Lou Robbins — Admin/Editor | Airchecks
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One correction to my above posting– I just now remember the actual title of that show was “Horse Cents” — an obvious focus on what kind of payouts could be made at the race track.
I remember all of what you are speaking of. So many memories of Channel 13, KTVW. A remote from the new Valu-Mart store in Tacoma on a sunny day, the backdrop being the beige wall outside the store near 38th street, now County offices. The camera view was washed out by the glare of the sun against the wall.
Summer nights brought the moths to the studio lights of Channel 13, when it was so warm they opened the large doors to the outside to catch a breeze. The Bob Corcoran show was running and adding to the fuzzy black and white picture were the fluttering moths swarming around the studio lights. Teenagers would drive up the gravel road to the studio, spin out in the gravel and drive away, all of that noise heard by viewers.
The old movies, run through the studio projector, would sometimes catch on the gears and sprockets, stalling and then the heat from the lens would burn holes through the film. Viewers would often catch a glimpse of that or a fluttering film if a shutter was not properly in place.
Those readers here who are in my age group (mid-60s) or older and who lived in the Puget Sound area during the infamous “Boeing Bust” economic downturn in 1969-72 may remember how it impacted the two independent commercial stations, Channels 11 and 13. As I recall, KTNT 11 shortened its broadcast day for a while, hitting the airwaves around noon. But KTVW 13 — which had always operated on a VERY tight budget since its purchase by J. Elroy McCaw of Seattle in 1954 — was also walloped by McCaw’s sudden death from stroke in 1969. It turns out that McCaw had left his finances in disarray due to his informal business practices. His death in Seattle triggered dozens of claims and lawsuits by creditors. When the claims reached a total of $12 million, the bank handling the estate pulled out, saying the estate was insolvent.
It took THREE years to find a buyer for KTVW. Meanwhile, what had been for years a challenged TV operation turned into what one local newspaper columnist (I can’t remember if it was the Times or P-I) described as having become “possibly the worst TV station in the nation.” Just about EVERYTHING about the station was pretty awful, including:
— a VERY fuzzy signal only in black-and-white, when all the other commercial stations (4,5,7,11) had switched to color.
— equally fuzzy audio.
— an obscure studio location at the transmitter site in north Tacoma.
— horrible graphics
— a very limited schedule, starting broadcasting each day in the afternoon.
— REALLY REALLY old second-rate movies and TV programs.
— strange programming even during the evening hours. I particularly recall a nightly half-hour show called “Horse Sense,” hosted by a fellow named Vic Cozzetti and focusing entirely on the day’s action at the old Longacres race track. It was just awful!
— almost a complete lack of any national advertising. In fact, I remember only ONE national ad during that entire time — for Beech-Nut Fruit Stripe gum.
— even an hourly station ID that struck me as kind of , well… strange. The announcer spoke in a very low, rumbly and tired-sounding voice. I remember he identified himself at the end of the broadcast day as “Sam Woody.” I have no idea if that was his real name.
The station was SO bad that, as a high schooler then with a strong interest in the media, I found it actually quite fascinating… 🙂
At any rate, let’s just say that 13 during that time was a MASSIVE contrast to the modern, slick, sophisticated now-Seattle-based operation that now is Fox 13!
Anyone else here old enough to remember those hardship days for 13?
My dad watched some sports show that was pre recorded and the voice track started to slow down into a moaning sound and my dad was getting very angry. Then it speed up till it sounded like the chipmunks. Then my dad burst out laughing.
We lived down the street from the station and we would get a shadow on 11 and 9. They even ran adds for Walts Texaco , our neighborhood gas station and a good one. Bob Corcoran used to host swing shift theater and then got too big for his britches and decided to fund his own shows. He paid for the 7.p.m. block time, then went out and found his own sponsors. He fell behind on his payments, but the station went ahead and carried his show because they had nothing better to show. I knew someone who talked to Mr. Blaidon and he said if he does buy the station, he is not about to put up with that garbage.
Getting off topic a little bit, KMO used to run a very long winded show on Sunday nights at 7.p.m about Long Acres. It was 25 minutes long and the announcer would talk about a restaurant in Vancouver B.C. where he and his wife ordered food and he would tell listeners what they ordered. Then back to the races. I now wonder if it is the same show? One Sunday the tape was lost and only three people called up to complain. That show must have been very popular. “not” A few years latter KMO had a 15 minute show telling you what little league team was playing at what playground. A Tacoma radio veteran told me that Tacoma radio was now at a all time low. Penny from “penny and her pals” also worked as a waitress at Johnnys Dock. I hear ch. 13 station personal lived in the low income projects.
Vic Cozzetti had a very gravelly voice, quite hard to understand. Vic hosted the Longacres report.
Yeah, I was already aware of that one, which I think occurred when 13 was under a court-ordered receivership bankruptcy after the Blaidon Mutual Investors ownership of the station. But I know that with the famous Robert O. Smith involved, it could never be a standard station ID… 🙂 He certainly was a character…
Standard station ID for KTVW was a card much like this one https://www.qzvx.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ktvwcheckers-1.jpg with an announcer, no music or fanfare. Still, it would be nice to have some video.
Wow! Even though there are quite a few clips of the KSTW station ID for 11 over many years on YouTube, this is the ONLY KTNT ID that I have seen since 1974, when the government-mandated sale from the Tacoma News-Tribune to WKY Broadcasting (Gaylord) took place and the call letters changed. Quite a find after nearly a half-century!
I wonder if anyone, anywhere, has any taped IDs of the OLD Channel 13 when it was KTVW back then? Probably not, I imagine.
Or when it was Lucky Channel 13, KMO Television
This is the only KTVW clip that I know of… https://www.qzvx.com/2018/10/21/rubberdough-smith/
The Nelson Chevrolet commercial collection, in case you were searching for it.