Golden West Broadcasters was an umbrella investment company founded and co-owned by late actor/singer

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...

(1907–1998) and late two-time All-American and former

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tackle Bob Reynolds (1914–1997). Headquartered in Hollywood, California, in addition to broadcast television and radio, Autry and Reynolds also invested in real estate as well as ownership stakes in the

Hollywood Stars The Hollywood Stars were a Minor League Baseball team that played in the Pacific Coast League during the early- and mid-20th century. They were the arch-rivals of the other Los Angeles-based PCL team, the Los Angeles Angels. Hollywood Stars (192 ...

baseball team of the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

and the

Los Angeles Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team ha ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. The company owned and operated several television and radio stations from 1951 to 1982, and also provided services to and for other third-party, non-owned stations through the Golden West Radio Network.

History

In 1951, Autry and Reynolds formed Golden West Broadcasters with their acquisition of KMPC (now KSPN) 710 AM in Los Angeles, while Reynolds served and worked as the station's manager. They followed that up by taking its first ever television station, KOPO-TV (now

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

affiliate

KOLD-TV KOLD-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Tucson, Arizona, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Television, which provides certain services to Fox affiliate KMSB (channel 11) and MyNetworkTV affiliate KTTU (channel 18 ...

) in

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

Television Stations in the United States and Construction Permits Granted to February 10, 1953
/ref> to the air in two years later, and then with additional acquisitions including most importantly,

KTLA KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is the seco ...

in Los Angeles, which continues to operate from the very same site at which the company and the station co-existed on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood to this very day. Over time, Autry took control of the company with other co-investors in later years. Golden West also operated several cable television systems across the country during the 1970s and into the 1980s. Autry began their gradual exit from the broadcasting industry beginning in 1982 with the sale of KTLA to

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strate ...

, culminating with the sale of KSCA 101.9 FM in

Glendale, California Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census the population was 196,543, up from ...

– within the Los Angeles area, to Heftel Broadcasting Corporation in 1997.

Broadcast Properties

Television

* ¹ Operated in facilities shared with the company. * ² Stations built and signed onto the air by either Golden West or by Gene Autry personally. * ³ A late acquisition, Autry kept the station even after the company folded.

Radio

AM Stations

FM Stations

References

{{reflist

External links

Gene Autry's official website
Defunct mass media companies of the United States Companies based in California Investment companies