Sheriff's Boy's Ranch

Stanley E. Hubbard, Chairman of the Board of KSTP Radio-TV, was honored by the Minnesota Sheriff's Boy's Ranch when its Executive Board voted unanimously to name a new cottage recently constructed at the Boy's Ranch in Austin, Minnesota, The Hubbard House.

Mr. Hubbard first urged the Minnesota Sheriff's to start a Boy's Ranch in a speech delivered to members of the Metropolitan Sheriff's Association on June 30, 1963. He pledged a contribution of $10,000 to help the ranch get started and he has been active in fund raising and publicizing the Ranch since that date.

The dedication of Hubbard House took place on May 11, 1972, with sheriff's, judges, probation officers, religious leaders and veteran''s organizations members taking part. A plaque carrying the inscription "The Hubbard House" was attached to the exterior.

Opening of The Hubbard House will permit the Boy's Ranch to take in twelve additional boys from throughout the state of Minnesota, who are in need of a home.

Hubbard was born in Red Wing, Minnesota, where his father was superintendent of schools. After his father was killed in an accident his mother moved the family to the Twin Cities where Hubbard was educated in the St. Paul public schools and at the University of Minnesota. A few years later, in 1910, he unknowingly launched his career when he built one of the first amateur radio transmitters in the state. Interest in radio prompted him to join the Signal Corps of the New York National Guard when World War I erupted. Another invention that found roots in the war and captured Hubbard's imagination was aviation. He started flying in 1916 and still has a pilot's license.

Following his discharge from the Army in 1919 Hubbard moved to Louisville, where he went into the automobile and aircraft business and established Hubbard Field. He left Louisville in 1920 with one plane and went into the business of barnstorming. During 1921 he flew passengers commercially from Miami to Bimini, Nassau and Havana. The air routes between New York and Chicago which he laid out in 1923 are the same routes used by commercial airlines today.

It was also his idea to create the Balboa mass flight from Italy to the Chicago World's Fair. He submitted the plan at the request of the Italian Consulate General in Washington, D.C., and was later awarded the Order of the Crown by the Italian government for the flight's success. In 1921, with Mr. Russell of the Marconi Company, he made the first successful radio communication between planes.

In 1923 Hubbard returned to his home in Minneapolis. At that time, there were four stations on the air. As Hubbard listened to them, he became more enthusiastic than ever about the possibilities for radio. They were amateur operated.

In 1924 Hubbard started WAMD, which was the first commercial station in the United States. It's slogan was "The Call of the North." During these embryonic years of radio, Hubbard realized the unique capability of the medium in broadcasting news items almost as fast as they happened and in 1925 he organized the first news bureau in the area for gathering local news and scheduling regular newscasts. In 1930 he began the Radio News Association, a national news gathering organization that competed with the Associated Press and United Press. Hubbard also developed a radio network in 1925 between Chicago and the Twin Cities.

EAGLES SUPPORT SHERIFFS' BOYS RANCH -- The Eagles dedicated their new lodge building in St. Paul by presenting Ramsey County Sherrif Kermit Hedman with a $100 check for the Minnesota Sheriffs' Boys Ranch at Austin. The new facilities are the largest of any lodge in the state. More than 400 members and their wives witnessed the dedication. Pictured above, left to right, are: Kermit Hedman, Ramsey County Sheriff, Gene Runnin, chairman, Percy Greenbush, president of the Eagles Lodge Aerie, and Tom O'Keefe, membership chairman.

In 1927 he associated himself with the National Battery Company and, with the help of local businessmen, purchased KFOY located in the Pioneer Press Building in St. Paul. The licenses for WAMD and KFOY were turned in to the commission in exchange for a new license for KSTP, which was the most powerful radio station in the United States. Among other unusual features KSTP had an arrangement with the Orpheum Theater in St. Paul whereby once a week the Orpheum brought over all its vaudeville acts for an appearance on KSTP Radio. It was the first radio appearances for these acts. Among them were: Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, Kay Kaiser, Irene Rich, Olson and Johnson, Eddie Albert, Phil Baker, the Marx Brothers, Henry Sauntry and Betty Blythe.

In 1938 Hubbard launched a new facet of his exciting career -- television. At the Minnesota State Fair he demonstrated television with seven sets letting people view themselves while their friends watched. It was estimated that 200,000 Midwesterners saw a television set for the first time.

Seven years later construction began for a new building to house the growing KSTP stations. KSTP-TV then went on the air April 27, 1948, the first television station in this part of the country and the first NBC-TV affiliate in the nation. In 1961, it became the first color station in the area; and a short time later, it became the first full-color TV station in the United States.

It was KSTP, through Hubbard, that created the first communication system for police cars. Hubbard installed the first transmitter in the Midwest for the St. Paul Police Department.

He is currently chairman of the board for Hubbard Broadcasting, license of KSTP-AM-FM-TV, Minneapolis-St. Paul, KOB-AM-FM-TV, Albuquerque, WTOG-TV, Tampa-St. Petersburg and WGTO-AM, Cypress Gardens.

   

June-July 1972