A History of Houston Broadcasting, 1990

Twenty years ago an employee of KTRH, Philip H. Boudreaux III, produced a history of Houston Radio: The First Sixty Years. The 33 page essay is fully annotated and was based on newspaper research and personal interviews, particularly concerning events in the more recent years. I think what I have is only a draft, judging by editing marks and simple typos; there are some facts stated which are in conflict with some information I came up with but Boudreaux also uncovered some important facts that I had not been able to find.

I'll be incorporating this material in articles already posted on this blog, giving credit to Boudreaux, but here are a few of the more significant findings:

In my article on the launch of Alfred P. Daniel's WCAK I reported that Anna Clyde Plunkett had claimed in 1955, commenting on Daniel's death, that she had participated in the first radio broadcast in Houston on Daniel's station but failed to give the date or what station. Boudreaux reports the concert was on May 22, 1922, on Daniel's WCAK, not his earlier amateur stations, and it was one of the Houston Post-Dispatch sponsored concerts. From this we know that this was certainly not the first radio broadcast in Houston. Hurlburt-Still's WEV had commenced weather broadcasts on April 12 on 485 meters and the Post-Dispatch had reported on May 11 on a broadcast of an entertainment program on 360 meters on WEV which clearly was not the first by that station.

Plunkett had apparently actually claimed to be the first soloist to perform on Houston radio but even that claim does not hold up. David Westheimer, Radio-TV editor of the Post in 1955 had headlined the story 'First Performer Tells of Initial Broadcast.'

Regarding the decision of Ross Sterling, Sr., to start a Post-Dispatch radio station, it's been reported in several sources that it was his son Ross, Jr., who was interested in radio and talked his dad into taking action. Boudreaux says Sterling had two sons, Walter and Ross, Jr., and both were interested in radio and convinced their dad to buy the 500 watt Westinghouse Electric transmitter. Additionally, when the decision had been made to proceed with the station after a period of mourning over the death of Ross, Jr., Sterling turned to his son Walter to name the station. He picked the call letters KPRC to stand for Kotton Port, Rail Center. I don't know that anyone has claimed for sure who picked the call letters though I had speculated it was Daniel's suggestion.

Later in the decade when the Post-Dispatch took over the Fort Bend School Board's KGHX and moved it to Houston to be a sister station to KPRC, Sterling again turned to his son Walter to pick some call letters. He chose KTLC, to stand for K-The Largest City, referring to Houston as the largest city in Texas.

These facts came out in an interview with Walter Sterling in 1982.

Regarding the naming of KTRH in 1929, it would seem to be self evident: Jesse Jones owned the Rice Hotel and the new radio station which was to have studios in the hotel, but according to an interview with John T. Jones, it wasn't quite that direct. The elder Jones had originally wanted to put the radio station in the Houston Chronicle building but met with resistance from the paper's editor, W. O Huggins, so Jones turned to his hotel manager who declared he would be happy to provide space for the station provided it was irretrievably tied to the hotel. Hence the call letters KTRH which were announced as meaning K - The Rice Hotel.

Everything I have seen has identified Tilford Jones, head of Harris County Broadcast, owners of KXYZ, as Jesse Jones nephew. Boudreaux identifies him as a cousin.

My thanks again to Charlie Pena of Clear Channel Radio for sharing this material with me.

Gallery II - WCAK and A.P. Daniel photos

Note: I have received some great informaton from Mike Schultz of Reverse Time Page identifying the equipment in these photographs and putting them in historical order. Mike's comments have been added below in italics. Check out Mike's site and enjoy! Bruce, 6/27/07

Note # 2: A second image of Daniel's house has been added with the tree leafed out; this picture is considerably darker but may allow a better view of the antenna. Bruce, 7/2/07.

I've had the pleasure of meeting Chris Varela, a Houston native who is on the Harris County Historical Commission and is very knowledgeable and passionate about Houston history in general and the history of Houston radio in particular. Early in his research, more than 10 years ago, Chris started trying to locate descendants or relatives of Houston radio pioneers and over the years this had led to some spectacular finds. A niece of Alfred P. Daniel, Mrs. Jerry T. Millar, gave Chris an old family album full of pictures of Daniel, his various installations, and other members of the Houston Radio Club. When we met, I took a few snapshots of some of the photos to post here. We are planning on having them scanned so this will be just a temporary gallery but I just couldn't wait to share these photos. I didn't realize until I had gotten home that inadvertently I had selected photos that had all appeared in the book so these will be familiar to some of you.

The placard on the wall identifies this as the set up for Daniel's Special Amateur station, 5ZX; note the row of batteries along the baseboard, and what do you think of the window coverings? Daniel gave up a promising career as a window decorator to get into broadcasting!

