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Bonneville Radio Consultant Robert Gill

valvashon

valvashon

I'm doing a deep dive into the history of KWPX-TV (where I now work) and there's little to nothing in the files pre-1995 or so. I know the original license was granted to Robert Gill Communications Inc. in 1985; in the BC Yearbook he is listed as a "Consultant to Bonneville Radio". Does this name ring a bell with any radio veterans here in the Puget Sound?

The original call letters were KBGE, standing for "Bob Gill Enterprises" , applied for in 1985 with a license to cover granted in 1989. There are three transfers of control (unnamed parties on the documents I can find with the FCC) between then and 1995, along with an unspecified date of it going dark.

Anybody remember anything?

Thanks
 
I was there in 1976-1977 and he may have been the guy who told the GM to can my butt. Don't remember the guy's name, which is fair, because I'm sure he doesn't remember mine!!!
 

"Mr. Gill moved to Seattle in the early 1950s, and became a teacher of crafts and mechanical drawing at Ballard High School and what was then Denny Junior High School - as well as a school administrator in Ballard for 17 years.

But he had always wanted to learn to ski. So his second day here he bought a pair of skis. Two years later, he was the nation's first black certified ski-instructor, according to his brother.

In the late 1960s he worked for KING and KOMO. He went to KIRO-TV in the 1970s, where he became director of minority affairs and developed the award-winning commentary show "Dialog."

Soon he was promoted to vice president of KIRO Broadcasting, then made a vice president of Bonneville International Corp., KIRO's parent company."
 
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speer360 said:

"Mr. Gill moved to Seattle in the early 1950s, and became a teacher of crafts and mechanical drawing at Ballard High School and what was then Denny Junior High School - as well as a school administrator in Ballard for 17 years.

But he had always wanted to learn to ski. So his second day here he bought a pair of skis. Two years later, he was the nation's first black certified ski-instructor, according to his brother.

In the late 1960s he worked for KING and KOMO. He went to KIRO-TV in the 1970s, where he became director of minority affairs and developed the award-winning commentary show "Dialog."

Soon he was promoted to vice president of KIRO Broadcasting, then made a vice president of Bonneville International Corp., KIRO's parent company."
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link to this. Although the article doesn't mention KBGE this must be the same Bob Gill. His death in 1994 would seem to coincide with one of the Transfer of Control filings and the fact that the station left the air at an unspecified date. I have also found evidence of a "fire sale" price and the fact that the assets were a license and antenna but no transmitter. Would love to get the story on that one.
speer360 said:

Looks like the original licensee were under a few names. Gill Communications & Robert Gill Communications Ltd.Partnership
Click to expand...
I did find that there were two entities that held the license having previously searched the TV Factbook. My research indicates that these are two groups of people within the Gill family.
 
valvashon said:
Thanks for the link to this. Although the article doesn't mention KBGE this must be the same Bob Gill. His death in 1994 would seem to coincide with one of the Transfer of Control filings and the fact that the station left the air at an unspecified date. I have also found evidence of a "fire sale" price and the fact that the assets were a license and antenna but no transmitter. Would love to get the story on that one.
Click to expand...
Welcome!

Certainly does seem to match with BTCCT-19941220KE

"TRANSFER CONTROL OF ROBERT GILL COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED
PARTNERSHIP FROM ROBERT L. GILL (DECEASED) TO
ELMER GILL, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE. "

Elmer Gill was his brother as mentioned in the Seattle time/AP article

Elmer Gill - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
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crownpropeller.wordpress.com

Elmer Gill on 45rpm

In the ususal discographical sources there are only very few entries for Canadian pianist and vibist Elmer Gill who used to play with Lionel Hampton for a while in the early fifties, in the period …
crownpropeller.wordpress.com crownpropeller.wordpress.com

Donald Gill (Elmer's Son, Robert's Nephew) comments down below in this above blog post. 11 years ago, with some contact info.
He may have information you don't have, assuming he is still alive.
Deceased. Elmer Gill and Mario Schneeberger
 
speer360 said:
Welcome!

