Here are two postcards from Major Jordan Mott, owner/operator of KFWO in Avalon, Catalina Island, California, 1925-26. (Silent on Mondays) Born in New York, Motts father was the president of J.L. Mott Iron Works, Trenton N.J. The younger Mott graduated from Harvard and went to work as a reporter in New York City, where he was known as the Millionaire Reporter. During WW I he served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps commissioned as a major. After the war, Mott moved to Santa Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles where he pursued writing and deep sea fishing for marlin. Mott was the owner and engineer of station KFWO, which he founded in 1925 in the living room of his home on Claressa Street in Avalon, Catalina Island. It operated with just 250 Watts and a flat top wire antenna from Mott’s home. Though the station was on the air a few hours in the daytime, the bulk of its broadcast hours were at night, when the sky-wave signal was heard often outside of Southern California. With only a few hundred stations on the air at that time, KFWO had reception reports from a least 25 states from the west coast to the east coast. Mott frequently broadcast personal monologues on diverse subjects, which he sometimes dictated from his home garden, as seen in one of the postcard images. KFWO promoted tourism on the island, and the station slogan was “Katalina For Wonderful Outings.” Mott also broadcast music from the Hotel St. Catherine orchestra a few times each day, as well as live music from his home performed by volunteer singers and musicians. In 1928, Mott left Catalina, and he simply took KFWO off the air. He just turned in the license to the Radio Commission and donated his equipment to KWTC, owned by the Santa Ana Register newspaper, thus ending the brief life of one of Californias quirkiest radio stations.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 01:08:06 +0000
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