KCIT Channel 50
Kansas City, Mo.
News director 1969-71

Now for a TV 50 Fastcast

In October 1969, a new television station went on the air. It was the first locally owned station in the Kansas City since The Star sold WDAF in 1958.

Meanwhile Walt was hosting "Sunday Town Hall" on WHB and trying to put together a living during the rest of the week. When the new station offered Walt the news director job, he snapped it up.

There were plenty of challenges for KCIT Channel 50.

• It was way up the dial on a UHF (ultrahigh-frequency) channel, higher than many viewers were accustomed to. For a while, the station gave away UHF antennas.
• Located in the unincorporated Blue Summit area between Kansas City and Independence, KCIT consisted of a Quonset hut containing the control room and a large trailer for the news and other departments.
• The news staff was small, especially compared to the army of folks Walt had commanded at WDAF just a few years before. KCIT's news staff was three people: Mary Loy Brown on days, John Hayes in the evening, and Steve Bell on nights. Walt filled in on each of these shifts.

Since the station had no network affiliation, its primary pitch was its independence.

Our newscast was scheduled every half hour. Each lasted a minute and a half, and they opened with, “Now, a TV 50 fastcast.” That was a tongue-twister. One of our fill-in announcers, who was not above having a couple of beers waiting his turn, sometimes crashed badly just trying to say the phrase.
(Walt Bodine, My Times, My Town)

There were plenty of problems.

In stormy weather, the hail beating down on our Quonset hut was guaranteed to drown out the newscaster’s voice and leave the audience wondering whether the station was under machine-gun attack.
(My Times, My Town)

Before long, KCIT ran into financial difficulties.

You knew things were tough when, on payday, employees jumped into their cars to take their paychecks to the rural Missouri bank where the station had its account.
(My Times, My Town)

KCIT went off the air in mid-1971.

Read: Start Up TV Station
From My Times, My Town