PRESSMEN’S strike which stopped publication April 12 of the Tacoma News Tribune, the city’s only daily, has expanded news and feature coverage on Tacoma’s radio stations and made business “awfully good,” according to station executives. A week after the strike hit Tacoma’s afternoon and Sunday publication, all local stations reported success in (1) meeting the community’s need for news, and (2) serving advertising requirements of local business. To its normal 12 daily newscasts, KMO Tacoma swiftly added special commentary programs, two extra news shows Saturday and Sunday, and an extra sportcast daily, Jerry Geehan., general manager, reported. Notices of club meetings, Philharmonic concerts and other public events, and a quarter-hour of funeral and obituary notices, were being aired as a public service. Mr. Geehan said advertisers who heretofore have used radio consistently found business up to standard, although department stores and others who threw in a quick spot schedule to substitute for their normal newspaper ads were not having equal success. KTNT (FM), the transit-radio station owned by the News Tribune, took over the AP bureau for Pierce County (Tacoma) and -added two persons to its news staff. Burke Ormsby, KTNT director of news and special events, reported the station also launched a Sunday program with eight actors dramatizing the weekly comics. Over-all spot business at KTNT doubled after the strike began, he said. KTAC (formerly KTBI) Tacoma, which began a concentrated news coverage when it went fulltime February 11, augmented its news schedule tremendously, according to H. J. Quilliam, president. Business at the station boomed after the strike began, he said. [1952--Broadcasting Magazine]
