processing center. eastern Idaho described the valley as hope ture more viable not News media came early to j.F. Tony Huegel Post Register It didn’t take long for the media to notice that Eagle Rock had a bright future. In 1884, Blackfoot Register publisher William E. Wheeler saw that the small town to the north was likely to become more of a population center than Blackfoot. So he and his newspaper moved north. In 1890 another paper, The Times, emerged in Eagle Rock to compete with Wheeler’s paper, by then called the Idaho Register. Eventually the two merged into the Times-Register. But another competitor had popped up in the meantime — The Post. In 1931 The Post bought the ailing Times-Register, and the Post-Register was bom. A' couple of weekly publications came and went — the Idaho Com moner in the' ’30s and 40s, and the Eastern Idaho Farmer in the ’50s and ’60s. Salt Lake City’s Tribune and De seret News had bureaus in Idaho Falls from the 1930s to the late 1950s. The electronic media began to encroach on print in Idaho Falls on Dec. 3, 1928. That’s when the city’s first radio station — 250- watt KID, called KGIO radio at the time — went on the air. According to a Times-Register report, the station “presented to its invisible audience a program of music, short address and publicity about Idaho Falls and the Upper Snake River Valley.” Hundreds of congratulatory tele grams reached the station from throughout the Northwest, and from California and Utah, the Times-Register reported. KID launched another first at noon Sunday, Dec. 20, 1953. It brought television to Idaho Falls and, with 100,000 watts, much of eastern Idaho. First, though, there had to be an audience. That problem took care of itself in short order as eastern Idahoans rushed out to buy TV sets before that first broadcast. “They were selling ’em all over the place,” says Quincy Jensen, to day a K3DK-TV Channel 3 camer aman who was with the station then, too. It was a major event, with nearly 12 hours of programming scheduled, including the Ed Sullivan Show. TV electronics pioneer Philo Farnsworth, a for mer Rigby resident whom many consider the inventor of television, was on hand. Reception was “mixed,” accord ing to news accounts. Some viewers saw distorted and hazy pictures. Others reported a “re latively clear” signal. “Besides the station’s crew,” the Post-Register reported, “(the) busiest persons in the city were TV servicemen. They rushed from one set to the next in an effort to give as much adjustment (as) possible to patrons.” A second Idaho Falls television station went on the air on Jan. 21, 1961. KfFI-TV Channel 8 launched its first broadcast as Idaho’s most powerful station — 316,000 watts. The station logged a number of firsts in either the region or the state. Among them: a live basket ball telecast from Reed Gym at Idaho State University in Pocatello; broadcast-quality studio color cameras (1967); com puterized election returns (1976); a satellite earth station both owned and located at a TV studio; and the first stereo broadcast in eastern Idaho (1985). Watkins Enterprises congratulates Idaho Falls on its 100th Birthday! Farm & Commercial Leases Dane & George Watkins 335 River Parkway • P.O. Box 50781 Idaho Falls, Idaho 83405 523-0800