The radio “industry” as only about 5 years old when the

newly-established Federal Radio Commission (FRC) began creating

order in what had become an unruly, interference-ridden radio

environment. While stations’ frequencies, transmitting power and

hours of operation were being altered by the FRC some stations fared

pretty well in that fluid environment. Seattle’s KOMO was one of the

fortunate stations.

Founded in 1926 by two owners, O. W. Fisher and O. D. Fisher who

owned Fisher Flouring Mill and unrelated Birt F. Fisher, KOMO was

decently situated both in terms of technical facilities and funding.

Where radio stations had been operated sporadically in the 1922-1926

era, by 1927 many stations – including KOMO – were able to operate

regular day-long schedules. However, the commercial advertising

structure which eventually took over radio has still emerging and the question arose as to how

to support that many hours of broadcast operation.

O. D. Fisher (of the Flouring Mill) came up it a novel

answer by founding Totem Broadcasters. The

company, which claimed to be the nation’s first

radio production company, leased fourteen hours of

KOMO’s daily broadcast schedule. Totem’s

ownership was comprised of fourteen of the Seattle

area’s largest and most prominent businesses. At

Totem’s founding, its owners consisted of Eldridge Buick Company, the BeIlingham CoaI Mines,

American Mail Lines , Pacific Steamship Company, Frey and Company, General Insurance

Company, Imperial Candy Company, Metropolitan National Bank, Metropolitan BuiIding Company,

Puget Sound Power and Light, Schwabacher Brothers, Inc., Standard Furniture, Fisher's Blend

Station, Inc., and Fisher Flouring Mills. O. D. Fisher was Totem’s president.

By the end of Totem Broadcaster’s first

year the organization welcomed several

new participating businesses including the

Associated Oil Company, Pacific Fruit and

Produce Company, West Coast Theatres

and the Renfro-Wadenstein Company

department store.

Under the arrangement,

Totem would produce

fourteen hours a day of “’high class entertainment’ without

mechanically reproduced music” and each of the fourteen

Totem owners would sponsor one hour of each day’s KOMO

programming. As William Brubacher states in his Master’s

Thesis 'History of Radio in Seattle up to the Radio Act of

1927', “The establishment of Totem Broadcasters set a

precedent in providing a means to pay for radio

broadcasting.”

The founders apparently viewed their role in Totem as both a laudable civic, as well as wise

commercial, undertaking. Puget Sound Power and Light, for example, regularly included

“Member Totem Broadcasters” in its commercial display advertising.

As network radio evolved, KOMO’s affiliations with the National Broadcasting Company’s

NBC-related networks commanded increasing portions of the station’s airtime (under an

arrangement where the network would “purchase” that airtime in bulk at a reduced rate) thus

rreducing the need for Totem to provide KOMO with programming and advertising revenue.

Accordingly, Totem’s producer role diminished over time and the company, which remained in

operations for decades, evolved in different ways. For example, in 1933 Totem became the

operator KJR which had been leased to the Fishers Blend broadcasting group (the

owner/operator of KOMO). Totem also sought a role in television when, in the late 1940s and

continuing through the 1950s and allied with Fishers Blend, it sought various Federal

Communications Commission actions seeking to enter the Seattle area television market.

KOMO-TV, owned by the Fisher interests, signed on late in 1953.