Certainly does seem to match with BTCCT-19941220KE

"TRANSFER CONTROL OF ROBERT GILL COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED
PARTNERSHIP FROM ROBERT L. GILL (DECEASED) TO
ELMER GILL, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE. "

Elmer Gill was his brother as mentioned in the Seattle time/AP article

Elmer Gill - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...
Thanks again- where did you get the info in quotes? That's what I am missing in all of the Application History listings I am finding on fccdata. org and also the LMS filings. This was super helpful but if you know where the rest of this info is that would be very helpful.
 
valvashon said:
Thanks for the link to this. Although the article doesn't mention KBGE this must be the same Bob Gill. His death in 1994 would seem to coincide with one of the Transfer of Control filings and the fact that the station left the air at an unspecified date. I have also found evidence of a "fire sale" price and the fact that the assets were a license and antenna but no transmitter. Would love to get the story on that one.
Click to expand...
Lets start with this article and see if I can solve your mystery.

Nov 17, 1997 - Seattle TV Station Sold As Part Of $35 Million Deal | The Seattle Times

"Paxson Communications has signed an agreement with ValueVision International to acquire Seattle's KBGE-TV

Paxson, based in West Palm Beach, Fla., will pay ValueVision $25 million on closing, scheduled in the spring. The remaining $10 million will be paid when KBGE, now operating at reduced power from downtown Seattle, is able to relocate and increase its transmitter power to a level at or near its licensed full power.

KBGE broadcasts ValueVision, ValueVision will retain its recently launched low-power station K58DP-TV, which transmits from the top of the Columbia Center."

KGBE(currently KWPX) Timeline
05/01/1989 - LICENSE TO COVER FOR A NEW STATION (broadcasting from Columbia Tower) Channel 33 ERP 14.8kW
12/20/1994 - TRANSFER CONTROL OF ROBERT GILL COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED PARTNERSHIP FROM ROBERT L. GILL (DECEASED) TO ELMER GILL, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE.
04/26/1995 - ASSIGNMENT OF LICENSE FROM ROBERT GILL COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED PARTNERSHIP TO NW TV, INC. - Controlled by ANNE THOMAS PAXSON​
09/29/1995 -ASSIGNMENT OF LICENSE FROM NW TV, INC. TO VVI(ValueVision) SEATTLE, INC.
KGBE is broadcasting ValueVision at this point.
11/21/1997 - VOLUNTARY ASSIGNMENT OF LICENSE FROM: VVI SEATTLE, INC. TO: PAXSON
03/26/1998 - Moves to West Tiger Mountain.
08/31/1998 - PAX Launches on KWPK(Formerly KBGE)

KUSE Timeline.
06/01/1990 - CONSTRUCTION PERMIT FOR A NEW LOW POWER TELEVISION STATION FOR SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, Channel 58 4.07kW Broadcasting from 701 FIFTH AVENUE(Columbia Center) "TRANS. TELEVISION TECHNOLOGY CORP."

Construction permit keeps getting extensions and try to move to channel 39..
seems to be transferred to "BRECKENRIDGE BROADCASTING COMPANY" at some point holding company for Paxson?

11/12/1997 - LICENSE TO COVER FOR A NEW STATION (broadcasting from Columbia Tower) Channel 58 4.07kW
12/18/1997 - VOLUNTARY ASSIGNMENT OF LICENSE FROM: BRECKENRIDGE BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC. TO: VVILPTV(ValueVision)
Assuming Valuevision has a new outlet and now has 2 channels broadcasting? One on a old transmitter... at a higher cost to operate?

My theory
Paxson was planning for awhile, basically bought KBGE, broadcasting from Columbia Tower on 15 year old transmitter, sold the station to ValueVision shortly after, didn't seem worth it to them for some reason.

Paxson, then bought it KGBE back without the transmitter, which Valuevision no longer needed because it just put up a new channel broadcasting from the same tower?, with $10 million on hold until KGBE was relocated to West Tiger with a new transmitter.

Paxson then got a Signal from West Tiger on a Lower Channel Number 33 at 3720kW for Pax to Launch on while ValueVision "did the work".

Mostly all the dates above come from https://fccdata.org/?lang=en&appid=242341&facid=6692 and https://fccdata.org/?lang=en&appid=98795&facid=56852 and the subsequent FCC Fillings with public notices.
 
