after decades of 5kw) on 580 kHz.

Rex

Re: Early KMJ

Post by Rex » Mon Feb 01, 2021 8:18 pm

Good history, thanks.
My family arrived in Fresno in 1951 or 52 from Sacramento. My dad Perry Nelson was sales manager at KFBK radio in Sacramento and McClatchey decided to open the first TV station in the San Joaquin Valley. Eleanor McClatchey the then matriarch of McClatchey Broadcasting asked my dad to be the General Manager of KMJ TV and Radio with offices and studio in the Fresno Bee building at Van Ness and Calaveras.Among his various hires while GM were Dean Mell, first TV news anchor in The Valley who went on to become an NBC news anchor at NBC headquarters in New York. Another hire was Lon Simmons who broadcast local baseball games and Fresno State football games. A close personal friend of my dads was Bill Shaw who he had met in Sacramento and later became GM at KSFO Radio in SF. They were both sales managers for radio station after WWII and played golf together in Sacramento and San Francisco. My dad learned that Bill was looking for a voice to broadcast 49er football on the radio as well as the the SF Giants games. My dad sent Lon Simmons to interview with Bill and he was immediately hired. This was important for me because it meant I got to go into the Giants and A’s clubhouses when Lon was doing pregame interviews and meet the players. Our family’s remained connected as Lon and his wife were partners in a 200 acre avocado farm with my parents.
And don’t forget Miss Pat’s Playroom and Omnibus, 2 of the many programming creations my dad made at KMJ while there, along with a steady stream of celebrities that were performing in town and would visit the TV studio for introduction and promotion.
Met a ton of them and at times they would be guests in our home.

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