Ed Craney

Edmund Blodgette "E.B." "Ed" Craney (February 19, 1905 – April 6, 1991) was an American radio and television executive. He brought the first radio station to Butte, Montana, in 1929, KGIR, which eventually became a part of his chain of unparalleled radio stations dubbed "The Z-Bar Network." Craney also had a hand in beginning Montana's first local television station in 1953 that was also located in Butte. Craney founded the Montana Broadcasters Association, while KGIR was the first station to join the National Broadcasters Association.

Craney was born in Spokane, Washington to Lucy Blodgette, a schoolteacher, and James Craney, a Superintendent of the Great Northern Railway. The elder Craney's job eventually brought him to Swan Lake, Montana to work with the Somers Lumber Company, while his mother remained a teacher. Craney was raised at the family house at Swan Lake, as were his sisters Emily, Martha, and Cora, and brother Oliver. The Craney family lived at Swan Lake on an island that was only accessible by steam boat.

After the family had spent five years at Swan Lake, Craney moved back to Spokane, where he attended North Central High School where he became part of the school's radio club. Although Craney's mother wanted him to become a doctor, his real passion was radio broadcasting. Radio broadcasting was in its primitive stages when Craney began to work with the then-modern equipment. AM radio was still young at this time with very few stations legally broadcasting. The first licensed radio station in the United States, KDKA, went on the air in November 1920. Craney eventually got his First Class Radio License at a radio school held at a YMCA in Seattle, Washington.

With the help of Tom Symons, store owner of Radio Supply, Co., Craney had in a large part contributed to the opening KFDC (later KFPY and KXLY) in Spokane in 1922. Symons eventually backed Craney when he decided to open a broadcast station in the booming mining town of Butte, Montana.

The Federal Radio Commission (FRC), which was the predecessor the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), issued the license for radio station KGIR in 1928. The station's location was chosen by Craney, and was to be originally located within the Finlen Hotel. Due to complications, the KGIR studios was built across the street from the hotel on the fourth floor of Shiner's Furniture on Park Street. KGIR went on the air on January 31, 1929, nearly nine months before the Great Depression of 1929. The first broadcast from KGIR was heard around the town of Butte and Dillon, and as far away as the Pacific Coast. With radio in Butte, listeners enjoyed what they heard on the station, including local bands and singers, in addition to religious programming, to live inauguration of President Herbert Hoover, which was heard locally, and as far away as Ramsay, a small community just west of Butte.

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