It was sometimes erratic, shut down in the middle of a drama or football game on occasion, but it was the only show in town for the people of the Wind River Valley.
KWRB (K – Wind River Basin) were the call letters of Channel 10 out of Thermopolis. Before Joe and Mildred Ernst brought the new technology of television to the rural people of Fremont County, only a few rudimentary channels were available on cable systems in Riverton and Lander. The enterprising couple provided entertainment where none had been before, and in a variety of both intended and unintended ways.
The first television broadcast came on September 7, 1927, when Philo T. Farnsworth of Rigby, Idaho, broadcast from a room in his San Francisco laboratory to assistants in another room of the building.
“There you are, electronic television!” Farnsworth said to his stunned assistants.
W3XK was the first licensed station and broadcast “radio movies” to a limited audience in the Washington, D.C. area in 1928, but the first commercial network began broadcasting in London in 1934, and the first American TV Network, NBC, debuted in 1939 at the New York World’s Fair.
World War II slowed the progress of commercial television but military innovations during the war made drastic improvements to early television, and by the 1950s, NBC, CBS, and fledgling ABC were battling with the DuMont TV Network, owned by Paramount Pictures, the NTA Film Network, and the Overmyer Network.
The “Big Three” as NBC, CBS, and ABC became known, won out over the smaller rivals. For a time in America, the only networks you could watch were the “Big Three.” There were local stations with access to syndicated content, but the era of hundreds of networks that arrived with digital TV was still a half-century into the future.
In Wyoming, the first TV broadcast came on July 18, 1952, when KWGN of Denver began broadcasting in Cheyenne via a translator station.
The first true Wyoming channel opened broadcasting on March 21, 1954, also in Cheyenne, with the debut of KFBC.
The second was in the unlikely location of Hot Springs County in the county seat and only incorporated town, Thermopolis.
Joe and Mildred Ernst met in Seattle, Washington. Joe was a technological genius, adept at a variety of radio and television broadcasting techniques. He was so talented that at just 23 years of age, he installed all the photographic and radio equipment on the plane used by Admiral Richard Byrd on his November 29, 1929, flight over the South Pole.
Jump ahead 16 years, and the couple are married in Seattle. They left Washington for Worland on April 7, 1946. They soon began building KWOR (K-Worland) Radio, 1340 AM. Supplies and equipment for radio stations were limited by World War II, but in 1946, KWOR went on the air, where it remains today.
Adept, improvise, overcome is one of the tenets of the United States Marine Corps, and Joe took that lesson to heart.
They couldn’t find a radio tower so Joe built one out of drill stem casings, screwing three pipes together to create a 90-foot-high tower. He tied it down with guide wires and they began broadcasting in the Wind River Basin from Cody to Thermopolis in Big Horn, Park, Washakie, and Hot Springs Counties.
They soon opened a station in Riverton, KWRL (K-Worland, Riverton and Lander), and KGOS (K-Goshen Station) in Torrington.
In 1955, they expanded to Thermopolis with AM station KRTR.
Radio was in its Golden Age, but Joe knew the possibilities of television and convinced Mildred to expand their business into TV broadcasting.
They ordered equipment from General Electric in Syracuse, New York, and were promised delivery by July 1957.
By September, it still hadn’t arrived. Mildred flew to Syracuse and walked into a General Electric vice-president’s office, refusing to leave until her equipment was delivered.
“I hope you like my looks,” Mildred said. “Because I’m not moving out of this chair until I get my equipment.”
The equipment was shipped to Thermopolis on the Burlington Northern. Mildred and Joe began broadcasting on December 22, 1957.
They started doing business as Chief Washakie TV, and for generations, their sign-off was a black-and-white video of a Native American in full regalia singing the Pledge of Allegiance in Native American sign language.
They were creative, and a bit mercenary all at once. They picked the best of NBC, CBS, and ABC and broadcast it as it arrived via microwave relay from Billings, Montana.
In the days of analog television, small local stations had to broadcast via microwave relay at prescribed hours established by the three major networks.
The microwave relay often failed due to weather, power outages and equipment failure. At times, the station just went off the air; at others, they had a bank of “backup” content ready to broadcast. This backup content was almost always free films distributed by corporations. One of the more memorable ones was a 25-minute gem called “Men, Mountains and Mud, the 3M Story.” It was an obvious connection to 3M’s actual corporate name, Minnesota, Mining and Manufacturing, and was pure company hyperbole, but it was the only thing on TV, and people watched.
