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This page considers the Kaiser network and Field Communications.
It covers -
Kaiser
Kaiser traced its origins to the conglomerate established
by Henry John Kaiser (1882—1967). Kaiser had attracted
international attention through civil engineering projects
(eg involvement in the Hoover Dam), manufacturing such
as Kaiser-Overland (the jeep) and Kaiser Shipyards (Liberty
ships), Kaiser Aluminium, Kaiser Cement and Kaiser Steel.
Some attention was attributable to marketing rather than
substantive performance.
Kaiser's involvement in broadcasting began when the Henry
J Kaiser Company acquired KULA-TV (later KHVH and KITV)
in Honolulu, Hawaii. During the 1960s Kaiser secured licenses
to establish new UHF stations in large markets on the
US mainland. They included WKBD-TV (Detroit) and WKBS-TV
(Burlington, New Jersey) in 1965, with KHVH being sold
to fund the expansion.
In 1966 Kaiser formed an alliance with the Boston Globe
(later acquired by the New York Times),
relaunch moribund channel 56 in Cambridge, Massachusetts
as WKBG-TV. In 1968 Kaiser established KBHK-TV (San Francisco)
and WKBF-TV (Cleveland). In 1971 Kaiser acquired KMTW-TV
(Corona, California) for the Los Angeles market. That
station later became KBSC-TV.
During the following year Kaiser acquired a majority interest
in WFLD-TV (Chicago) from Field Communications, increasing
the attractiveness of an 'independent network' in negotiations
with advertisers. In return, Field gained around a quarter
interest in several of the Kaiser network stations.
Difficulties saw Kaiser agree to merge WKBF's operations
with Cleveland station WUAB (owned by United Artists)
in 1975. Kaiser surrendered the WKBF license to the Federal
Communications Commission and gained a minority stake
in WUAB along with responsibility for station programming.
It acquired the Boston Globe's interest in WKBG
(renamed WLVI-TV) in 1976.
In 1977 Field purchased the remainder of Kaiser's shares
in most of the jointly-owned stations. KBSC was sold by
Kaiser to Oak Broadcasting Inc; WUAB was sold by Kaiser
to Gaylord Broadcasting.
Field
Field Communications formed part of Field Enterprises,
a private holding company established in 1944 by Marshall
Field III (1893-1956) and associates to publish the Chicago
Sun in opposition to McCormick's Chicago Tribune.
Field was an heir of Marshall Field (1834-1906), founder
with Levi Leiter (1834-1904) of the Marshall Field &
Company retail group. He provided substantial but unavailing
support to Ralph Ingersoll's
crusading PM in New York, sold to liberal lawyer
Bartley Crum (1900-1959) in 1948.
Field Enterprises acquired book publishers Simon &
Schuster (founded in 1924 by Richard Simon and M. Lincoln
Schuster) and Pocket Books (founded 1939) in the same
year. Simon & Schuster was sold to its founders in
1957, with Pocket Books being acquired by Leon Shimkin
and James Jacobson. At its height Field Enterprises also
owned the World Book encyclopedia publishing operation,
Parade magazine, radio stations (WJJD Chicago,
KOIN Portland, KJI Seattle), the broadcast television
operations noted above, the Independent Press Service,
the Field Newspaper Syndicate, seven cable television
systems and interests such as a stake in the Keycom teletext
service (a joint venture with Honeywell and Centel).
The Sun merged with the Chicago Times
in 1948 as the Chicago Sun-Times. The Times
(from 1929 the Daily Illustrated Times) traced
its origins to a daily launched in 1844 as the Chicago
Evening Journal.
Marshall Field IV (1916-65) acquired the Chicago Daily
News in 1959, serving as publisher and editor of
the Sun-Times and the Daily News, which
ceased publication in 1978. Marshall Field V (1941-
) was publisher of the Sun-Times from 1969 to
1980. The Sun-Times newspaper group was acquired by Murdoch's
News in 1984 for US$90 million and later expanded in the
1980s through acquisition of Chicago suburban newspapers.
Field Enterprises was dissolved in April 1984 after the
sale of the Sun-Times to Murdoch's
News in 1983. Most Sun-Times titles were subsequently
acquired by Conrad Black's Hollinger
International.
Field had earlier sold off its broadcast and cable tv
interests.
studies
There
has been no major study of Field Enterprises, Field Communications
or the Kaiser network.
For Henry Kaiser see Stephen Adams' persuasive Mr.
Kaiser Goes to Washington: The Rise of a Government Entrepreneur
(1997), supplemented by Mark Foster's Henry J. Kaiser:
Builder in the Modern American West (Austin: Uni
of Texas Press 1989) and Albert Heiner's hagiographic
Henry J. Kaiser: Western Colossus (Halo Books
1981).
For Field see Stephen Becker's Marshall Field III:
a Biography (New York: Simon & Schuster 1964)
and Axel Madsen's The Marshall Fields: The Evolution
of an American Business Dynasty (New York: Wiley
2002), superseding John Tebbel's The Marshall Fields:
A Study in Wealth (1947) and the thinner Give
the Lady What She Wants! - The Story of Marshall Field
& Co (1952) by Lloyd Wendt & Herman Kogan.
Crum is depicted in Anything Your Little Heart Desires:
An American Family Story (New York: Simon & Schuster
1997), a memoir by daughter Patricia Bosworth. Pointers
to works on Ingersoll and PM, such as Paul
Milkman's PM: A New Deal in Journalism, 1940-1948
(New Brunswick: Rutgers Uni Press 1997), appear elsewhere
on this site.
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