Collier's - Crowell-Collier Broadcasting

Crowell-Collier Broadcasting

In the 1950s the company expanded into broadcasting, purchasing the San Francisco Bay Area station 910 KLX-AM for $750,000 from its original owners, the Tribune Publishing Company of Oakland, which had founded the station three decades earlier. Eventually, Crowell-Collier owned three Chuck Blore programed Top 40 stations: "Color Radio" 98/ KFWB (Los Angeles), 63/ KDWB ( Saint Paul - Minneapolis) and "Color Radio" 91/ KEWB (Oakland-San Francisco). Crowell-Collier sold KEWB to Metromedia Radio in April 1966 for nearly $2.5 million, and the station then became KNEW.

Hollywood's KFWB had been the top AM radio station in Southern California during the late 1950s and early 60's, but it was late catching up to current music trends such as the British Invasion and lost market share to other stations such as Bill Drake programed "BOSS Radio" 93/ KHJ Los Angeles which switched formats to rock and roll. KFWB was sold to Westinghouse in 1966 for what was then a record price for a radio station: $10 million.