Dorothy Stimson Bullitt
Encyclopedia
Dorothy Stimson Bullitt was a radio
and television
pioneer who founded King Broadcasting Company
, a major owner of broadcast stations in Seattle, Washington
. She was the first woman in the United States to buy and manage a television station
.
, became a prominent Democrat and friend of Franklin D. Roosevelt
, and was scheduled to place Roosevelt's name in nomination for the U.S. presidency at the 1932 Democratic National Convention when he died of liver cancer, leaving Dorothy a widow at the age of 40. She attended the convention as a delegate in her late husband's place, and presented a plank outlawing child labor for the party's platform.
After Scott's death, Dorothy Bullitt hired a lawyer and took personal charge of her family's real estate holdings. Her father had bequeathed her a considerable number of properties in downtown Seattle, but it was the height of the Great Depression
, and the Bullitt properties were losing lessees rapidly as businesses failed and their owners moved out. Working in the almost exclusively male business world, and despite knowing next to nothing about real estate at the time of her husband's death, Bullitt personally restored the family's real estate business to financial health. An increasingly prominent member of Seattle's business community, Bullitt became a member of a number of corporate boards and a regent of the University of Washington
, and was named Seattle's First Citizen in 1959.
radio station, KEVR. She immediately applied to the Federal Communications Commission
to change the station's call letters to KING (for King County, Washington
), but KING was already registered to an old merchant ship, the SS Watertown. Undaunted, Bullitt negotiated with the freighter's owner and acquired the letters. (According to legend, Bullitt personally rowed out to the freighter with a bottle of champagne to meet the captain, who didn't care what call letters he used and asked only that Bullitt make a donation to his church.) The following year, Bullitt received a license for an FM
station, KING-FM
, and used it to broadcast classical music, her favorite.
In 1949, Bullitt purchased an eight-month-old television station, KRSC-TV, and renamed it KING-TV
. Initially an affiliate of the then-poor-performing ABC
network, KING-TV became an NBC
station in 1959 after Bullitt persuaded the more successful network to switch its affiliation from rival station KOMO-TV
. KING-TV remains an NBC affiliate today.
Bullitt turned the presidency of King Broadcasting, as the company was called, over to her son Charles Stimson "Stim" Bullitt in 1961, remaining on the board as chairperson for several years thereafter. Dorothy and Stimson both believed strongly that the stations of King Broadcasting should serve the public, and not just be driven by ratings and revenue. At Bullitt's insistence, KING-TV built one of the first local TV news operations in the country, and through the 1950s and 1960s the station's news programming earned a national reputation for quality, on the strength of its locally produced documentaries and tough investigative journalism
.
Through the influence of the Bullitts and King Broadcasting executive Ancil Payne, KING-TV and its sister stations developed a corporate culture characterized by political liberalism, expressed through broadcast editorial
s and a dedication to the Bullitts' notion of public service. In 1952, Senator Joseph McCarthy
threatened to have KING-TV's license revoked after the station barred the senator from delivering an allegedly libelous attack on the air. In 1966, Stimson Bullitt himself made the only televised appearance of his career when he delivered an impassioned and controversial editorial against the Vietnam War
, long before the American public as a whole began to turn against the conflict's prosecution.
. By the time of her death, King Broadcasting owned six television stations in four states, and radio stations in Seattle, Portland
, and San Francisco, as well as a cable TV company, broadcast sales companies, and mobile production facilities; its estimated $300–400 million market value made it one of the most valuable privately held media companies on the West Coast. Bullitt bequeathed ownership of King Broadcasting to her daughters, Priscilla "Patsy" Bullitt Collins
and Harriet Bullitt, who sold the properties to the Providence Journal Company in 1991 in a sale brokered by Ancil Payne. All three Bullitt children have donated substantial amounts of money and time to the Bullitt Foundation
, founded by Dorothy in 1952 with a mission to protect the natural environment of the Pacific Northwest, and to other charitable organizations and causes. Patsy Bullitt Collins, who died in 2003, was ranked 16th in that year's "Slate 60" list of the nation's largest charitable donors for bequests to the Nature Conservancy, CARE USA, and the Trust for Public Land totaling $71.1 million. http://www.slate.com/id/2094847/
Today, King Broadcasting is a subsidiary of Belo
Corporation, based in Dallas, Texas
, which still runs KING-TV. Bullitt's original KING AM station changed owners, frequencies, and call letters several times in the 1990s; its old 1090 kHz frequency is currently occupied by progressive talk station KPTK
. When the Bullitt sisters sold the company to the Providence Journal in 1991, they donated KING-FM
to a nonprofit organization formed by the Seattle Opera
, the Seattle Symphony
, and the Corporate Council for the Arts. KING-FM still broadcasts classical music in Seattle today, having never changed formats
in almost 60 years of operation.