Mike: Phonograph-that's a Cheney, but don't know the model. A tube transmitter is to the right of the phonograph. It looks commercially made, but I can't identify it. Under the desk is a motor-generator unit used to provide power for the transmitter, and a bunch of wet cell batteries. I can't identify the horn speaker either. It almost looks like it was a converted phonograph horn, rather than one that was made to be a radio speaker from the start. On the wall are framed licence certificates and the small cards are ham QSL cards.

Despite the card for 5AO visible to the right of the typewriter, this is presumed to be Daniel's set up for WCAK. If any readers of this blog can help in identifying any of the equipment in this photo or any of the others, please use the comments option below or email me (on the profile page on the right sidebar). NOTE: WE WERE WRONG ABOUT THIS BEING WCAK -- SEE MIKE'S COMMENTS AT THE BOTTOM -- THIS IS THE EARLIEST PICTURE.

Mike: To the left of the typewriter, at the bottom, is a Grebe CR-2 receiver. I can't identify the unit above it, but it appears to be an audio amplifier. Directly to the left is a DeForest receiving tuner consisting of three subsections (top and bottom are variable condensers and center is a coil mount). To the left of the big knife switch is a stack of coils that went with the DeForest unit. DeForest made what they called "Interpanel" radios, which were like radio Erector Sets. They could have as many as maybe 15 of these small panels. The headphones are by Baldwin. The wall phone was old when the picture was taken, and is circa 1905. I think that light bulb shaped thing on the wall is a thermometer. Pretty neat item. There's some really rare and valuable stuff in these pictures.

Readers who have been following this blog will recognize this photo - it was part of the illustration accompanying an article on the Houston Radio Club's exhibit at the Houston Fair and Exposition in 1921 mentioned in the post about the Pre-broadcast era - and is supposed to be Alfred Daniel's first microphone, made using a candlestick telephone. Daniel had loaned the picture to the paper for the article.

Mike: The tube is almost certainly a Western Electric Signal Corps VT-2, which was sold into the civilian market in large numbers after WW-I. The phone would appear to be one that was made for use in an intercom system (notice the pushbutton on the base). Can't identify the make, but it looks pretty early.

The Alfred P. Daniel home at 2504 Bagby, long since demolished. Daniel operated 5AO, 5ZX, and WCAK from the parlor of this house.

This is presumably the upstairs room at the Daniel house used as a studio; note the 2 microphones.

Mike: Based on the appearance of the mikes, this picture is later, maybe late 20's. The picture isn't clear enough to identify the mikes. It may be a different phonograph than in the other views.

A couple of promotional cards printed by Alfred P. Daniel. The designation 263 meters indicates this card was printed after Daniel was allowed to move off the crowded 360 meters. Chris Varela says the slogan "Where 18 Railroads Meet the Sea" was created by a preacher; it was widely used, appearing often in special sections of the Chronicle boasting about Houston's commerce and industry.

Mike: The "rack" on the wall is a transmitting inductance. It looks quite out of place being that it would be for a much higher powered transmitter than the one on the desk. The card says "four 5 watt tubes". That looks right for the transmitter on the desk. In this case, the tubes would be UV-202 types, or perhaps more VT-2's (they were cheaper).


Louis Peine who worked for Hurlburt-Still and WEV and later for General Electic. This is the photo on the cover of Chris's book and is unfortunately a little fuzzy in part because the photo was not flat.

Mike: There is an unidentified transmitter on the desk, and to it's right, a Kennedy type 110 receiver with a matching Kennedy audio amplifier. The horn speaker (looks like it's attached to the guy's head) is a King "Amplitone". You would clamp a pair of headphones to the two branches at the bottom, and it would work as a speaker.

The second picture is the earliest, and it shows the bottom of the transmitting inductance on the wall, and components to the left of what must be a high power spark transmitter, of a type that a ham would have used circa 1915-1920. This would not have been suitable for voice transmission. This would have been followed by the one on the WCAK card. The inductance is still there, but a tube transmitter (for voice) has replaced the rest of the spark transmitter. The first picture is a bit later, and the inductance is gone, and curtains have appeared.

Unfortunately the fuzziest of them all, my fault for moving when I snapped the picture and not having enough space on the picture card to take a second shot. Center front, sitting on the floor, is Alfred P. Daniel; just to the right Eleanor Regan. On the right end of the first row is Louis Peine. Next to Eleanor Regan, just above Daniel, possibly kneeling, is Hallet Worthington. Second from the left, front row, Alfred Neal Dargan. I didn't discuss this with Chris but looking at the photo later, I came to the conclusion that second from the right in the second row may be Ingraham S. Roberts III; looks like someone Chris pointed out to me in other pictures. I'll let him correct me on that.

We looked to see if Howard Huges was present but couldn't identify him.