CBS Columbia Square

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CBS Columbia Square

CBS Columbia Square at 6121 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California has been home to a group of radio and television studios since 1938. The radio stations KNX, KCBS-FM (formerly KNX-FM), and television stations KCBS-TV (Channel 2, formerly KNXT and KTSL) have had their studios there. Independent television station KCAL-TV (formerly KHJ-TV) moved to the Square in 2002 from studios adjacent to CBS' then-corporate sibling Paramount Pictures. The CBS Television Network, originally based at Columbia Square, built a new facility to handle its larger production needs, and its Television City studios and offices opened in November 1952.

Columbia Square was built for KNX and as the Columbia Broadcasting System's West Coast operations headquarters on the site of the Nestor Film Company, Hollywood's first movie studio. The Christie Film Company eventually took over operation of Nestor Studios and filmed comedies on the site, originally the location of an early Hollywood roadhouse. Prior to moving to Columbia Square, KNX had been situated at several Hollywood locations.

KNX began as a 5-watt radio station operating from the Hollywood bedroom of Fred Christian, a former Marconi wireless operator and radio salesman who wanted to provide broadcast content for customers who purchased his wireless sets. He played records borrowed from stores and became LA's first deejay. The station was briefly owned by the Los Angeles Evening Express. Its signal was boosted to 50,000 watts in 1934 and was purchased by CBS founder William S. Paley in 1936 at a cost of $1.25 million to expand his fledgling network's California presence and to tap into Hollywood's talent pool. Principal competitor NBC was on the same track. NBC's Radio City studios were also opened in 1938, two blocks away at Sunset and Vine.

Architecture and dedication

Columbia Square was designed by Swiss-born architech William Lescaze in the style of International Modernism and built over a year at a cost of two million dollars — more money than had ever been spent on a broadcasting facility.

Lescaze's sweeping streamline motifs, porthole windows and glass brick were true to Modernist design, though Paley insisted the Square's form follow function. In his dedicatory speech, he remarked, "It is because we believe these new Hollywood headquarters, reflecting many innovations of design and acoustics and control, will improve the art of broadcasting that we have built them and are dedicating them here tonight."

Columbia Square opened on April 30, 1938 with a full day of special broadcasts culminating in the star-studded evening special, "A Salute to Columbia Square" featuring Bob Hope, Al Jolson and Cecil B. DeMille. Crowds thronged Sunset Boulevard and a blimp bathed in searchlights hovered overhead as the program was carried coast-to-coast on the Columbia Broadcasting System, beamed to Europe via short wave, and carried across Canada on the CBC. On that premiere broadcast, Hope joked that Columbia Square looked like "the Taj Mahal with a permanent wave." Jolson quipped, "It looks like Flash Gordon's bathroom."

The Square's original configuration included eight studios. Studio B held 400 seats. Nearby, the Square's large auditorium was capable of seating 1,050 audience members. The complex included Brittingham's Radio Center Restaurant and a branch of the Bank of America. Tours of the studios cost 40 cents and passed by a glass-windowed control room housing Columbia's West Coast master control.

"Columbia Square was one of the glories of radio. It was somewhat sacred to those in the industry. There was nothing comparable to its splendor in New York" says writer-producer Norman Corwin whose most famous broadcast, On a Note of Triumph, originated from the Square on VE Day, 1945.

The Programs

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Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy

Columbia Square became home to some of the best-known comedies of radio's golden age. Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, Edgar Bergen, Red Skelton, Eve Arden "(Our Miss Brooks)," "Blondie," Jack Oakie and Steve Allen sparked to the airways from the Square.

Dramas included "Suspense," "Gunsmoke," "Dr. Christian," "The Whistler," "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar," "The CBS Radio Workshop" (author Aldous Huxley introduced a production of "Brave New World") and "Columbia Presents Corwin" (dramas produced by Norman Corwin.)

Musical acts performing at Columbia Square included Eddie Cantor, Rosemary Clooney, Bing Crosby and Gene Autry. Composer Bernard Hermann frequently scored and conducted Columbia Square broadcasts. Through the facilities of KNX, the Columbia network broadcast big band music from nearby ballrooms including the Hollywood Palladium and the Earl Caroll Theater.

In the 2005 KNX broadcast, "A Salute to Columbia Square," announcer George Walsh recalled crowds jamming the Square's forecourt for tickets to live broadcasts. (Ushers would sometimes walk down Sunset Blvd. to NBC's studios at Vine Street to urge audience members to watch a Columbia Square broadcast instead.) After their on-air appearances, actors would dash to the Radio Actors Telephone Exchange in the Square's lobby to check with their agents about their next bookings.

Bob Crane was a top-rated KNX deejay at Columbia Square in the 1960s. James Dean was an usher. The pilot for I Love Lucy was filmed on the Square's stages in TV's early years. Some of the Square's once-luxurious radio theaters were converted to recording studios for Columbia Records where Bob Dylan and Barbra Streisand, among many top stars, recorded albums.

Columbia Square's Future

KNX moved into new studios in the Miracle Mile neighborhood on L.A.'s Wilshire Boulevard which it shares with CBS Radio stations KFWB, KTWV, KCBS-FM and KLSX. KNX, the last radio station to operate in Hollywood, moved after 67 years of operation at the Square just after 11pm on August 12, 2005 following a farewell broadcast from its Columbia Square studios.

The Square fell into disrepair during the years in which Lawrence Tisch was at the helm of CBS, and asbestos problems have been cited as a reason to demolish the broadcasting venue. Columbia Square was acquired for $15 million by Sungow Corp in 2003. In August, 2006, the property was acquired by Las Vegas-based developer Molasky Pacific LLC, for $66 million. It plans to redevelop the 125,000-square-foot comlex to continue to attract entertainment industry tenants. It is considering options that would include adding some residential units to the office and broadcasting facility once KCBS-TV and KCAL move into a new facilities at CBS Studio Center in Studio City in 2006.

Helmi Hisserich, regional administrator for the City of Los Angeles’ Community Redevelopment Agency, says redevelopment of Columbia Square will provide new housing, office and entertainment uses “while preserving the key historical elements of the property.”

The National Trust for Historic Preservation and Los Angeles Conservancy have been actively engaged in efforts to preserve the Hollywood landmark.

See also

CBS

CBS corporate Web site Columbia Broadcasting System at the Mueseum of Broadcast Communications.

[1] CBS Radio web site

[2] The 2005 KNX farewell broadcast, "A Salute to Columbia Square" streams at linder.com.