King Broadcasting public affairs, programming, and news shows collection, 1959-1992

Eric Bremner joined KING in 1957 as a floor director and later served as the KING-TV Promotion Assistant, Promotion Director, documentary writer, and assistant to the Vice President of Broadcasting before his appointment as Corporate Personnel Director. Eric served as Station Manager at KREM-TV/AM/FM in Spokane within this first decade of his employment. He returned to Seattle in 1967 as General Manager of KING-TV, AM, FM. In 1980, he became Corporate Vice President of Television in charge of KING, KGW, KREM, KTVB, KHNL and K38AS. On November 18, 1986 with Ancil Payne’s retirement, a dual leadership was announced. Steve Clifford would serve as Corporate President and CEO and Brenner would serve as President of Broadcasting that now included all radio and television, Northwest Mobile Television, and the ancillary services related to broadcasting. He also served on the NBC Board of Affiliates and was Chairman of the News Committee. The Providence Journal purchased elements of KING Broadcasting in 1992 and Brenner retired in 1993.

Emory Bundy grew up in the Seattle area and graduated from the University of Washington where he served as student body president in his senior year. He was hired in 1969 as KING-TV’s Director of Public Affairs. His first project was The Eighth Day in 1970 when eight half hour installments aired on KING and were replayed on public television asking neighborhoods to gather and solve issues that could make Seattle a better place to live within 30 years; one neighborhood initiated the Burke Gilman Trail. The Eighth Day won the national Sigma Delta Chi award for 1970. In 1971, this KING TV series won a national Saturday Review award. Other programs or series included The Second Mile, People Power, CityFair, and Classified Critical. In 1976, the station followed Bundy’s focus on the nation’s centennial with A New Birth of Freedom that included monthly focused topics such as freedom of speech, freedom from want, freedom of education, and freedom and the environment. Coverage of the National Women’s Conference in 1977 involved an all-female staff from KGW in Portland and KING-TV in Seattle. Evergreen Express was a public affairs magazine that won multiple local Emmys and, in 1979, a National Iris Award as the best Public Affairs program in the top 14 markets in the U.S. Other programs included Make the System Work about voter involvement, It’s About Time focused on senior citizen issues, and The Great American Game that utilized the game show format to teach issues to the region’s television audience. In 1980, King Broadcasting won the Gabriel Award as the best local station in the U.S. In 1981, Bundy won the Abraham Lincoln Award as the best Public Affairs Director in the nation. The Electrical Storm, produced by Bundy, focused on critical and broad energy issues including on the financial difficulties of the Washington Public Supply System’s nuclear projects. This special won the Champion Media Awards for Economic Understanding in 1982. Bundy resigned in 1983 when the station was being positioned for sale.

Sue Stewart was a writer and producer at King Broadcasting. She first worked in the Production Department as a production coordinator where she scheduled the studio production time for live and taped studio programs and organized production photographers’ and directors’ schedules. Stewart’s first documentary was Back in the World about Vietnam veteran’s coming home without any military or civilian help to transition. She was the KING-TV liaison with Lawrence Spivak’s production team when Meet the Press was produced in the KING-5 studios that included then Governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter. Stewart produced several How Come? Programs and served as a producer with news anchor Jean Enersen for a half hour special interviewing first lady Rosalynn Carter in British Columbia in 1977. Stewart joined Emory Bundy’s Public Affairs department in 1975 and helped produce Public Affairs Announcements (PSAs) including the 1976 A New Birth of Freedom that highlighted topics ranging from freedom of speech, education, and the environment. She also produced election shows and was initially a contributing story producer for Evergreen Express, a public affairs half-hour magazine program. She later became the show producer for the 1977-1978 season and Evergreen Express won a Regional Emmy Award. She was one of few female producers in the 1970s and early 1980s and identified many topics for and about women including SIDS, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, child-care costs, and teen suicide. Stewart was part of an all women production team that travelled to Houston, Texas, along with Jean Enersen and KGW Public Affairs Director Pat Briggs and Pat Chapman, the KGW photographer, to cover the National Women’s Conference in 1977.

Anne Stadler helped found and was part of numerous local, national, and international peace building organizations focused on non-violent action to end war from 1960-1971. These organizations included Platform for Peace 1960, Turn Toward Peace, World Without War Council, and the Non-Aligned Council for Disarmament and Peace. From 1973 to 1990, she was a producer at KING-TV5, flagship of the KING Broadcasting Company. She was hired to work with People Power, a diverse coalition of community organizations that guided the subject matter and programming of special programs and documentaries illuminating community challenges and opportunities. Many successful community policies and programs had their origins in People Power programming and collaboration. From 1987 to 1990, she was the American Co-producer for a series of programs produced and aired in collaboration with Gosteleradio (Soviet television). Starting in 1991, she became a consultant and coach to communities, foundations, corporations, and academic institutions and worked with international teams and individuals in India, the former USSR, Uzbekistan, Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US. She was an adjunct faculty at the Antioch Graduate Management Program from 1993 to 2000.

Al Stenson was the floor director at King Broadcasting and a photographer and editor. He worked with Phil Sturholm in the 1960s to cover news stories, football games, and the show Ski Nanny, produced with King’s cartoon weatherman, Bob Cram, as host. Stenson left the newsroom in the 1970s to become the Production department’s top documentary photographer. He won 13 Regional Emmy Awards and a National Iris Award for The Mountain Rainier. Stenson worked with Howard Hall, a writer-producer and co-host of Seattle Today, KING-TV’s daily in-studio morning talk show. He also show A Trek in Nepal with his own camera and offered for broadcast. In his last years at the station, Stenson produced How Come with photographer Darrell Suto. Stenson and Sue Stewart together created Stewart/Stenson Videos in 1985 that continued for 22 years. He created the documentary Drowning of the Three Gorges after making multiple personal treks to China; it is about the making of the Three Gorges Dam that spans the Yangtze River.

Alan Honick worked as a photographer and editor for King Broadcasting in the 1970s on both regularly scheduled programming and public affairs documentaries. The regularly scheduled programming included the award-winning children's news show, "How Come?". During this period, Alan's work won first prizes for both photography and editing from the Society of Professional Journalists. Afterwards, Honick worked for a variety of organizations on documentaries, informational films, and Public Service Announcements. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he wrote and produced a series of documentaries that focused on science and the environment, including: "Voices For Change", about the Clinton Forest Conference, and the circumstances surrounding it, "The Future Forest", an exploration of the forest management plan that eventually emerged from the process launched at the Clinton’s Forest Conference, and "Critical Habitat", a 90 minute documentary on the science, economics and politics of the old growth forest controversy in the Pacific Northwest. This aired on PBS stations nationwide, and won the award for Best Documentary in the Northwest from the Society of Professional Journalists.