Built in 1941, KIRO was the first 50,000 watt directional staion West of the The Mississippi River.
Calls: KIRO
Frequency: 710Khz
Power: 50,000 watts Non Directional Day/ Directional Night
Owner: Bonneville International Corporation
Technical information from FCCinfo.com
To see what KIRO looked liked June 29, 1941. Here are 6 PDF scans of a newspaper insert to announce KIRO’s New 50,000 watt Status. The PDF files are large but worth the Look
Page 1 – Page 2 – Page 3 – Page 4 – Page 5 – Page 6
Page 1 of original transmitter bid
Memo on a possible move to the KVI transmitter site?
Click on any Photo to enlarge gallery
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- Driving up to the KIRO transmitter site. The building originally had windows in front but has since been bricked. This was also a voting precinct location for Maury Island voters until the mid 70’s. 1/17/2008
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- 1/17/2008
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- KIRO had a circular dive, now grown over. What you can’t see is that the building is actually twice as wide. The vegetation to the right hides the two attached apartments originally used to house the on site engineers needed to run the big Western Electric 50KW transmitter. 1/17/2008
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- This is the power side of the building. Originally it housed the high voltage transformers for the western electric transmitter. Inside are the generators to keep the station on the air during a power outage. 1/17/2008
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- In the basement were pumps to feed watter through the water cooled Western Electric transmitter. 1/17/2008
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- Here you can see one of the apartments attached to the building. The brown door opens into a small one bedroom apartment. The green door leads to the workshop, then into the main transmitter room. 1/17/2008
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- This is the second apartment on the West side of the building. KIRO also had a farmhouse on the East side of the of the property and a smaller house on the west side of the property. That made four permanent residences for the engineering staff. As fewer engineers were needed on site, KIRO rented out the apartments and one of the houses. Later the smaller house was removed and only the large farm house remains and is rented out. The apartments are no longer rented out. 1/17/2008
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- The three car garage…Bet I can find vintage RCA parts in there. 1/17/2008
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- When KIRO first moved to Vashon this back yard area was used to entertain advertising clients showing off the big Western Electric transmitter. The engineers also held barbeques. There is still a fish pond in there some where. 1/17/2008
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- In 1976 KIRO bought a Continental Electronics 317C to replace the Western Electric water-cooled transmitter. Later on KIRO bought a second 317C2 so the station had two 50KW transmitters to make sure they were always at 50KW. In the late 90’s KIRO bought a solid state Nautel Transmitter.
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- Two 50KW Continental 317 transmitters. Only one is plumbed to go on the air. The other can be put into service if needed. Photo taken 7/28/2012
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- KIRO Main transmitter. Photo taken 7/28/2012
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- KIRO 50KW solid state Nautel. Photo taken 7/28/2012
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- KIRO Main Generator. Photo taken 7/28/2012
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- Original KIRO Generator. Photo taken 7/28/2012
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- KIRO Equipment Rack. Photo taken 7/28/2012
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- The Southeast Tower used at night only. 1/17/2008
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- Southeast tower base. 1/17/2008
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- Northwest Tower used for non directional day and directional night. 1/17/2008
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- Northwest tower base. 1/17/2008
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- KIRO TV dishes. There is an uplink facility, but it is no longer used. This photo taken 1/17/2008.
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- This is the farm house that KIRO owns and rents out. Before the rules on directional am radio stations were relaxed KIRO was required to staff the transmitter plant. This along with the two attached apartment on transmitter building, as well as a house on the west side of the property were uses to house the engineering staff. After remote control operations were allowed KIRO rented out the housing. 1/17/2008
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- KIRO had one of the first deep wells on Maury Island. Some of the pipes used to connect the two caretaker/engineer houses were incorporated in the original water system for Maury Island. KIRO even provided some back up water in the early days. Now days the well water is only used for washing. 1/17/2008
Extra Stuff:
See The KIRO Location on VashonMap.com or Google Maps (opens in new window)
* Built date refers to when station transmitter site was built on Vashon Island. Not the date the station license was issued.
Photos and Text by Steven Allen