View XML QR Code

Edmund B. Craney papers, 1916-1979

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Craney, Edmund B., 1905-1991
Title
Edmund B. Craney papers
Dates
1916-1979 (inclusive)
Quantity
145 linear feet
Collection Number
MC 122 (collection)
Summary
Edmund Craney was a pioneer in Montana radio broadcasting. He was affiliated with Pacific Northwest Broadcasting; XL radio stations in Washington, Oregon, and Montana; and the Z Bar Network. This collection consists of correspondence, financial records, subject files, printed materials, yearbooks, clippings, and legal documents dated from 1920 to 1970.
Repository
Montana Historical Society, Library & Archives
Montana Historical Society Research Center Archives
225 North Roberts
PO Box 201201
Helena MT
59620-1201
Telephone: 4064442681
Fax: 4064445297
mhslibrary@mt.gov
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Return to Top

Biographical Note

Edmund Blodgette Craney was born in Spokane, Washington, on February 19, 1905. His parents, Lucy Alice Blodgette and James Craney, natives of Maine, married in Palouse, Washington, where James was a lumbering contractor. In 1914, James accepted the position of Superintendent of the Great Northern Railroad's Somers Lumber Company for operations at Swan Lake, Montana, where the Craney family (sons Ed and Oliver; daughters Emily, Martha, and Cora) lived in a remote camp. They returned to Spokane in 1919. After graduation from high school, Ed worked in a radio parts store owned by Thomas W. Symons, Jr.

In 1922, Thomas Symons and Edmund Craney started Spokane's first radio station, KFDC. During the 1920s, Craney traveled throughout the northwest to increase wholesale radio sales. After several visits to Montana, he decided to branch out and, in 1928, the Federal Radio Commission granted the Symons Investment Company permission to broadcast from Butte, Montana. Thus on January 31, 1929, Butte's first radio station, KGIR, went on the air. Kenneth 0. MacPherson, announcer, and Leo McMullan, advertising salesman, assisted Craney in managing the station. During the mid-1930s, in order to improve KGIR's frequency, Craney brought Robert D. Martin, a Spokane engineer, to Montana to make field intensity measurements. This was the first such survey in the state and resulted in the station's move to a permanent location at Nissler, seven miles west of Butte, in 1937.

In 1931, Craney, assisted by Senator Burton K. Wheeler (a member of the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Commission), obtained network affiliation for KGIR with the National Broadcasting Company. A year later, however, as the effects of the depression hit the broadcasting industry, NBC decided to withdraw from Montana. Wheeler, acting this time as Craney's attorney, succeeded in maintaining the affiliation.

Craney joined the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) in 1928. During the early 1930s, while he was serving on the NAB Copyright Committee, he urged the association to take a more active roll in the ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) copyright controversy. Craney, among others, opposed ASCAP's fee increase for copyrighted music and proposed that royalty payments be made on a per-use basis. Both on national and local levels Craney tackled the controversy. In Montana, as a leader of the Montana Association of Broadcasters, Craney sought professional advice and hired attorney Kenneth C. Davis (Washington State Association of Broadcasters) to draft Montana copyright laws. In 1939, he helped organize the Independent Radio Networks Affiliates.

During the 1940s, Craney actively opposed super-power for stations on an international level. With the aid of Burton K. Wheeler, Craney and other broadcasters lobbied to also limit the power of clear-channel stations. They contended that it was entirely feasible to provide better radio coverage to rural areas by the application of modern engineering rather than using more power.

Craney decided to expand his radio operations in the late 1930s by creating a regional network. In 1937, the Federal Communications Commission granted the Peoples' Forum of the Air in Helena, Montana permission to broadcast as KPFA. Kenneth 0. MacPherson of KGIR became manager. Two years later a third station, KRBM in Bozeman, Montana joined the network and was run by Ernest Neath. Known as the Z Bar Network (after a famous cattle brand), the three stations were all affiliated with NBC and linked by telephone circuits which fed national programing from the "mother" station in Butte. In 1947 station KXLL in Missoula, with manager Patrick Goodover, and station KXLK in Great Falls, headed by MacPherson, joined Craney's Z Bar Network.

Craney's approach to the business of broadcast advertising and promotion followed a group pattern. In addition to the Montana Broadcasters (sales), he organized the Pacific Northwest Coverage Group in the 1930s. With headquarters in Butte, this company handled advertising for the Z Bar Network and the Washington-Oregon Network (KFPY Spokane, KRSC Seattle, and KXL Portland). In 1945 Craney formed the Pacific Northwest Broadcasters. As managing director, Craney, assisted by James Manning, handled regional advertising campaigns. As a part of his plan he received clearance from the FCC to change all affiliated stations' call letters to the "XL" designate (e.g. KGIR became KXLF).

Television became part of Craney's network system after the FCC lifted their television "freeze" in 1952. KXLY-TV in Spokane started telecasting in February 1953. Craney subsequently created Television Montana, an operating corporation for his proposed Montana stations. In the fall of 1953 Butte's KXLF-TV came on the air and four years later KXLJ-TV in Helena joined the system. Barclay Craighead, stockholder and manager of radio station KXLJ, assumed the presidency of the newly incorporated Capital City Television in Helena.

