George Wesley Ing – After WW II

After World War II, especially the late 1940s, business was good for most radio stations in the United States. To make up for the previous lean years, a heavy commercial load became the norm, and KONO was no exception. A Federal Communications Commission (FCC) hearing on over-commercialization resulted in a promise that KONO would air a specified number of public-service-type programs, not just public-service announcements.

This brought about programs on KONO such as "The League of Women Voters Question and Answer Forum;" "Your District Attorney," with District Attorney Bill Hensley; and the most-talked-about San Antonio radio program ever: "So You Want To Be A Cop" (COP). The first two programs were simple studio shows with telephone calls. The COP program required planning, preparation, and cooperation with and from the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD).

George outfitted a red, 1949 Plymouth station-wagon nick named “Big Red” (soon the name of all future KONO news units) with a heavy-duty battery system that powered a Brush Sound Mirror tape recorder. A big reel, mounted on the station-wagon tailgate, containing 250 feet of cable, with a small, inconspicuous microphone attached, helped “get” the “stories.”

“Big Red” not only contained a two-way SAPD radio, but it also was driven by paid, off-duty SAPD officers—in uniform. Miles Hersch, Guy Ligon, Gerry Morgan, and Chuck Ruble shared duty and did the talking at the “scenes” throughout the years.

With a sound engineer (many times it was George) as a passenger, the officer would venture out from KONO about 10 PM Saturday evening to follow the “action” until about 3 AM Sunday morning.

If not already acting as the sound engineer, George would come to the KONO studios early Sunday morning to preview the recorded material contained on two to four, seven-inch reels of tape. Almost always, reworking the stories into something coherent took most of the day editing and splicing by hand. Usually, just before airtime at 9 PM, the program introduction and studio voiceovers were added.

Some stories contained so much profanity that the editing not only became very “painful,” but it also destroyed the meaning of the story. For each obscenity removed, George decided to insert an equal length of a discordant vulgar sound from the studio Hammond organ. When the programs with replacement sounds finally aired, the listening audience more easily understood them, and those programs became quite popular.

One story, on which George spent a very long time both recording and editing, involved an inebriated lover on Alpine Drive, near Brackenridge Park. Wandering dangerously close to the edge of steep cliffs, the very long microphone cord allowed Goerge to capture the lover shouting: Ruth...Ruth...Ruth!

KONO was still 250 watts...while new stations like KITE and KCOR were appearing on the radio dial with much higher power signals. KONO needed a power upgrade in order to compete. After numerous hearings, the FCC finally granted KONO a power increase to 5000 watts. The catch: The power increase required a frequency change to 860 KHz. To further complicate matters, 860 KHz was a Canadian “clear channel” frequency, and San Antonio is in close proximity to the Mexican border. International law required that KONO's power had to be reduced to 1000 watts after sunset. Additionally, these border protections required the signal radiation to be directed in a figure eight pattern to the East and West, thus requiring two towers.

Because he had taken Calculus classes with Brother Hamm at St. Mary's University, George decided to design the antenna system himself. Not enough land was available at the current KONO transmitter location, so George initiated a site search. The result was a new site on the east side of town near Salado Creek. Phillips Tower built the towers as per George's specifications and installed them with the necessary copper-wire ground system. Other than the RCA transmitter (BTA-5F), the rest of the equipment was designed, built and installed by George and included the open-wire feed lines, phasing equipment at the base of each tower, and the switching system.

The ultimate, strategic question: How to entice listeners to tune their radios from 1400 KHz to 860 KHz. Here is what they decided. During the COP program on Sunday evening, a wailing police siren would be played on both frequencies. Listeners on 1400KHz were instructed to tune down the dial while searching for the the same siren sound and...the rest of the program. It worked…and the old 1400 KHz transmitter having sent out its last signal was shut down. However, the four-legged tower that served the old 1400 KHz frequency so well was not taken down until 1956.

Bill Kiley

KONO Big Red Mobile News Unit

Editor’s Note: Click here to listen to a short excerpt of “So You Want To Be A Cop.” Special thanks to Dave E. Rios for restoring (splice by splice) AND providing the excerpt. There would be no programs to restore without Newton Mitchell having the foresight to save a box of tapes containing the old programs from the dumpster. Thanks Mitch.

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