King Broadcasting Company

King Broadcasting Company is an American former media conglomerate founded in 1946 by Dorothy Bullitt. The company was owned by the Bullitt family until it was sold to the Providence Journal Company in 1991; it is currently a subsidiary of Tegna as the licensee for its remaining stations. Based in Seattle, Washington, it began with one AM radio station and grew to include a large group of broadcast television and radio stations as well as a cable television network throughout the Western United States.

In 1946, Dorothy Bullitt purchased Seattle radio station KEVR, 1090 AM. KEVR had no network affiliation and relied entirely on syndicated programming from service providers such as World Transcription Service, MacGregor Transcription Service, and Fredrick W. Ziv Productions. Due to this, KEVR aired programs such as Boston Blackie, The Shadow, The Lone Ranger, and Calling All Cars, programs the big network radio stations did not have. As a result, KEVR offered independent listening choices that maintained a rather large listening audience, the cost, of which, was supported by commercial advertising sponsors. Although not having a network was a tough proposition, the station prospered under Dorothy Bullitt's guidance.

In the early days, the Ziv Company also furnished syndicated television programming to KING-TV, such as Highway Patrol, starring Broderick Crawford, and Sea Hunt, starring Lloyd Bridges.

Bullitt's radio station later raised its output power to 50,000 watts, the maximum allowed in the United States.

Also in 1947, Bullitt purchased call letters from a fishing boat and changed KEVR to KING.

In 1948, Dorothy Bullitt constructed KING-FM at 98.1 to air classical music, her favorite. In 1949, she purchased KRSC-TV, Channel 5, for $375,000. The call letters of the television station were also changed to KING-TV.

When KRSC-TV first went on the air Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1948, under other ownership, it was the only television station west of Minneapolis and north of San Francisco. At that time, many considered television a fad and passing fancy. Consequently, making a go of a television station during this time period was a daunting effort.

On 30 September 1948, the Federal Communications Commission announced a "freeze" on the granting of new television licenses (those already authorized were allowed to begin or continue operations). The commission had already granted over 100 licenses and was inundated with hundreds of additional applications. Unable to resolve several important interference, allocation and other technical questions because of this rush, the FCC believed that the freeze would allow it to hold hearings and study the issues, leading to something of a "master blueprint" for television in the United States. With the 14 April 1952 issuance of the commission's 6th Report and Order, the freeze was finally lifted.