Hearing process and construction
John Toole "J. T." Griffin—majority owner and president of wholesale food distributors Griffin Grocery Company and Denison Peanut Company and hardware manufacturer Western Hardware Corporation, all of which were headquartered in Muskogee—became interested in television broadcasting around 1950, after noticing during one of his commutes that many homes in the Oklahoma City area had installed outdoor television antennas to receive the signal of Oklahoma City station WKY-TV.[1] In June 1952, the Tulsa Broadcasting Company—a company run by John and his sister, Marjory Griffin Leake, and owner of Tulsa radio station KTUL (1430 AM) as well as radio interests in Oklahoma City and Fort Smith, Arkansas, applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a construction permit to build a television station on channel 8 in Muskogee. The application proposed studios in Muskogee and a transmitter on Concharty Mountain, 20 mi northwest of the city.[2][3][4] The choice to apply for Muskogee and not Tulsa's available channel 2 was attributed to the way the FCC was processing its backlog of applications, prioritizing cities without existing stations; Tulsa had KOTV on channel 6.[5]
The Griffin-owned group saw competition crop up for the channel 8 permit over the next two years. The Oklahoma Press Publishing Company—a group majority owned by Tams Bixby Jr. and son Tams Bixby III, which published the Muskogee Phoenix and Times-Democrat and owned Muskogee radio station KBIX (1490 AM)—filed a separate application for the channel 8 license on October 9, 1952.[6] The applicants derided the KTUL-led bid as an attempt to "slip in the back door" to Tulsa from the start, down to its proposal to use the call sign KTUL-TV.[7] The Oklahoma Press application had the effect of pushing Muskogee—and channel 8—down the priority order because the channel was contested.[8] The Tulsa Broadcasting Company took out a full-page advertisement questioning why, if these groups sought to provide local service, they did not apply for Muskogee's other channel, ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 66.[9] Another application for channel 8 was received in November 1953 from Ashley L. Robison, who was selling a stake in a station he owned in Sacramento, California.[10][11]
In February 1954, just as hearings were to begin for channel 8 in Muskogee and channel 2 in Tulsa,[13] Oklahoma Press Publishing announced it was withdrawing from the case;[14] the Daily Phoenix ran a front-page editorial declaring that the record now showed a city like Muskogee could not support a station on its own and that local businessmen were not supportive of the station they proposed, which they learned would be a "most hazardous venture".[15] Robison followed suit weeks later; Tulsa Broadcasting settled with him and paid him $6,000 for the legal costs incurred in his application. This left Tulsa Broadcasting unopposed.[16] FCC hearing examiner Millard French issued an initial decision in its favor,[17][18] followed by a commission grant of the permit on April 8, 1954.[19]
Weeks after the FCC granted the permit, J. Elfred Beck, owner of fledgling UHF outlet KCEB, filed a protest with the FCC. Beck alleged that the Concharty Mountain transmitter site would provide better service to Tulsa than to Muskogee and that it would overlap with other Griffin-owned properties, particularly KWTV in Oklahoma City, as well as other Griffin holdings: KTUL, KFPW, and KOMA radio, as well as KATV in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.[22][23] KOTV owner Wrather-Alvarez Inc. and Arthur R. Olson, permittee for an unbuilt UHF station in Tulsa, submitted their own petitions that made very similar allegations against Tulsa Broadcasting two weeks later.[24][25] On July 9, the FCC denied the protest petitions were invalid, as the grant was handed down after a hearing.[26][27][28]
