Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: Half-century of service

Thursday, July 24, 2003 | 8:34 a.m.

FIFTY YEARS IS A long time. It goes by in the blink of an eye.

KLAS Channel 8 is 50 years old. On July 22, 1953, Gov. Charles Russell pulled the switch that brought television to Southern Nevada and with it a televised history of one of the most dramatic and positive stories in America.

I know I am dating myself, but I was there when all that magic happened. The good news, though, from a very personal perspective, is that I am here 50 years later to write about it.

On Wednesday, a half century to the day that the first full schedule of television opened up the future for the 60,000 residents of this valley, Channel 8 celebrated its golden anniversary at Bellagio. The luncheon was full of political, social and business leaders who celebrated the birthday in much the same way as similar leaders celebrated the birth five decades earlier.

The difference, of course, is that those present yesterday, including Gov. Kenny Guinn, Mayor Oscar Goodman, most of the Clark County Commissioners, longtime station advertisers and business leaders, and the talent that fills the hours of television programming -- from the local anchors and investigative reporters to national names like Mary Hart, Deborah Norville and Ellen DeGeneres -- all knew what they were doing and what general manager Dick Fraim and news director Bob Stoldal were talking about. They had 50 years of history behind them.

But those folks who showed up on that warm summer night at the new headquarters of Southern Nevada's first television station didn't have a clue what to expect. Everything was, to use a gambling term, on the come.

The advertisers -- the folks who ultimately pay the bills -- were interested but uncertain. The talent was, well, mostly homegrown. And the technical team consisted of some knowledgeable individuals, including my Uncle Dave, who demonstrated more courage than brains at times as they had to brave 80 mph winds and hailstorms to climb towers in the middle of nowhere to make sure the links between Los Angeles and Las Vegas remained intact.

In short, the people who brought television to Las Vegas succeeded because they went where no man had dared to go.

There were some nostalgic moments Wednesday, to be sure, because tracing the last 50 years of Channel 8 is like traveling on a parallel plane with the town it serves -- from the birth of modern Las Vegas, just a few years earlier, to its ascendency as America's favorite and fastest-growing city.

I was honored to be part of the celebration because my family, along with the Jolley and Urga families, was one of the original risk-takers who saw television as a necessity for Las Vegas if it was to fulfill its destiny as an all-American city. Over time, my parents became the sole owners of the television station until they sold it to billionaire industrialist, Howard Hughes, who later sold it to Landmark Communications of Virginia. The Batten family, which also owns the Weather Channel, has owned and operated KLAS Channel 8 for the past 25 years.

My father didn't sell to Howard Hughes because of the money, he sold because he couldn't get a good night's sleep. In those days Channel 8 signed off the air around midnight, which coincided with the time Hughes was just waking up. Hughes wanted to watch movies all night so he constantly awakened my father to ask him to turn the "television station back on."

After a particularly trying day, the billionaire made his nightly request to which my father responded, "Why don't you buy the station and play whatever you want, whenever you want?" The rest is history.

The importance of KLAS -- or any good news organization -- was brought home yesterday when Gov. Kenny Guinn remarked how critical the station's decision was to carry full-time news about the recent budget crisis, practically every hour, every day. It was expensive, to be sure, but it brought the crisis home to regular Nevadans who didn't hear the facts -- just the hype from those uninterested in Nevada's future. That coverage, according to the governor, helped win the day.

When the FCC granted and reviewed television licenses, service to the community was always one of the standards by which a licensee was judged. It is a standard which has been met for the past 50 years by KLAS. Not many others can lay similar claim.

So, happy birthday, Channel 8. I am looking forward to your 100th celebration!