| Summary: | KFYR: (S. 17) The station began operation in 1925 and moved its transmitter and towers to a 40-acre site north of Menoken in 1937. The 704-ft. radio tower built that year was the 2nd tallest self-supporting tower in the western hemisphere. The 348- ft. tower was built in 1940 and rebuilt in 1946 after it blew down. The tile and glass brick building was enlarged and remodeled to handle television transmitting. A fall-out shelter, one of the first in the state to be built outside of an existing building, was added in 1962. The 670-ft television tower was put up in the summer of 1954 and was dismantled in 1964 when a new tower was built at St. Anthony. The building was manned continuously until the T. V. station moved and radio engineering became more automated. Ik Si. The site was presumed flood-free when it was purchased; however, the sandbagged building has been surrounded by spring floods from Apple Creek in 1943, the late '40's and early '50's and again in 1979 necessitating transportation by canoe to the towers and out to the road. •^ —KFYR: 550 kilocycles, 5,000 watt 230 mile radius, 5 state coverage During World War II the federal government requested KFYR to stay on the air 24 hours a day. The transmitter and towers were a navigational aid and beacon for the Lend-Lease program of flying aircraft over the North Pole to Russia. Cotton batting was wrapped around the tower insulators to avoid sabotage and engineers at the Menoken station were armed during the war. KXXX —Mr. & Mrs. Cecil Dance have had a new radio installed in their home. 1925 —Remember the clear, calm, cold (maybe even -40 F) winter's night with the entire family snuggled up in the one heated room - the front room - taking turns listening to the cracking station on the crystal set, or a few years later, to depression day news on the big floor model radio? —"TV in '53" - KFYR's motto. They came on the air in Dec. with Arthur Godfrey, Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, Edward R. Morrow, Ed Sullivan; local: Chuck Schor- egge, Bob MacLeod, Leo LaLonde, Cal Culver, Jack Swenson. NEWS: The main source of daily news for and about our area at present is the Bismarck Tribune. In the past there were several publications that carried regular community news columns with material submitted by residents, among them Helen Malard and Georgia Ayers. They were paid 5c a printed inch. Most of the fillers used in this centennial history book were obtained from these columns in The Bismarck Tribune, The Capitol, Dakota Settler & The Record. —Menoken Mention: Wm. & wife have agreed to disagree for a few days. Wm. has gone to the Capitol City courting. 1887 -47- Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited in Multi-page TIFF Editor.
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