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Speer360- thanks for the info. Some of your theories are correct but I know from the limited records that I have found that a new 1kw transmitter was ordered and installed in 1995. That transmitter could have been re-tuned and used for K58DP but I'm not sure it was. The engineer at that time still stops by and I am going to pick his brain about all this and see what he remembers.
I do have some info in the records about NWTV but did not see the name Anne Thomas Paxon on any of the records. Paxon is an unusual surname so I can't imagine that it's not the same family.
In the broadcasting yearbooks I was looking at this week NWTV Inc. was buying fire sale stations all over the country and flipping them. A search for KBGE turns up those call letters in a number of declarations of common ownership in station sale notices.
I have more research to do.
 
And maybe I'm using the wrong browser. I'm just not seeing the timeline info you have (in caps) anywhere on the web. And I still don't have any info on the 1991 and 1992 transfers. Maybe they were just internal transfers but I'd still like to know.
 
speer360- can you link me to your information or send me a message about it? My timeline that I am writing up is going off of the "Granted" dates as shown on fccdata. org and your timeline seems to be the filing date(?) I'd love to reconcile the two timelines. Plus I am missing two transfers with granted dates of 6/18/91 and 8/26/92. Thanks.
 
valvashon said:
speer360- can you link me to your information or send me a message about it? My timeline that I am writing up is going off of the "Granted" dates as shown on fccdata. org and your timeline seems to be the filing date(?) I'd love to reconcile the two timelines. Plus I am missing two transfers with granted dates of 6/18/91 and 8/26/92. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Hi ValVashon, All data was from fccdata.org APPLICATION HISTORY Links

Start here https://fccdata.org/?lang=en&appid=98795&facid=56852

Click on the individual application number for instance, "BTCCT-19910530KN" for 6/18/91 leads to https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_list.pl?Arn=19910530KN

Click "info" in the application result, the info I relayed above are under the "PN Comment - Public Notice Comment" option.

6/18/91 is TRANSFER OF CONTROL FROM ROBERT L. GILL, (GENERAL PARTNER) TO ROBERT L. GILL, (GENERAL PARTNER) DEBTOR-IN-POSSESSION

8/26/92 is TRANSFER OF CONTROL FROM ROBERT L. GILL (GENERAL PARTNER), DEBTOR-IN-POSSESSION, TO ROBERT L. GILL (GENERAL PARTNER).

I think Mr. Gill just took out a loan on the permit and repaid 14 months later.
 
Thanks for the heads up on where they hid that info. I was clicking on the "View Authorization" which usually had an authorization with incomplete info.
 
valvashon said:
Thanks for the heads up on where they hid that info. I was clicking on the "View Authorization" which usually had an authorization with incomplete info.
Click to expand...
Old FCC records are not for the faint on heart but can be a fun rabbit hole.

Good luck on your research, I would love to see the end result!
 
speer360 said:
My theory
Paxson was planning for awhile, basically bought KBGE, broadcasting from Columbia Tower on 15 year old transmitter, sold the station to ValueVision shortly after, didn't seem worth it to them for some reason.

Paxson, then bought it KGBE back without the transmitter, which Valuevision no longer needed because it just put up a new channel broadcasting from the same tower?, with $10 million on hold until KGBE was relocated to West Tiger with a new transmitter.

Paxson then got a Signal from West Tiger on a Lower Channel Number 33 at 3720kW for Pax to Launch on while ValueVision "did the work".

Mostly all the dates above come from https://fccdata.org/?lang=en&appid=242341&facid=6692 and https://fccdata.org/?lang=en&appid=98795&facid=56852 and the subsequent FCC Fillings with public notices.
Click to expand...

My research has indicated that Anne Paxon is a lawyer in Washington DC and not a director or in any other way associated with Paxon Communications. She just did the legal work for NWTV in DC. I have the list of directors of NWTV and she's not on it.
I'm not sure what happened to any of the equipment for the Robert Gill incarnation of KBGE including the transmitter. The amount of equipment that was purchased by NWTV in order to get the station up and running again was substantial. It's a long story but I am sure the station was transmitting at some point in 1990, possibly carrying a home shopping service which means that there was equipment for broadcasting in the building. It must have stayed with members of the Gill family with the sale to NWTV. I have no documentation of that sale. I am or will be in contact with two engineers who were there in October of 1995 for the re-start and I will ask them what they remember.

Val
 
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