George Thomas Apfel

Las Vegas Radio and Television George Thomas Apfel

The history of broadcasting in Las Vegas began with the first radio station, KGIX, to crackle the airwaves in the 1920s, started by J. M. Jack Heaton, who ran the Las Vegas railroad operation. By the 1940s, the railroad was no longer a major factor; instead, legalized gaming and the Strip drove the growth of the city and, consequently, radio and television. Maxwell Kelch, who was responsible for leading the effort to publicize Las Vegas as a tourist destination, launched the second and oldest existing radio station, KENO. Radio and TV personalities such as Coffee Jim Dandy, Red Mcilvaine, Hal Morelli, Hank Thornley, and Walt Reno were household names to Las Vegans in the 1960s and 1970s. From the 1940s and 1950s, when every radio station called a Strip hotel home, to the mega-consolidation of the mid-1990s, when big corporations took control of many of the Las Vegas signals, the world of radio and television in Las Vegas has evolved significantly. Today, Las Vegas is the 30th largest radio market in the United States.