THE MATCHCOVER STORYTELLER

KVOS-TV, Bellingham, Washington

Perhaps the most interesting bit about this matchcover for a Washington state-based TV station is the line at the bottom that it serves Vancouver and Victoria — -they are both in Canada!

KVOS-TV signed on in Bellingham, Washington in June 1953. At that time, there was no television station in Canada west of Ontario (Vancouver would get one in December of that year).
The stations first broadcast was of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Because of the lack of Canadian stations, the British government flew film of the BBC coverage to Vancouver, where Mounties then escorted it to the US border and Washington state police then took it to the television station.
The station transmitter was on a mountain top in the San Juan Islands and the owner soon realized that most of his audience was in Canada. He found a way to establish a subsidiary business in Canada, allowing Victoria and Vancouver businesses to advertise on KVOS. It proved successful.
After years of many changes, today KVOS is an affiliate of the Spanish language network Univision serving the Seattle and Tacoma market.
By the way, the owner, Rogan Jones, was part of a landmark Supreme Court case back in 1936 that established the right of Broadcasting entities (in this case, KVOS radio) to have the same access to News reports as the print press/newspapers. It allowed the Associated Press to start actually selling its product to radio stations.

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