Advertising sales were booming, and Mildred took the concept of local television a step higher.
She began doing play-by-play at local sporting events. She broadcast Bobcat football and basketball games from Hot Springs County High School, American Legion Baseball, and local rodeos from the fairgrounds just across the highway from the high school in Thermopolis. She was one of the first women in America, much less the world, to work as a sports broadcaster.
“Getting the television on the air was the highlight of my career,” Mildred said.
They placed their transmitter high atop Boysen Peak, where it was able to reach as far as Dubois, South Pass, and Beaver Rim.
Analog television, like AM radio, has to be “line of sight” to receive a signal. The location on Boysen Peak afforded great broadcast coverage, but it came at a price when winter conditions often closed the road to the transmitter.
The Ernsts solved the problem by hiring a recluse named Hannibal Hannah, who lived a hermit’s life on the top of Boysen Peak. Hannibal had a phone installed in his cabin, a set of tools, and Joe trained him on how to repair any damage to the transmitter. He became the WKRB engineer. The system worked through the winter months with just a few broadcast delays.
Advertising was so lucrative that stations from Casper and Billings tried to place translators on Boysen Peak as well.
The lucrative advertising dollars were not enough to cover the initial outlay of $250,000 to get KWRB on the air. Add operating costs of $100,000 for equipment, staff, utilities, and a hefty charge from the three networks, and KWRB operated on a shoestring budget, augmented by revenue from Mildred and Joe’s radio stations.
KSPR and KTWO Television both came online in 1957. KSPR was gone within a couple of years, but KTWO remained a major competitor with KWRB.
People with large, high antennas were able to receive KTWO broadcasting as far away as Lander. Even people in Crowheart were able to sometimes get snowy signals 150 miles away from Casper on cold winter nights.
KTWO and a couple of Billings Stations applied for translators with the FCC in 1960. Mildred’s “wolverine personality” came into play when she saw her livelihood threatened.
The distant stations in Montana and Natrona County pushed hard, lobbying heavily in Washington, D.C.
On February 21 and 22, United States Senate hearings were held in Salt Lake City, Utah, and in Casper regarding the development of TV boosters.
Wyoming Democratic Senator Gale McGee was one of the members of the US Senate in these hearings.
Mildred testified brilliantly before the committee.
“The Commissioners can remember back to the utter chaos that we had in radio in the early days. It has been frightening to me to see the possibility of the same repetition in television unless they can move, and I know that they have a million things that they have to do, and they have to take them in turn. But, as I state, small markets cannot exist without network shows.
Not only for the revenue we derive from the network but for the programming we derive. If I had to buy time for the hours that I am on the air that the network has now ordered shows on my station, I couldn’t stay in business. I would be black long before this. How long can I keep these network shows if it becomes general knowledge and accepted that any booster, anywhere, any distance, can pick up a signal, put up a booster, and bring the same shows into my area. I am going to lose them. That is a problem that has got to be considered, because we have got to have the programming as well as the revenue from the network if we stay alive in small television.
This pin that I am wearing was presented to me last night on camera during a telecast in conjunction with the National Future Farmers of America Week. The Hot Springs County Future Farmers held a regular meeting on camera to show what their work is, how they conduct their meetings, and wat the organization stands for. They have the right in their bylaws to nominate and elect an honorary member to the Future Farmers of America. They chose to nominate and elect me as the honorary member and presented me last night with a full membership and this gold pin in appreciation for the work that KWRB -TV had done for them, for all of the farmers in our area, and for other people in the community. I felt very humble and very highly honored to accept this pin last night,” Mildred said.
Senator McGee replied, “Indeed you should. And will you accept our congratulations here, Mrs. Ernst?”
Mildred received more than congratulations from the Senate committee; she was able to keep TV boosters out of her broadcast market.
In 1964, with new equipment, KWRB made its first color broadcast with an episode of Bonanza.
Joe and Mildred continued to put local programs on the air, while handpicking shows from the Big Three.
Some were not available. Monday Night Football, on ABC, was gobbled up by KTWO and they successfully argued that their signal extended to Lander and west of Pavillion. While KWRB was able to broadcast most ABC programs, KTWO scored a coup de tat in getting the lone franchise rights to Howard Cosell and the widely popular Monday Night Football broadcast.
