Pieces of 8: Memories abound as KLAS celebrates 50th anniversary

KLAS Channel 8 will repeat its hourlong 50th anniversary special at 10 a.m. Sunday.

You only turn 50 once.

That time is now for KLAS Channel 8, the first television station in Nevada. Tuesday it became the first television station in the state to reach the half-century mark. In a town that seems to celebrate milestones in monthly installments, the golden anniversary is worth noting.

As Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said during a KLAS 50th anniversary luncheon at Bellagio on Wednesday afternoon: "We are celebrating our 100th anniversary (as a city) May 5, 2005. Here we have a station that's been around more than half our lifetime. That says it all."

It was at 7:05 p.m. on July 22, 1953, when then-Nevada Gov. Charles Russell pulled the switch for KLAS, officially beginning a new era for Southern Nevada's 50,000-plus residents.

Racing against competitor Donald W. Reynolds (among others throughout the state) to provide the state's first television signal, Hank Greenspun and 17 partners were the first to bring TV into Nevada homes. Greenspun was also founder of the Las Vegas Sun.

KLAS signed on with 5,000 watts generated by a single antenna standing 287 feet tall, which at the time was the tallest structure in the state. The tower was located about 100 yards east of the Las Vegas Strip, just off Desert Inn Road, where it still stands.

As Greenspun wrote in a "Where I Stand" column on the day KLAS began broadcasting, it was a difficult and time-consuming journey:

"Television starts today in Southern Nevada, only a month off schedule. When the permit was granted to KLAS-TV, and the target day in June was announced, many were the scoffers who facetiously asked, What year?' Well! It's the same year and record-making progress was made. There were some blocks thrown in the path of the new station and other emergencies occurred beyond the power of the officials of the station to foresee; nevertheless, this new medium of entertainment now will be a reality."

Dick Fraim, president and general manager of KLAS, said the station still bears the mark of Greenspun.

"I think from the roots of the television station, it all goes back to Hank Greenspun," Fraim said. "Hank had a vision of this community and loved this community. He put his stamp on this station. He was a fiercely independent newsman when he owned the Las Vegas Sun. I think that heritage came from him. KLAS is really a product of what was was going on there."

Nights at improv

When KLAS debuted it signed on as an affiliate of CBS, a partnership it recently renewed through 2015.

But because it was the only TV station in the state, KLAS also provided programming from ABC and the long-since-defunct DuMont Television Network.

There was also local programming: "At Home With Norma," a living guide for the '50s homemaker; "Bostwick's Western Corral," "Channel 8 Music Hall" and "Ringside With Wrestlers," among others.

Some of the hosts of these shows became local celebrities, including Gus Giuffre, who hosted an afternoon movie show, and Nancy Merle Bunker, aka "Miss Cinderella," who was a kiddie-show personality.

Senior District Judge Jack Lehman was one such personality. Lehman served two roles at the station from 1955 to '59: Commander Lee, host of an hourlong children's show weeknights on KLAS; and as sole anchor for the five-minute 11 p.m.-11:05 p.m. newscast.

"It was really more like 3 to 3 1/2 minutes, because we had commercials at the beginning and at the end of the show," Lehman said.

Already a radio personality, Lehman was 27 when he moved to Las Vegas from Arizona to continue working in radio -- and branch off into television.

Lehman actually took a job working for an advertising firm, the Melvin Agency, which produced "Commander Lee." The show, which featured cartoons and "Buck Rogers" and "Flash Gordon" serials, was sponsored by Vegas Village, a combined department and grocery store.

"I had anywhere from 15 to 20 kids on per night," Lehman said. "To get on the show, they had to go to Vegas Village and sign up."

Brian Greenspun, Hank's oldest son and today president and editor of the Sun, remembers well wanting to be a part of the show while a youngster.

"I remember my dad telling me it wouldn't be right my going on the show. He said many other kids couldn't get on the show and it wouldn't be fair to them," Greenspun said at the Bellagio luncheon. "As a result ... I never got on."

But there were plenty of children who did.

"There were 50,000 people in town and I had 7,800 Submariners in our Commander Lee Club," said Lehman, recently inducted into the new KLAS-TV Hall of Fame, which honors pioneers of live television in Southern Nevada. "All of the kids had their picture taken with me."

It got to the point where Lehman became quite well-known.

"I took advantage of it by selling insurance," he said. "I made pretty good money at it because people in town knew me."

As longtime KLAS employee Bob Stoldal -- now vice president of news for KLAS news -- said, those were different times.

"Television was in its infancy. You saw these people day after day, they became less of a service and more of your family," Stoldal said. "They became part of the fabric of the community.

"But as television grew and satellites came in, that all changed."

Hughes news

Greenspun, who by 1959 had bought out his fellow shareholders, sold the station to Howard Hughes in November 1968. Thus began a new chapter in the history of KLAS, suitable for urban legend status.

