50 years ago in Expo history: Did big city TV stations ‘run our city down’ in fair reports? One resident thought so

A letter writer to The Spokesman-Review wrote complaining about some of the national TV coverage of Expo ’74.

The report “did a thorough job of running our city down,” the writer said.

“What is the community doing to counteract their low blow?” the writer asked. “Are we going to get honest coverage?”

The S-R contacted the Expo news bureau director, who said he spoke to the network news director in New York. The news director said they had tried to do a “straightforward and objective assessment of the situation.”

The Expo news bureau director said he was sure that “we will be seeing more and more favorable reports” in the national news.

From 100 years ago: Spokane was potentially getting “a mammoth radio broadcasting station.”

“The station is planned to be capable of wider range than any now operating west of the Missouri River,” the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported.

It would be funded by a subscription drive, and organizers hoped to raise several thousand dollars.

“This will be the first real up-to-date high-power broadcasting plant assembled and operated by public subscription,” an organizer said.

“Spokane needs nothing so much as to be on North America’s radio map,” a booster said. “As an advertising medium, radio runs a close race with leading daily papers.”