Harriscope 1985
Twin brothers Burt and Irving Harris were Harriscope Corporatation. In 1985 they owned part interest in a group of stations including KFAC AM/FM Los Angeles, KTWO AM Casper and TV stations KWHY Los Angeles, WSNS Chicago, KBAK Bakersfield, KGGM Albuquerque, KULR Billings and KTWO Casper. Started in 1962 as Harriscope Broadcasting Corporation, in Chicago Illinois, the headquarters later moved to Los Angeles where son Burt Jr "Buzz" was GM. Shortly after the KTWO/KULR sale, the original corporation was dissolved as the remaining stations were incorporated individually. They have now sold all of the stations, the last two being Los Angeles and Chicago to Telemundo/NBC network.
From 1967 to 1974 GM of KTWO in Casper was E. D. "Bob" Merrill. After that he moved to Billings MT to be GM of the Harriscope sister station KULR until it was traded as part of the KTWO sale at the end of 1986. He served as president of the Montana Broadcasters Association and was inducted into their Hall of Fame.
The new GM at Casper was Jack Rosenthal who transfered in from the Harriscope Chicago station. Steve Broomell setup a satellite dish at the TV studios so Jack could watch the Cubs baseball, all day games then. When the TV was sold, Jack was president of Harriscope and used his corporate buy-out to purchase KTWO Radio. Jack was inducted into the Wyoming Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2003.
Harriscope workers were a pretty happy lot. There was a profit sharing plan so that managers did not go unrewarded and bonuses were announced at the regular Christmas party. Harriscope passed out lots of gifts to the employees, they were mostly items they bought from the PI advertisers during the year to insure they were honest about reporting sales.
From 1967 to 1974 GM of KTWO in Casper was E. D. "Bob" Merrill. After that he moved to Billings MT to be GM of the Harriscope sister station KULR until it was traded as part of the KTWO sale at the end of 1986. He served as president of the Montana Broadcasters Association and was inducted into their Hall of Fame.
The new GM at Casper was Jack Rosenthal who transfered in from the Harriscope Chicago station. Steve Broomell setup a satellite dish at the TV studios so Jack could watch the Cubs baseball, all day games then. When the TV was sold, Jack was president of Harriscope and used his corporate buy-out to purchase KTWO Radio. Jack was inducted into the Wyoming Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2003.
Harriscope workers were a pretty happy lot. There was a profit sharing plan so that managers did not go unrewarded and bonuses were announced at the regular Christmas party. Harriscope passed out lots of gifts to the employees, they were mostly items they bought from the PI advertisers during the year to insure they were honest about reporting sales.
Comments