OUR FIRST IDIOT BOX
by Bryce Martin


We had a Hallicrafter black-and-white picture television.

We now had our first television station to try out the Hallicrafter and the t.v. light sitting on its top to protect our eyes from harmful glare we weren't used to.

KOAM-TV began broadcasting on December 13, 1953. Affiliated with CBS and on channel 7locally, the fledgling Pittsburg, Kan., station opened with a test pattern, one similar to the drawing of the Indian depicted on school kids' Big Chief writing tablets, and shut down programming by midnight in its early days. The 1,200-foot broadcasting tower became a familiar feature to viewers. Station engineer Dwayne Hudspeth was a regular in front of the camera while making an almost daily trek upward to install the tower's first lights. Hudspeth looked at the camera, kept to his climbing and provided an oral report of his progress and what lie ahead, no less a pioneer than Peary climbing the Pole.

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