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
pioneer who founded King Broadcasting Company
King Broadcasting Company
King Broadcasting Company is a Seattle, Washington media conglmerate founded by Dorothy Stimson Bullitt. It began with one AM radio station and later an FM radio station, and grew to include a large group of broadcast television and radio stations, as well as a cable television network.-History:In...
, a major owner of broadcast stations in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
. She was the first woman in the United States to buy and manage a television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
.
Birth and early life
Bullitt was born Dorothy Frances Stimson in Seattle in 1892, four years after Washington became a state, to C. D. Stimson, a lumber and real estate magnate, and his wife Harriet. Wealthy throughout her childhood and early adulthood, in 1918 she married A. Scott Bullitt, a lawyer and aspiring politician 14 years her senior. Scott Bullitt, a member of a prominent Kentucky familyAlexander Scott Bullitt
Alexander Scott Bullitt was an American pioneer and statesman who was an early settler in Kentucky. He was a political leader in the early days of Kentucky statehood....
, became a prominent Democrat and friend of Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
, and was scheduled to place Roosevelt's name in nomination for the U.S. presidency at the 1932 Democratic National Convention when he died of liver cancer, leaving Dorothy a widow at the age of 40. She attended the convention as a delegate in her late husband's place, and presented a plank outlawing child labor for the party's platform.
After Scott's death, Dorothy Bullitt hired a lawyer and took personal charge of her family's real estate holdings. Her father had bequeathed her a considerable number of properties in downtown Seattle, but it was the height of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, and the Bullitt properties were losing lessees rapidly as businesses failed and their owners moved out. Working in the almost exclusively male business world, and despite knowing next to nothing about real estate at the time of her husband's death, Bullitt personally restored the family's real estate business to financial health. An increasingly prominent member of Seattle's business community, Bullitt became a member of a number of corporate boards and a regent of the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
, and was named Seattle's First Citizen in 1959.
King Broadcasting
In 1947, Bullitt bought a small AMAM broadcasting
AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...
radio station, KEVR. She immediately applied to the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
to change the station's call letters to KING (for King County, Washington
King County, Washington
King County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population in the 2010 census was 1,931,249. King is the most populous county in Washington, and the 14th most populous in the United States....
), but KING was already registered to an old merchant ship, the SS Watertown. Undaunted, Bullitt negotiated with the freighter's owner and acquired the letters. (According to legend, Bullitt personally rowed out to the freighter with a bottle of champagne to meet the captain, who didn't care what call letters he used and asked only that Bullitt make a donation to his church.) The following year, Bullitt received a license for an FM
Frequency modulation
In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant...
station, KING-FM
KING-FM
KING-FM is a classical music radio station in Seattle, Washington. Its transmitter is located in Issaquah, Washington....
, and used it to broadcast classical music, her favorite.
In 1949, Bullitt purchased an eight-month-old television station, KRSC-TV, and renamed it KING-TV
KING-TV
KING-TV, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Seattle, Washington, affiliated with the NBC network. Owned by Belo Corporation, it broadcasts on UHF digital channel 48. Its offices and broadcasting center are located just east of Seattle Center...
. Initially an affiliate of the then-poor-performing ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
network, KING-TV became an NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
station in 1959 after Bullitt persuaded the more successful network to switch its affiliation from rival station KOMO-TV
KOMO-TV
KOMO-TV, virtual channel 4, is a television station in Seattle, Washington. It is an affiliate of ABC and broadcasts on digital channel 38. KOMO-TV is the flagship station of Fisher Communications, and its studios and offices are co-located with sister radio stations KOMO , KVI , and KPLZ-FM ...
. KING-TV remains an NBC affiliate today.
Bullitt turned the presidency of King Broadcasting, as the company was called, over to her son Charles Stimson "Stim" Bullitt in 1961, remaining on the board as chairperson for several years thereafter. Dorothy and Stimson both believed strongly that the stations of King Broadcasting should serve the public, and not just be driven by ratings and revenue. At Bullitt's insistence, KING-TV built one of the first local TV news operations in the country, and through the 1950s and 1960s the station's news programming earned a national reputation for quality, on the strength of its locally produced documentaries and tough investigative journalism
Investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Investigative journalism...
.