Hughes, the eccentric billionaire, had famously established permanent residence on the ninth floor of the Desert Inn, where he remained during his four-year stay in Las Vegas.

As legend has it, Hughes bought the station from the Greenspun family so he could entertain himself with the channel's movie broadcasts.

On numerous occasions a Hughes assistant would phone the KLAS studio late at night with instructions from his employer to repeat portions of movies Hughes had missed or to switch to another film entirely.

Stoldal, at the time the news director at KLAS, recalls one night in particular.

"I remember waking up one night and seeing 'Bullitt' on KLAS and it was still in theaters," said Stoldal.

Hughes had read about the movie and, using some old contacts from his days in Hollywood, managed to get the movie aired on his station.

However, Stoldal said, "There was no announcement that we were going to run 'Bullitt' at 3 in the morning."

Growth in Vegas

KLAS had already changed considerably by the time Stoldal was hired in '68. The station had a full-time news department of less than a dozen employees, compared to about 130 today.

"The fundamental things we did then, we're still doing," he said. "We've just grown."

For example: In 1968 KLAS offered a half-hour of news at 6 p.m. and again at 11 p.m. on weeknights and 15 minutes of news Sunday evening -- compared to the six hours of news it now offers every day.

"We did a lot less news when I started," said Paula Francis, one of the station's main anchors since she arrived in 1988. "We have added a 4 o'clock news and more hours in the morning ... we keep turning out more news because there seems to be an enormous appetite for it."

Virginia Canfield, who has been with the station since 1972, can also testify to the station's growth.

The business manager of KLAS points outside her office window to her "back yard." What used to be small hills of grass and trees are now home to the station's eight satellite dishes.

"It seems like we're constantly changing all the technology," she said.

Canfield remembers moving into the station's home in 1976. Twenty-seven years later the station is still at 3228 Channel 8 Drive -- only with a different owner. Landmark Communications Inc. bought it in 1978, two years after Hughes' death.

The building has had quite an overhaul since.

Touring the nooks and crannies of the station's multimillion-dollar makeover, completed last year, top anchor Gary Waddell proudly discusses the expansion: a state-of-the-art newsroom with video-editing capabilities at every desk and a new, multiset studio that includes Las Vegas ONE (the local all-news station that is a joint partnership between KLAS and the Sun) and even a weight room upstairs.

Waddell says the look and feel of the station is quite different than when he joined KLAS in 1980 as the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. anchor. At that time there were three reporters, two photographers, two news anchors, a sports anchor, weatherman, news director and a secretary at the station.

KLAS was the true TV news leader in Las Vegas, Waddell said.

"They were the killer when I came here," he said. "They were the gorilla of the market."

In 2003, however, the station ran second to KVBC Channel 3 (NBC) in all of the newscasts ratings for the May sweeps period, according to Nielsen Media Research in Las Vegas.

Of course, the market is far more competitive now than it was in 1980, Waddell said.

"When I came (to Las Vegas) in 1975, we were the 143rd market in the country. Now we're 40-something," he said. "It's so completely different than it was in 1980 -- the technological capabilities are night and day." But, Waddell is quick to say, he has enjoyed his 23 years at the station -- which included recent changes in his shift to the noon, 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. slots. He was moved off the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts.

"It's been a helluva ride. It's been fun," Waddell said. "I'd like to get another 50 years here."

Then he laughs. "But I know that's out of the question."

History with Oscar

Over the years Goodman has had his run-ins with KLAS. As an attorney for mob figures investigated in a KLAS report, the former attorney sued the station to reveal its sources. He lost.

Goodman also lost a case barring TV cameras in the courtroom, an effort KLAS championed.

At a Wednesday's anniversary luncheon, however, the mayor was all smiles.

"I was thinking about my time before I was mayor. I was fighting, cajoling and, in many ways, loving Channel 8," he said. "They are certainly a real force in the community."

And an affiliate of some prominence. Mary Hart of "Entertainment Tonight" and Deborah Norville of "Inside Edition," both hosts of syndicated shows airing weeknights on KLAS, attended the event.

Ellen DeGeneres, whose upcoming syndicated variety talk show, "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," will air on KLAS this fall, was also on hand.

Also present were Gov. Kenny Guinn, Dan Van Epp, president of Howard Hughes Corp., and Frank Batten Jr., chairman of Landmark Communications. All discussed their history and memories of KLAS.

"For its size, KLAS has more impact than any of our other businesses," Batten said. (Landmark Communications owns the Weather Channel, a CBS affiliate in Nashville, Tenn., and more than 100 publications nationwide.)

Fraim said the station's success can be traced all the way back to its original owners.

"We respect what happened before us," Fraim said. "And we love the fact we have this heritage and that we were able to be a chronicler of Las Vegas and the history of what has happened here."

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