Rival analog TV stations didn’t compete with Joe and Mildred, but advances in cable television did.
The arrival of network-based television channels spelled the doom of local, analog broadcast television.
In 1980, the Ernsts sold the station to Manny Cantu of Riverton. Mildred passed that same year at 79 years of age. Joe lived on in Thermopolis until 1999, when he too passed at 93.
Many people have fond recollections of Channel 10.
On occasion, the station would temporarily shut down when the person on staff had a softball game, went to a movie or on a date. The guy in question would interrupt a program in progress, tell everyone he’d be back in an hour or two and then shut the station down before his event was over and programming was returned. It was infuriating for many viewers.
Cantu moved the station to Riverton in 1980, changing the call letters to KTNW. He built a studio on College View Drive in Riverton. The only remnant of the KWRB station was the broadcast tower on Boysen Peak.
Cantu made some major changes. He became an exclusive NBC affiliate and had KTNW placed on Riverton’s Cable TV lineup as Channel 6 and had his station on Shoshoni’s Cable TV system and a small system called Metro Cable that served Gardens North.
“There is an airport there, which allows to have people fly to town,” Cantu said in an October 1980 interview. “It’s also easier to cover Fremont County news and news throughout the state.”
Cantu had problems getting employees to move to Thermopolis but found better luck in Riverton.
“Riverton is a good business community, and I’m really excited about setting up there,” Cantu said.
He purchased a new transmitter on Boysen Peak and doubled the broadcast power, which allowed KTNW to reach Natrona County. On August 12, 1980, a transmitter on Casper Mountain began broadcasting KTNW on Channel 20.
Cantu switched the NBC Nightly News to 6 and 10 pm and replayed the news again at 3 am.
“We’re the only station in this part of the country to run 24 hours a day,” Cantu said. “We are serving miners and other folks who miss the news or TV because they work late.”
He moved the afternoon religious talk show, “Praise the Lord” to the morning to show cartoons and movies when the kids came home from school.
Perhaps his biggest venture was broadcasting Rocky Mountain Wrestling, a minor league wrestling venue that had Saturday night matches at the Riverton Armory. The matches from the previous week were broadcast from 5 to 6 pm, with the live bouts starting at 8 pm.
Another popular program was “Creature Features,” which went on the air after the Saturday night news at 10 pm.
Phil Anderson, owner of “Phil’s Speed and Custom,” was the host. He brought the worst horror films ever made to the people of Fremont County, and he did it with a smile, humor, and guests he interviewed during breaks in the films.
“I pestered Manny to death,” Anderson said. “He finally said he would air the horror movies on the condition that I host the show. What I do on the show, I would never do in public. I keep that part of my life totally separate from my business.”
Anderson showed B-Movie classics like “Plan 9 From Outer Space”, “The Attach of the 50 Foot Woman” and “Them” a tale of ants the size of horses after an atomic bomb testing.
“It’s all just in fun. People just can’t take what we do seriously. If they do, they must have a problem in the head,” Anderson said.
Many people tuned in to watch Anderson and his guest banter on obscure subjects.
“Once I said we should raise the Titanic by pumping it with ping-pong balls,” Anderson said. “People actually called and wanted to know when it was going to be done.”
Cameramen did a few tricks in the studio, making Anderson seem to float, fade, shrink or disappear. A semi-permanent guest was a guy dressed up like a vampire who criticized Anderson constantly.
KTNW merged with KXWY-TV in June 1984. In 1986, KXWY switched to ABC and the KTNW call letters were taken by a PBS station in Washington. In August 1986, KXWY became KFNB with satellite stations KFNE in Riverton and KFNR in Rawlins broadcasting KFNB content. KFNB switched to Fox in 2004
On June 12, 2009, analog television came to an end. Digital TV replaced the old analog system nationwide.
But memories remain of the quirky little station that was the only show in town, on the farm, or on the ranch for a couple of generations.
It’s easy to laugh at the broadcast quality provided by Mildred and Joe Ernst, but without them, there was no television at all.
In the evenings, rural families watched whatever was on Channel 10 and were happy to have the programming.
In an era with hundreds, perhaps thousands of networks and channels to watch, there doesn’t seem to be anything worthwhile to view.
From 1957 to 1980, when KFNE retired the KWRB call letters forever, Mildred and Joe provided an invaluable service to viewers from Worland to Dubois.
They were broadcast pioneers.