Through the influence of the Bullitts and King Broadcasting executive Ancil Payne, KING-TV and its sister stations developed a corporate culture characterized by political liberalism, expressed through broadcast editorial
Editorial
An opinion piece is an article, published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about the subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals.-Editorials:...
s and a dedication to the Bullitts' notion of public service. In 1952, Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
threatened to have KING-TV's license revoked after the station barred the senator from delivering an allegedly libelous attack on the air. In 1966, Stimson Bullitt himself made the only televised appearance of his career when he delivered an impassioned and controversial editorial against the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, long before the American public as a whole began to turn against the conflict's prosecution.
Death and legacy
Dorothy Bullitt died on June 27, 1989 at the age of 97. She was interred at Evergreen Washelli Memorial ParkEvergreen Washelli Memorial Park
Evergreen Washelli Memorial Park originated in 1885. It is located on both sides of Aurora Avenue in Seattle, Washington, and occupies roughly . It is the largest cemetery in Seattle.-History:...
. By the time of her death, King Broadcasting owned six television stations in four states, and radio stations in Seattle, Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, and San Francisco, as well as a cable TV company, broadcast sales companies, and mobile production facilities; its estimated $300–400 million market value made it one of the most valuable privately held media companies on the West Coast. Bullitt bequeathed ownership of King Broadcasting to her daughters, Priscilla "Patsy" Bullitt Collins
Patsy Bullitt Collins
Dorothy Priscilla Bullitt Collins was a Seattle philanthropist. Born in Seattle on September 24, 1920 to the wealthy A. Scott Bullitt and Dorothy Stimson Bullitt, during her childhood she lived in a 23-room mansion in The Highlands. She graduated from Vassar College in 1942.She married Josiah...
and Harriet Bullitt, who sold the properties to the Providence Journal Company in 1991 in a sale brokered by Ancil Payne. All three Bullitt children have donated substantial amounts of money and time to the Bullitt Foundation
Bullitt Foundation
The Bullitt Foundation is a foundation established in 1952 by Dorothy S. Bullitt, a prominent Seattle businesswoman and philanthropist who founded King Broadcasting Company in Seattle...
, founded by Dorothy in 1952 with a mission to protect the natural environment of the Pacific Northwest, and to other charitable organizations and causes. Patsy Bullitt Collins, who died in 2003, was ranked 16th in that year's "Slate 60" list of the nation's largest charitable donors for bequests to the Nature Conservancy, CARE USA, and the Trust for Public Land totaling $71.1 million. http://www.slate.com/id/2094847/
Today, King Broadcasting is a subsidiary of Belo
Belo
Belo Corp. is a Dallas-based media company that owns 20 commercial broadcasting television stations and two regional 24-hour cable news television channels. The company was previously known as A.H. Belo Corp. after one of the early owners of the company, Alfred Horatio Belo, now the name of the...
Corporation, based in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, which still runs KING-TV. Bullitt's original KING AM station changed owners, frequencies, and call letters several times in the 1990s; its old 1090 kHz frequency is currently occupied by progressive talk station KPTK
KPTK
KPTK is a Progressive talk radio station based in Seattle, Washington, broadcasting at 1090 kHz.Billing itself as "Seattle's Progressive Talk," KPTK broadcasts syndicated progressive/liberal talk programs hosted by personalities such as Ed Schultz, Mike Malloy, Randi Rhodes, Thom Hartmann, Rachel...
. When the Bullitt sisters sold the company to the Providence Journal in 1991, they donated KING-FM
KING-FM
KING-FM is a classical music radio station in Seattle, Washington. Its transmitter is located in Issaquah, Washington....
to a nonprofit organization formed by the Seattle Opera
Seattle Opera
The Seattle Opera is an opera company located in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1963 by Glynn Ross, who served as the company's first general director through 1983, Seattle Opera's season runs from August to late May, with five or six operas offered and with eight to ten performances each, often...
, the Seattle Symphony
Seattle Symphony
The Seattle Symphony is an American orchestra based in Seattle, Washington. Since 1998, the orchestra is resident at Benaroya Hall. The orchestra's season runs from September through July, and serves as the pit orchestra for most productions of the Seattle Opera in addition to its own concerts...
, and the Corporate Council for the Arts. KING-FM still broadcasts classical music in Seattle today, having never changed formats
Radio format
A radio format or programming format not to be confused with broadcast programming describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. Radio formats are frequently employed as a marketing tool, and constantly evolve...
in almost 60 years of operation.
External links
- KING-TV home page
- Classical KING-FM at 98.1
- The Bullitt Foundation
- Obituary Charles Stimson Bullitt
- Portrait of Dorothy Stimson Bullitt by Margaret Holland SargentMargaret Holland SargentMargaret Holland Sargent also known as Meg Sargent is a portrait artist based in Los Angeles, California. She has painted over three hundred oil portraits, including portraits of Tennessee Williams, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Margaret Thatcher.Sargent has frequently painted portraits of...