Texas Almanac, 1941-1942 Page: 29
[578] p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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STORY OF THE NEWS 29
1929 a modern transmission plant was
built on the Northwest Highway near
Grapevine. At that time the power was
increased to 5,000-watts and the station
was assigned to a national cleared chan-
nel, which it occupies today. In 1930 the
power in WFAA was increased to 50,000
watts, thus becoming the first super-
power station in the South and the first
owned by any newspaper.
Facilities of WFAA.
Radio Station KGKO has been jointly
owned by The Dallas Morning News and
the Carter Publications of Fort Worth,
publishers of the Star-Telegram, since
Sept. 1, 1940. This station began opera-
tion in Wichita Falls in 1928 as a com-
paratively low-powered station. It was
bought by the Carter Publications in
1937 and transferred to Fort Worth. Its
modern transmitter was constructed at
that time to provide 5,000-watts power.
The plant is located a short distance
south of the city of Arlington and equi-
distant from Dallas and Fort Worth.
From its Dallas studios The News' or-
ganization furnishes programs, not only
or WFAA but also for one half of the
daily operating period of KGKO.
Two short wave stations are also main-
tained by the staff of WFAA, primarily
for picking up broadcasts of sports and
field events of various sorts. One is a
pack transmitter known as Station
KEGE, which sends in reports on 31,000
kilocycle wave length to WFAA, which
rebroadcasts on its own assigned fre-
quency of 82D kilocycles. The other is
Station KFAA, a mobile transmitter
built on an automobile chassis and oper-
ating on 1,622 kilocycles. It is used pri-
marily in picking up reports of events
at a greater distance from the main
broadcasting station than can be served
by the pack-transmitter.
To keep abreast of the field of broad-
casting, WFAA in 1938 installed a single
vertical radiator at its transmission plant
to replace its old antennae. This steel
tower rises 653 feet above the ground
and though it weighs 168,000 pounds, it
rests upon a porcelain insulator only
eight inches in diameter. A network of
twenty-two miles of copper wire, placed
underground in spokelike fashion over
an area of thirty-two acres, completes
the radiating system. This improvement
extended the primary listening zone of
WFAA to such a radius that the station
has the greatest coverage, day and
night, of any in the United States.
New Broadcast Studios.
New studios built at a cost of $160,000
were among the improvements complet-
ed during 1941. These are located in the
penthouse on the tenth floor of the sec-
ond unit of the Santa Fe Building. They
are unexcelled by radiobroadcasting fa-
cilities anywhere in the United States
and in size and number of studios, are
equaled only by facilities in the major
network producing centers of New York,
Chicago and Hollywood. The studios
were in process of construction for morethan a year. New and revolutionary
principles of sound diffusion, rather than
the old methods of sound absorption,
were incorporated in them.
Studio "A" has an auditorium seating
300 people and a stage capable of seating
a symphony orchestra of eighty-four
pieces. In addition there are four other
studios, a newsroom, recording labora-
tories, offices and lounges to accommo-
date the more than 100 employees of the
station.
All frequencies used by WFAA and
complementary services are assigned to
the publishers of The News by the Fed-
eral Communications Commission. James
M. Moroney, vice-president and secretary
of the A. H. Belo Corporation, is super-
visor of The News' radio properties. The
management of WFAA and now of
KGKO has been under the direction of
Martin B. Campbell for several years.
Station KGKO is licensed to the KGKO
Broadcasting Company, of which G. B.
Dealey is chairman of the board; Amon
G. Carter, president; E. M. (Ted) Dealey,
vice-president; B. N. Honea, vice-presi-
dent; James M. Moroney, treasurer, and
Harold Hough, secretary.
Recent Corporate History.
The corporate history of The News
during the past forty years begins with
the death of Col. A. H. Belo in 1901.
He was succeeded in the presidency by
his son, Alfred H. Belo Jr. Two other
notable figures in the management of
The News, both prior to Colonel Belo's
death and during the presidency of his
son, were Col. R. G. Lowe, vice-presi-
dent, and Thomas W. Dealey, secretary
of the company. Both of the latter men
retained their residence in Galveston,
which was corporate headquarters of the
company at that time.
Within the short span of six weeks
three of the ranking officials of The
News were taken by death in 1906.
They were President Alfred H. Belo Jr.,
Vice-President R. G. Lowe and Treasurer
Thomas W. Dealey. At a called meeting
of stockholders and directors, G. B.
Dealey was now named vice-president
and general manager of all properties
of the company, with Mrs. Nettie Ennis
Belo, widow of Colonel Belo, as titular
president. C. Lombardi, a notable busi-
ness and civic leader of Texas and a
brother-in-law of Mrs. Belo, also joined
the company as an official. Upon Mrs.
Belo's death in 1913, Mr. Lombardi was
elected president, serving until his death
in 1919. Mr. Dealey then became presi-
dent of the company, serving in that ca-
pacity for the next twenty years. In
1939, Mr. Dealey was elected the first
chairman of the board and was succeed-
ed in the presidency by his son, E. M.
(Ted) Dealey.
In 1923 the Galveston Daily News was
sold to W. L. Moody of Galveston and
corporate headquarters of the historic
publishing company were moved from
Galveston to Dallas. All files, corporate
records and other property were trans-
ferred to Dallas, including The Semi-
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Texas Almanac, 1941-1942, book, 1941; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117164/m1/31/?rotate=270: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.