Committed to broadcasting in Montana, Craney became interested in television auxiliary systems that brought signals to isolated communities barred by mountains. In 1956 he installed a co-channel booster near Butte. This low- powered radiating device re-transmitted signals via antennas and amplifiers. Boosters, or repeaters, and translators (that brought clearer reception by direct frequency conversion) were effective and popular in the West. As early as 1954, however, the FCC (citing possible interference and violation of Section 301 of the Communications Act of 1934) declared boosters and translators illegal. Two years later the Commission did authorize 10-watt UHF translators, in order to develop the UHF band of frequencies, but they refused to legalize VHF translators (Docket 11611).

Cable television was another type of auxiliary system that proliferated in the 1950s. CATV (Community Antenna Television) grew unchecked by the FCC, since the Commissioners held that CATV was not engaged in common carrier operation and therefore was outside its jurisdiction.

In the late 1950s, Craney lobbied for the FCC's authorization of VHF translators and for the regulation of CATV. First he initiated a meeting with Congressional leaders and convinced them to include the translator problem on the agenda of proposed Senate hearings. Then, in 1959 he organized the Tri-State Television Repeater Association, a non-profit, unincorporated group that represented booster clubs in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Finally in 1960 Congress, influenced by "grass-roots" testimonies, passed the enabling legislation (S.1886) to give the FCC authority to license I watt translators (Docket 12116).

During the late 1950s, Craney decided to sell his Pacific Northwest holdings, including KXL and KXLY. Then in 1961 he sold his Z Bar Network to Joseph Sample. Retired from broadcasting and marketing, Craney took a more active roll in translator lobbying. Assisted by James B. Beamer, of Livingston, he assumed the presidency of the newly named Tri-State Television Translator Association and in 1967 Craney led the move to reorganize Tri-State into becoming the National Television Translator Association. Judge Nat Allen, of Roundup, served as president while Craney edited the Bulletin which disseminated news and technological information throughout the country.

Though Craney stepped aside as editor in 1970, he continued to be the forceful influence that had led to more power and common carrier microwave for all translators, the inclusion of FM translators in the Association and the licensing of satellite translators. By the mid-1970s the effectiveness of the National Translator Association's lobbying was most evident.

Return to Top

Content Description

The collection is arranged in four major subgroups: the Edmund B. Craney Subgroup, the Stations Subgroup, the Advertising and Promotional Subgroup, and the Broadcasting Associations Subgroup. The EDMUND B. CRANEY SUBGROUP is composed of Craney's general correspondence files and his subject files. This core material spans several decades and has been kept together to maintain continuity. In this core section Craney's long-time association with Burton K. Wheeler, his business relationships with NBC and the FCC, and his correspondence with broadcasters throughout the country document the growth of the industry from 1922-1979. The STATIONS SUBGROUP includes a diverse collection of materials that deal with Craney's stations and the Z Bar and XL Networks. Correspondence, program and political-campaign contracts, yearbook reports, and subject files characterize the operations of each. In programming, the Z Bar Network's Montana Booster campaign, Montana Radio Forum, and the 1950 award-winning KXLJ Legislative Highlights coverage are of particular interest. The ADVERTISING AND PROMOTIONAL SUBGROUP contains correspondence, yearbook reports, and subject files that provide a complete view of the growth of Craney's broadcasting business. Craney formed sales and promotional organizations for his Montana and Pacific Northwest stations and like other broadcasters he hired station representatives such as Gene Furgason, Tracy Moore, and Wythe Walker to secure national accounts. Subject files contain promotional materials on the Pacific Northwest Playground publication and on the Parade of Products campaigns. In 1947, 1953, and 1954 the XL stations received Billboard awards for radio promotion. The last section is the BROADCASTING ASSOCIATIONS SUBGROUP. It includes records of the trade organization NAB and of numerous radio and television lobbying associations that Craney either organized or directed. Also documented is Craney's leadership in the Montana Association of Broadcasters and his involvement in the NAB management's handling of the ASCAP copyright controversy during the late 1930s. Correspondence with NAB officers and attorneys deals with key issues and Craney's subsequent resignation from NAB in 1941. Correspondence, organizational material, and subject files outline the aims and membership of the various groups opposed to ASCAP. This subgroup also contains correspondence between Craney and his attorneys (especially Fanney Litvin ), FCC officials, broadcasters, and politicians that documents Craney's influence on the growing television industry and illuminates the relationship between Congress and the FCC. Processing Note: During the processing of this collection it was not always possible to group materials on similar subjects together. For example, ASCAP and FCC subject files are located both in the core section and in pertinent other subgroups. Craney created his own files (32-1, 32-2, 34-6, 36-1, 36-2, 47-10, 193-1, 246-10, 248-2) and bound Translator Volumes that contain correspondence and Bulletin materials. Where related records are located in more than one area, cross references to individuals and organizations direct the researcher to all connections.

Return to Top

Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

The Montana Historical Society is the owner of the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from the Research Library before any reproduction use. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright owners.

Preferred Citation

Item description and date. Collection Title. Collection Number. Box and Folder numbers. Montana Historical Society Research Center, Archives, Helena, Montana.

Return to Top

Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged by subgroup and series. Some material housed in Manuscript Volumes and Archives Oversize Map Case.

Location of Collection

6:3-4

Acquisition Information

Acquisition information available upon request

Return to Top

Detailed Description of the Collection

Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection

Finding aid prepared by MHS staff
2004

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

About Creative Commons Licenses in Archives West