WHO IS THE AUTHOR OF THIS WEBSITE?
My name is Bill Harms. I was born in the Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane. I grew up in Spokane Valley and graduated from West Valley High School in 1974. As I grew up, I was fascinated by the tall radio towers on Spokane's South Hill, especially KHQ's tower with the neon tubes which ran the entire length of its 800-plus-foot tall mast. I used to take a radio with me to bed and listen to stations all night long. I also built my own crystal radio set and would put the attached telephone receiver speaker under my pillow so I could listen to the local stations. Although my career has taken me away from broadcasting, I have always been fascinated with the idea of putting voices and music over the air and picking them up on the other end.
I also love history, especially Spokane history. So I decided that I would put my two interests together and write a history of broadcasting in Spokane. This project started in 2005 when I visited Spokane and became acquainted with Tom Read of the American Pioneer Broadcasters. Also during my visit, I located KGA's old transmitter building at the Lidgerwood Elementary School and was introduced to a gentleman named Dean Carriveau who graciously allowed me to copy the original manuscript of Jorgenson and Partlow's Early Days of Spokane Radio. With Tom's encouragement and armed with Jorgenson and Partlow's work, I received the impetus to go forward with this project. Since then I have "spelunked" into the FCC records at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. But the most gratifying part of this project is getting to personally know many of the Spokane broadcasters for whom this is all about.
I hope you enjoy these pages.
Bill Harms
[email protected] (remove the "!")
10 August 2008